Victorian Ontario's rural heritage often ends up bulldozed by 21st-century sprawl
From The Toronto Star, originally published on October 20, 2007
By Dan O'Reilly
For now, the old Alex Bradburn house looks forlorn and threatened - boarded-up, sitting on temporary steel supports, dwarfed by cranes amid swirls of construction dust east of Warden Ave., north of Highway 407.
But unlike many similar remnants of Victorian Ontario's rural heritage that have been overrun by 21st-century sprawl, a new life awaits.
After being moved from its original location and boarded up for years, this circa-1855 farmhouse is to be a focal point in Phase 1 of Downtown Markham - a massive $3 billion, 20-year mixed-use development by the Remington Group.
Bradburn House, which once sat about a kilometre south near an off-ramp for the nearby Highway 407, is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act and has a heritage easement registered against it, says Regan Hutcheson, Markham's manager of heritage planning.
And Hutcheson points to the house as just one example of Markham's success in saving historic buildings despite rapid growth.
"Over the last 10 years or so, at least 20 buildings have been preserved in new development areas (residential plans of subdivision in greenfield areas, within commercial and industrial development sites).
"In addition, within our heritage conservation districts, it is rare for anyone to even request demolition of heritage buildings," explains Hutcheson.
He adds that former hamlets and villages, including Thornhill, Unionville and Markham Village, are all
designated heritage conservation districts, in addition to more than 250 properties that are designated and protected.
