HomeMy WebLinkAbout380\"From: News Advertiser Oct..20/96
p.11
Pickering's historic Cook House razed
BY MARIANNE TAKACS
STAFF REPORTER
Illustration: People were allowed to strip the outside boarding and decorative trim off the historic
Monica Cook house for their own personal use before it was demolished last week.
PICKERING -- Another of Pickering's historical buildings met an unhappy fate last week with the
demolition of the Cook house on Liverpool Road south of Old Orchard Avenue.
The building was estimated to be about 140 years old and was most recently the home of two of
Pickering's most community-minded citizens, Harry and Monica Cook. The property where it was
situated is to become a 27-homc subdivision.
An independent architectural evaluation of the house commissioned by Heritage Pickering,
an advisory committee to Town Council, had deemed it worth preserving as ""an authentic
capsule history of the settlement of Pickering as well as a fine example of domestic Gothic
Revival style, with an unusual number of original features intact."" The evaluation also noted
that if the building was ""simply razed for a roadway the community will have lost an important
visible link to the past"".
Heritage Pickering decided it was impractical to preserve the building where it was.
Newspaper ads placed by the developer at the request of the heritage committee offering to
sell the house for $1 to anyone wanting to relocate or salvage it failed to attract an appropriate
buyer. The Town then agreed to allow the house to be demolished on the condition that a
cultural heritage resource assessment of the site was done to find and preserve any important
historical artifacts which might be found. As well, a plaque will be placed on the site
commemorating, the community work of Monica Cook.
The assessment condition was included at the request of Tom Mohr, an area resident, director
of the Pickering Museum Village Advisory Board and an executive member of the Pickering
East Shore Community Association.
""Personally, I would have liked to see something done with the house,"" says Mr. Mohr. ""I
think the Town has got an exemplary policy on supporting the museum but I don't think it's
paying enough attention to the older homes that reflect the history of this town.""
He notes, however, that it's not only the politicians who are to blame.
""Any kind of heritage preservation requires money nobody is willing to spend. People want a
zero increase in the mill rate. The funds aren't out there and the public will isn't out there.
If the public will was out there the funds would materialize.""
A few months ago, Council approved the demolition of another historic building,
the Campbell-McPherson House which used to sit in Lynn Heights Park near Dixie Road and
Finch Avenue. The run-down mid-19th-century stone farmhouse was removed after area
residents complained about vandalism at its site. Materials from the house were salvaged and
arc to be used to reconstruct it as a private home in Claremont in what Mr. Mohr describes as
""a great compromise"". But he notes the Town made a mistake in the first place by not
providing properly for the preservation of Campbell-McPherson House when councillors
approved a residential development around it.
""Both these houses are examples of the lack of a comprehensive cultural heritage
management plan,"" says Mr. Mohr. ""This is something that is still not being addressed in the
new draft Official Plan. An awareness of heritage is important in this town because it's
something that could change Pickering from a bedroom community to a town with some pride.""
Mr. Mohr and local historian John Sabean are investigating the possibility of establishing a
historical society in Pickering to work for the protection of the town's heritage.
It would be independent of government. Anyone interested in helping with the initiative may
phone Mr. Mohr at 839-1221."