The Chalmers Presbyterian Church in Winterbourne took its first steps toward becoming a heritage site this week.
Woolwich councillors voted in favour of providing a Notice of Intention to Designate under the Ontario Heritage Act to claim the church as a heritage building.
Back in January council received a petition signed by 42 residents of Winterbourne requesting the site be designated a historical building. The request to designate has also been supported by the North-Waterloo Region Branch of Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.
In order to for a site to be designated as having heritage values it must meet one or more designation criteria such as design or physical value, historical value and contextual value.
“We have proceeded with the investigation as to whether it should be designated under the Heritage Act and we have determined that of the three heritage values that have to be present in order to justify a designation the (church) actually satisfies all three of those criteria,” said Dan Kennaley Director of Engineering and Planning.
The church located at 4 Katherine Street was established by Scottish settlers in the 1830’s and the building was completed in 1870. It is the only church building in the village and a key feature in the community. The church served the community for 131 years as a place of worship but over time attendance decreased and the church was forced to close it doors in December 2011.
The vernacular architecture of the simple rectangular structure reflects the construction used by builders in the late 19th century. It was designed for functionality and includes tall gothic windows, timbre framed roof, high ceiling, a large double front door and a yellow brick common to the area.
Council was informed the building has not been significantly altered and is an ideal historic structure as it reflects the history of its surrounding community.
The building is currently up for sale and Kennaley did not know if there were any active offers on the building at this time.
Addressing a question made by Mayor Todd Cowan, Kennaley said if an offer was made by someone and their intent was to demolish the building and redevelop the property they would be prevented from doing so as long as the church was designated at heritage site.
Councilor Bonnie Bryant asked if the site had recently undergone any archeological digs and Kennaley said some testing had been done as to whether there might be still be some graves on the property.
“We know that most of them were moved to another cemetery but there was a concern that a few of them may have been missed,” said Kennaley. “I believe there have been subsequent archeological investigations but I have not seen any reports from those investigations.”
Council can designate a property without the support of the property owner.
“In this case it is pretty clear cut it is worthy of designation,” said Kennaley.
