Community council votes against demolishing Scarlett Road church.
The old St. Matthias Church located at 691 Scarlett Road, in Etobicoke. Etobicoke York Community Council recently denied a request from the 115-year-old church's current owners to demolish the church and rebuild on the site. In his denial, local Councillor Rob Ford urged the owners to meet with the community to seek out a solution to the dilipidated building's financial woes.
Staff photo/IAN KELSO
The quaint old St. Matthias Anglican Church heritage building in Westmount is safe from demolition - for now.
Etobicoke York Community Council voted unanimously in favour of refusing a demolition application put forth by the property's current owner - the Sukyo Mahikari Centre - at its Tuesday, June 22 session. But they did so without prejudice to the applicant, meaning they are free to bring the demolition debate back to council when they reconvene in December without paying the usual fees to do so.
Etobicoke North Councillor Rob Ford, in whose Ward 2 the 691 Scarlett Rd. church resides, said he will likely repeat his vote to refuse demolition again when the matter comes back before council again, but that he wanted to give the church owners every opportunity to meet with the community to discuss other options.
"I want to invite the heritage panel and people from the city to explain the grant process to (the owners)," he said, noting that a public meeting is also a must. "I just want to give them that chance. I don't think they're gonna win the public - I don't think my constituents are going to support (demolition) personally speaking, because I know my constituency very well."
That decision came after an hour's worth of delegations came forward in a fight to preserve the 115-year-old St. Matthias.
Denise Harris, president of the Etobicoke Historical Society, proclaimed the church's continued existence through the years a "miracle."
"Demolition should be the absolute last resort, because this church, contrary to what the current owners believe, is not an eyesore in the community, but a lovely, charming building and a major landmark," she said.
Speaking on behalf of the Preservation Panel of Etobicoke York, Madeleine McDowell also lauded the old wood framed church building as charming and "unpretentious."
"It is so absolutely representative of the tiny, semi-rural community of Westmount, which it served, to the point that, as a remnant, it is completely symbolic of the community's past," she said, noting also the church's historical significance in the wake of Hurricane Hazel back in October 1954.
"The church at St. Matthias was a place for search and rescue, the place for shelter and help...it's served its people through the Great Depression, the Second World War and the great tragedy of Hurricane Hazel and it represents the soul and spirit of this community."
Originally built in 1895 as Holy Trinity Church in Malton, the entire church building was relocated to Etobicoke in 1923. It was designated as a heritage building in 2003 for both its historical significance in relation to Hurricane Hazel, as well as its architectural significance. The church displays features of the Gothic Revival style, with its L-shaped plan and multi-sided apse, wood construction and cladding, and cross-gable roof with a bell cote.
Despite all this, though, its current owners - a spiritual development centre with a membership of about 70, who bought the building in 2009 knowing it was designated heritage - recently submitted a report stating that the building has fallen into a state of disrepair prohibitive of the means they have to maintain it.
The report lists, among other things, that the foundation walls are on the verge of collapse, that there is an immense loss of energy given the building materials used, and that the building is an eyesore in the community. As a result, they wish to demolish the church and replace it with a similarly-sized (2,000 sq ft) building in the $400,000 to $500,000 range.
Sympathetic to their cause, Etobicoke Centre Councillor Doug Holyday suggested the group explore options such as those utilized in the preservation of Shaver House, which was actually relocated rather than demolished when the land it sat on was deemed too valuable not to develop.
"In that case, it worked out well. We saved the building, it's not far from its original spot, the site has been redesigned a bit to make it look like it would have looked back then and it's worked out really well," he said. "I just don't think that it's fair for us to stick a church group with the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of this for all time, especially if they can't afford it."
Etobicoke-Lakeshore Councillor Peter Milczyn, on the other hand, chalked the experience up to a "buyer beware" cautionary tale of the perils of real estate, and offered the church group his personal assistance in collecting community funds to help save the church.
"If this congregation is committed to this community and to this site and they're talking about spending $400,000 to $500,000 on a new church, there would certainly be a way for them to stay on the site and preserve the existing building and do what needs to be done to ensure its structural soundness and maybe even add some functionality to the site with the funds they were going to expend anyway," he said.
"I think you may be surprised to find others in the community more than happy to welcome you there and assist you in keeping this as it is in terms of a heritage structure."
EYCC voted unanimously to refuse the demolition application, with most councillors expressing the hope that the owners would seek out other options to retain the heritage value of St. Matthias.