Save Kelly House - new Facebook group
Here's a message I sent to the 1,100 members of the Demolition by Neglect Facebook group:
Dear members of the Demolition By Neglect Facebook group,
Please take a moment to join a newly created group in support of saving the Kelly House, which is currently threatened by demolition: Save Kelly House
This is a textbook case of demolition by neglect, where an owner willfully neglects his property for years, to the point that allowing demolition can be justified. The plan for the property is, unsurprisingly, a surface parking lot.
Built on Adelaide Street in 1882, the Kelly House is that last intact residential house in the Exchange District. It is a product of an era that preceded the wholesale district that would sprout up around the house in early years of the 1900s.
Aside from being the last intact house in the Exchange, the Kelly House is a rare example of Queen Anne residential architecture.
It goes without saying that the Kelly House is simply too historically significant, too architecturally stunning, and too integral a part of the Exchange District's already gap-toothed western edge, to be lost. Winnipeg cannot afford the destruction of anymore buildings for parking lots in its most valuable neighborhood.
For more information on the Kelly House, please see: Heritage Winnipeg's info on the Kelly House
Sincerely,
Robert Galston
Photo courtesy of Manitoba Provincial Archives
Thanks to Kelly Konechny for creating this group and bringing it to my attention
Dear members of the Demolition By Neglect Facebook group,
Please take a moment to join a newly created group in support of saving the Kelly House, which is currently threatened by demolition: Save Kelly House
This is a textbook case of demolition by neglect, where an owner willfully neglects his property for years, to the point that allowing demolition can be justified. The plan for the property is, unsurprisingly, a surface parking lot.
Built on Adelaide Street in 1882, the Kelly House is that last intact residential house in the Exchange District. It is a product of an era that preceded the wholesale district that would sprout up around the house in early years of the 1900s.
Aside from being the last intact house in the Exchange, the Kelly House is a rare example of Queen Anne residential architecture.
It goes without saying that the Kelly House is simply too historically significant, too architecturally stunning, and too integral a part of the Exchange District's already gap-toothed western edge, to be lost. Winnipeg cannot afford the destruction of anymore buildings for parking lots in its most valuable neighborhood.
For more information on the Kelly House, please see: Heritage Winnipeg's info on the Kelly House
Sincerely,
Robert Galston
Photo courtesy of Manitoba Provincial Archives
Thanks to Kelly Konechny for creating this group and bringing it to my attention
posted by The Rise and Sprawl at
8:43 AM
3 Comments:
Whats stunning about it. Take away the few architectural details and there isn't much behind.
And really, what would happen to the peg if it was reduced to rubble.
Like I say, put your money on the table if you want to save something. Better yet, before they rip it down, save everything you can. Or perhaps, raise enough money to move it.
In downtown Toronto that house would be worth $2 million.
What would happen to Winnipeg? We would lose yet another historic structure and gain another windy, bleak, garbage strewn and dangerous surface parking lot. Moving it is not an option. And there is plenty of public money that can be put on the table when the cause is a good one. Expropriate the building and pay the owner fair market value for its current condition and not one dollar more. Sell it to the highest bidder conditional on the restoration of the building and preservation of as many as possible of its heritage elements and offer a property tax exemption for 10 years. As an idea, the main floor would make a great cafe and the upper level a nice apartment. In time the city will recoup its investment. Somehow I picture the writer of the comment living in a grey stucco box on an ugly cookie cutter street furnished with bland non-descript mass produced furniture and shopping exclusively at Wal-Mart. Your question should be "What would happen to the Peg if I left for Calgary, a city that I believe to be the most beautiful in the world?"
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