1. Imminent closure of Ontario's oldest public high school, Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute
Lindsay Davidson

Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, Kingston, ON

On June 19th, 2013, the Limestone District School Board voted to close Ontario's oldest high school, KCVI. Students will be relocated to new high school that they hope to build with $30,000,000 from the Provincial Government 5 km away from the current school. The only chance for KCVI to be saved is if the Provincial Government denies the Limestone District School Board's funding request - in which case the school will be preserved and renovated.

It is vitally important for those concerned with this closure to contact MPP John Gerretsen, Minister Liz Sandals and Premier Kathleen Wynne asking them to stay the execution of this historic and historied school and building in its current site.

jgerretsen.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
lsandals.mpp@liberal.ola.org
premier@ontario.ca
@Kathleen_Wynne


Historical summary and architectural features (from the Frontenac Heritage Foundation):

235 Frontenac Street, Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, is the verified historical link to the first secondary or post-elementary school in Ontario. The site at 235 Frontenac Street is the successor to several schools where the first secondary schooling was conducted in the Kingston region for the past 221 years. No other senior high school existed in the region until the Queen Elizabeth School opened in 1955.

K.C.V.I.s history reaches back 7 generations into the 18th century as a core service of the community. Its record of heritage surpasses the age of all other historic sites and institutions of the Kingston Region except the military.

K.C.V.I. lists among its teachers, graduates and founders, many noted, or famous, leaders of the community and the nation and has a privation-to-prosperity legacy that began with educating children in a log and frame building when Cataraqui (later known as Kings Town) had a total population of 300.
In 1792, the earliest local learning programme was expanded when Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe authorized a grant to operate a grammar school by Reverend John Stuart in the same log and frame building near the present intersection of Lower Union and King Street East. There, he taught a Grammar School curriculum consisting of English, Latin, Greek, Geography and Mathematics to 13 boys, some of whom could not afford the tuition but were accepted in the programme.

With limited Provincial support, more enrolment and changes to the law sustained the Grammar School for its first 50 years. It struggled in the same inadequate edifice for more than 40 years. The worn out condition of the old school building led to the Grammar School being provided a new limestone school building on Clergy Street (now Sydenham Public School). However, while waiting for the building to be constructed, the Grammar School spent four years in a wing of George OKill Stuarts Summerhill, then a private villa.
Then, after moving to the new Clergy Street building a fire forced the Grammar School to move to Kingston City Hall for a year while repairs were completed.
Eventually, overcrowding at Clergy Street after 39 years, led to the construction of a three-storey brick school on Earl Street near Frontenac Street in 1892, the present site of K.C.V.I.

The humble beginning in 1792 in Upper Canada, later to become Ontario, is recognized by historians and the Legislative Council as the beginning of secondary education in the province;

A list of bibliographic resources, research papers, books, and minutes of school board meetings describe the 1792 start of the Grammar and Secondary School, and its operation over the past 221 years reveals its rich historical backdrop of triumph and trouble in the countrys slow march towards provincial and national maturity.

Some of this uncertainty disrupted the school room. Teaching Master John Whitelaw, during the War of 1812 complained to the School Committee about the foul language of the soldiers in the block house nearby and on 3 occasions during the war, he and his students were ordered out of the building so soldiers could be billeted there.

Architecture:

The present buildings of K.C.V.I. are of a monumental style that incorporates characteristics of Modern Gothic and Beaux-Arts Gothic, styles employed by leading architects of the twentieth century. Also, minor displays of Art Deco can be spotted. This blending of architectural aspects was used in hundreds of education and church buildings throughout Ontario and Canada until the 1950s-60s.

According to Dr. Jennifer McKendry, the style is sometimes called Collegiate Gothic, as so many educational buildings in the 1910s  1950s were built in this style. It is also known as modern Gothic or Beaux-Arts Gothic. It is not the old picturesque forms revived and popularized during the 19th Century (i.e. Mcintosh Castle or Elizabeth Cottage), but a new regular, calm, monumental style, often using brick over steel structural members.

Hart House, 1911-1919, at the University of Toronto, provided an important precedent for this style in educational buildings, as do Douglas Library at Queens University, and Jarvis Collegiate in Toronto, the second oldest secondary school in Ontario.

Dr. McKendry also identifies Art Deco, a design feature of the 1920s  1930s. From her research notes on the architectural heritage of K.C.V.I., Helen Finley remarks Of particular note are the two Gothic-style projecting limestone entranceways with the glazed oak doors in the 1915 section. The smaller entrance is flanked by a pair of original cast iron sconces. The numerous vertical bays along Frontenac Street are capped by limestone coping in a crenellated pattern. The consistent fenestration pattern of metal casement windows along Frontenac Street is an important design element which has been carried through from the original 1915 section.

Historical Context:

Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute is an educational link to the birth of classroom learning in 1786 in the pre-Upper Canada period of settlement at the confluence of the St. Lawrence River, Eastern Lake Ontario, and the Rideau Canal. Known as Cataraqui, the community still was part of the Province of Quebec that soon, by the Constitution Act of 1791, would be divided into Upper and Lower Canada. Reverend John Stuart, U.E L. an Anglican missionary and Loyalist born in Pennsylvania, who immigrated to Cataraqui via Quebec, opened an elementary school in his home, on rural site Lot 24, on the waterfront, part of his 200-acre land grant. This is near the present George and King Streets intersection.

Rev. Stuart appealed to Governor Henry Hope of the Province of Quebec for funds to build a school on public land near the present Lower Union and King Street corner, but Hope would provide only lumber and nails, no stipend for teachers. The building went up, and 30 children attended class in early summer, 1792. The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, impressed with Stuarts commitment to education, persuaded him to start a Grammar School to teach classics such as Latin, Greek, English, Geography and Mathematics, the knowledge needed by leaders in the government and business of Upper Canada. The Kingston Grammar School was started in the simple wooden structure in 1792, with 13 students. It, and the elementary classes, were kept going by a succession of assistant teachers or School Masters engaged by Reverend Stuart.

Many of the secondary scholars, 48 by 1825, became prominent in political and business careers, including in the 1820s, John Macdonald who would become Sir John A Macdonald, the First Prime minister in 1867. Tuition fees were 4 pounds/year for Latin students, 3 pounds for English students.

This was the founding of secondary education in Upper Canada, later Ontario, that broadened into the Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute and its recognition as the oldest secondary school in Ontario.

The engraving on the corner stone to build a Victorian-style school building on Earl Street in 1892 commemorates the beginning of post-elementary classes in the Grammar School of 1792;
To Commemorate a Centurys Work of the School, September 3, 1892. Maxima Debetur Pueris Reverentia.

When the Victorian-style building was demolished in 1959, the 1892 corner stone, it is believed, was thrown out as well, but a large photograph of it hangs on the wall of the stairwell near the main entrance of K.C.V.I. on Frontenac Street. The corner stone was dedicated on the occasion of the centenary of the secondary school in 1892, by the Lieutenant  Governor of Ontario, Hon. George A. Kirkpatrick, son of the Town of Kingstons first mayor, Thomas Kirkpatrick.

In the first decades of organized learning, the classroom often was the focus of a sometimes fierce debate over different models of teaching  the religious versus the secular, an issue with deep roots. Rev. Stuart had received his MA from the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1751 after a feud between those agreeing to a religious luminary to head the university, and those against the idea. Christian commitment was a prime qualifier to be hired for leadership in education in Upper Canada schools, but, as much as being advocated, it was endemic to the governance process of that time  the leaders often were educated ordained Church of England clergymen, such as John Stuart, and seeing the needs of their community, acted to provide them, using their influence with political leaders or the wealthy few in town who would help solve problems.

Not to be outshone by the Anglicans, other religious groups, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Catholics, by the 1840s and 1850s, all established schools to strengthen their Christian outreach and educate their flock. This sharpened inter-denominational competition, and Loyalists were suspicious that American-based churches, such as Baptists and Methodists were importing heretical and anti-crown ideas.

But the concept of religious equality alongside cultural identify was taking hold. For example, Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist itinerant minister who opposed the Family Compact and was a passionate advocate of public education who fought to keep power and influence away from any one church, was appointed by Governor General Sir Charles Metcalf as Chief Superintendant of Education in Upper Canada in 1844.

But the concept of religious equality alongside cultural identify was taking hold. For example, Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist itinerant minister who opposed the Family Compact and was a passionate advocate of public education who fought to keep power and influence away from any one church, was appointed by Governor General Sir Charles Metcalf as Chief Superintendant of Education in Upper Canada in 1844.

But the concept of religious equality alongside cultural identify was taking hold. For example, Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist itinerant minister who opposed the Family Compact and was a passionate advocate of public education who fought to keep power and influence away from any one church, was appointed by Governor General Sir Charles Metcalf as Chief Superintendant of Education in Upper Canada in 1844.

Basic education was imparted to the young by parents or volunteers in group meetings in private homes and as part of Sunday School programmes. Groups disagreed on doctrine, but all wanted assurance that God was watching over the classroom, or, as Simcoe put it, required was  &the general system of truth and morals as taught in the holy scriptures. Each school day in some pioneer schools opened with the Lords Prayer and singing God Save the King or Queen.

At Kingston Collegiate Institute, once-a-week assemblies followed a similar ritual until the 1970s, when the prayer was removed to avoid offending non-Christian student minorities.

Political sensitivities invaded the early classrooms, the fallout of the Loyalist flight from Republican America after it defeated the forces of Great Britain in 1776. Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe saw education as central to his vision of molding a colony that reflected the religious, political and military values that he cherished. He called for vigilance against enthusiastic and fanatic teachers whom he blamed for contributing to the conspiracy that led to the American Revolution: disloyal preachers and teachers had to be unmasked and suppressed to keep republican heresy from spreading over the border and into the homes, churches and classrooms of Upper Canada.

John Strachan, a Scottish intellectual who had taught in the Kingston Grammar School, feared influence from Yankee adventurers. The Common Schools Act, 1816, provided provincial aid to communities that hired teachers and provided regular instruction to the young. Teachers had to be subjects of Great Britain or to have taken an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Some switched their religious affiliation to Church of England to ensure they would be successful applying for a teaching position, although for low pay and low social status.

School books published in America were disallowed and those required were to be imported from Britain if not available in Canada. The antipathy to American influence also reared up in the community during the 1837-38 rebellion, sparked by a militant group who tried to get American patriots to invade Upper Canada to help to oust its autocratic Tory Executive Council from power. The rebellion failed and rebel leader, William Lion Mackenzie, fled to American territory to avoid arrest.

2. CIUT Report: Construction off to a Bad Start on Back Campus
CIUT

Goodbye to this View

Earlier today the digging began on the back campus. the workers assigned to the task cut through a phone cable which took out our ability to broadcast to our transmitter site at First Canadian Place. No one can tell me when normal broadcast service can be resumed. This is only day one, what's next. They also cut through an irrigation
line. Nice work.

3. Heritage Canada Foundation Releases Top Ten Endangered and Worst Losses Lists
Carolyn Quinn

The Heritage Canada Foundation (HCF) has released its Top Ten Endangered Places and Worst Losses Lists drawing attention to architectural and heritage sites in Canada either threatened with demolition or already lost as part of its mission to raise awareness of the value that historic places bring to quality of life, local identity and cultural vitality.
Read more here... https://www.heritagecanada.org/en/issues-campaigns/top-ten-endangered

4. Herb Stovel Scholarship Fund: Apply NOW!
Heritage Canada Foundation Release

Ottawa, ON, June 27, 2013 – Applications are now being accepted for the Herb Stovel Scholarship Fund. The Herb Stovel Scholarship Fund is administered by the Heritage Canada Foundation in cooperation with a professional advisory committee.

The Herb Stovel Scholarship Fund awards funds annually to one or more Canadian students or young professionals (age 35 and under) pursuing studies or working in heritage conservation or a related field. With assistance from the Fund, Herb Stovel Scholars will deepen their capacity in heritage conservation through study at an educational institution or through experiential learning and conference attendance.

The Fund will provide two types of support:

Education bursaries up to $2,500 for candidates who propose projects or study programs that continue Herb’s interest in community innovation and/or international dialogue in conservation theory and practice;
or

Heritage Canada Foundation Conference (HCF) travel bursaries up to $1,000 and free conference registration for candidates to attend the HCF’s annual conference (Ottawa, ON, October 31-Nov 2, 2013; Charlottetown, PEI, Oct 2-4, 2014).
Application Process

· The deadline for applications is July 31, 2013 for study or conference attendance in 2013 or 2014. For more information on application submissions, visit our website.

· Successful candidates will be announced at the end of August 2013.

About Herb Stovel

All who knew Herb Stovel understood his commitment to heritage conservation and more importantly his strong support for education and preparing a new generation of professionals. Over a period of decades he generously passed on his insights and understandings which have helped define the field of theory and practice for the 21st century in Canada and internationally.

In Canada he taught in traditional settings as professor at Université du Montréal and most recently Carleton University. Early in his career he developed courses for the Heritage Canada Foundation’s Main Street Programme that prepared over 100 professionals in communities across the country for careers in downtown revitalization. His training of federal employees reached across disciplines and departments, most notably perhaps with the Federal Heritage Building Review Office (FHBRO) course. Herb believed in empowering others and giving them the means to spread the word as broadly as possible. He developed train-the-trainer courses to put this knowledge into the hands of those best placed to deliver it. Then he moved on.

It is no exaggeration that Herb Stovel has students and followers in every corner of the globe. He believed in people and brought them together in the name of cultural heritage conservation, leaving behind conflicts of war and politics allowing them to work together towards a common goal.

Herb’s commitment to education lives on through the Herb Stovel Scholarship Fund.

Donate to the Herb Stovel Scholarship Fund

The Heritage Canada Foundation will issue Canadian charitable tax receipts for all donations to the Fund.

Please make your contribution today!

By mail: Herb Stovel Scholarship Fund
Heritage Canada Foundation
190 Bronson Ave
Ottawa, ON K1R 6H4
By email: hstovel.scholarship@gmail.com

heritagecanada@heritagecanada.org

5. Demolition Voluntarily Halted in Hamilton at request of City Representatives
Councillor Jason Farr, Hamilton

Contested Block in Hamilton

July 9, 2013 – Hamilton, ON - Early this afternoon, Councillor Jason Farr, Mr. David Blanchard and his representatives, city staff from Planning & Economic Development including Heritage Planning, as well as staff from the City Manager’s Office met. At that meeting Councillor Farr requested and it was agreed that any demolition would be stopped on the 24, 28 King St. Gore Park buildings as a solution is sought to maintain the architectural and heritage character of the Gore properties. This interim step allows time for continued community input, as well as dialogue between Mr. Blanchard and city staff.

Furthermore, staff has also requested that an independent peer review be done of the engineering report undertaken by the owner of these properties as an immediate next step.

“I want to thank Mr. Blanchard for his willingness to seek a solution”, said Councillor Jason Farr. “There has been a significant focus on citizen input and engagement the last little while and it is important that it be considered in our decision making process.”

“Gore Park is important to this entire community. I remain committed to finding a solution that allows us to maintain the architectural and heritage character of Gore Park while also trying to move forward with this exciting project,” added Councillor Farr. (End of press release)

6. New Winnipeg Architecture publication series
Susan Algie

The Winnipeg Architecture Foundation has launched a new publication series called Winnipeg Architecture. The first in the series is "Brutalist Architecture in Winnipeg" by Jeffrey Thorsteinson.

This tour documents a number of Brutalist buildings found in Winnipeg, and explores their genesis as well as the place of Brutalism in the history of the city.
Available on-line for $15 plus shipping.


http://www.winnipegarchitecture.ca/shop/printed-tours/brutalist-tour/

7. Benjamin Moore announces community grants to take care of places that matter
News Release

NIAGARA, ON, July 12, 2013 /CNW/ - Community groups across Canada are receiving a helping hand to care for the places that matter most to their communities. The grants from Benjamin Moore in partnership with Community Foundations of Canada will assist community groups to improve local buildings and provide important services.

This year, the Benjamin Moore Community Restoration Program is making 23 grants totalling $72,000 - plus some $16,000 in paint - to assist with a wide range of important renovation and heritage restoration projects in communities across the country.

"These grants highlight how a company like Benjamin Moore can work with local partners to tap into specific community needs and then respond in very practical ways. Over the years we've been able to make a difference in communities across the country - renovating everything from small museums to residences for seniors to historical post offices, while connecting grants to places and programs in need of care," says Doug Funston, Commercial Manager for Benjamin Moore in central Canada.

Since its inception in 1998, the Benjamin Moore Community Restoration Program has supported more than 243 community groups in all parts of Canada with grants of more than $746,000 and $179,000 in paint donations.

"The Benjamin Moore program is a perfect example of how community foundations and community groups are working together to have a local impact," says Ian Bird, President and CEO, Community Foundations of Canada. "This program has contributed to building smart and caring communities by using local networks and knowledge to revitalize the places and programs that matter most to communities."

For a full list of the 2013 Benjamin Moore grants and recipients visit www.communityfoundations.ca.

Community Foundations of Canada is the national network for Canada's 191 community foundations, which help Canadians invest in building strong and resilient places to live, work, and play. Community foundations are one of the largest supporters of communities, providing more than $143 million in support of local priorities and organizations in 2012. To find out more visit www.communityfoundations.ca.

Benjamin Moore & Co., a Berkshire Hathaway company, was founded in 1883 and established its Canadian operations in 1906. One of North America's leading manufacturers of premium quality residential, commercial and industrial maintenance coatings, its products are distributed through a network of independent paint and decorating retailers. Benjamin Moore has been a longstanding steward of the environment with a relentless commitment to sustainable manufacturing practices plus the ongoing development of the most eco-responsible formulations possible. Its portfolio of Green Promise® products continues to grow and includes Aura, über-performance low-VOC paint; Natura, the true zero-VOC interior paint, remaining zero in any colour, any sheen; and, EcoSpec Zero-VOC Paint for commercial interiors. For more information visit www.benjaminmoore.com

SOURCE: Community Foundations of Canada

For further information:
David Venn
Communications Manager
Community Foundations of Canada
dvenn@cfc-fcc.ca 
613-236-2664 ext. 302

Kimberly Bradshaw
Director of Communications
Benjamin Moore
Kimberly.bradshaw@benjaminmoore.com
201-949-6370

8. CBC Hamilton: Listing of Several Buildings in Gore
Samantha Craggs

Gore heritage builidings given a bit more protection

The white buildings in the centre will soon be demolished for a new development by Wilson Blanchard. Three neighbouring buildings will be added to the city's downtown heritage register, which means an additional 60-day delay should anyone want to demolish them. 

The city is adding three Gore district properties to a registry that would buy a little more time should anyone ever apply to demolish them.

All of the properties in the district that are listed in the city's heritage inventory, minus 24 and 28 King St. E., will be added to the downtown heritage register. That means should anyone apply to demolish them, there will be a wait time of 60 days after a permit is issued for council and the public to bring forward concerns. Currently, it's only 20 days.

“The net impact is another 40 days for us to have the opportunity to bring something forward if it's serious enough,” said Tim McCabe, general manager of economic development.

The city issued a demolition permit to developer Wilson Blanchard for 24 and 28 King St. E. earlier this year to build a new development there, which sparked some outcry. That inspired Coun. Jason Farr of Ward 2 downtown to introduce the motion at the general issues committee on Monday.

Related: Paul Wilson: Full speed ahead for demolition on Gore Park
The move bridges the gap between the properties being provincially designated — which would mean no demolition at all — and the usual 20-day period for other city properties, Farr said.

“It would allow for the kind of consultation that was obviously seen, albeit in the final hour here” on the Blanchard development, Farr said.

Click here for Link

9. Raisethehammer.org:Hamilton's OP and the Gore
Sean Burak

Does the Downtown Hamilton Secondary Plan Matter?

Allowing such a gross departure from the Plan as the Gore streetwall demolition will discourage investors (and others) from trusting Hamilton to abide by its own planning directions, in terms of both downtown redevelopment and other initiatives.

The Downtown Hamilton Secondary Plan [PDF] has the following stated objectives:

Retain and enhance the historic fabric of Downtown Hamilton.

Ensure that new development respects and reflects the design of surrounding heritage buildings.

Conserve and enhance the Gore as the primary landscaped open space and concentration of heritage buildings in Downtown Hamilton.

Create new programs and planning mechanisms for ensuring a higher standard of urban design in Downtown Hamilton.

Ensure that public improvement projects are undertaken within an overall design and implementation program that respects these objectives

Downtown Councillor Jason Farr, Heritage Committee chair Councillor Brian McHattie and City urban renewal and planning staff had an unannounced private meeting with property developer David Blanchard to work out a "deal" where he entirely demolishes two Gore Park buildings and demolishes the back two-thirds of the remaining ones.

18-22 King Street East (RTH file photo)

It appears that they were not acting in accordance with the Downtown Plan.

When council voted to approve the deal, how many of the above five objectives were guiding their decision?

When council votes in the opposite direction of the mandates set forth in our planning documents, are they acting in the interests of the voters who have entrusted them with their voting power?

This is not just about art and architecture.

When I purchased a building in Downtown Hamilton, It was with the expectation that the master plan would be followed and that my business would be part of a trajectory of development in the core that leaves vacant lots and silver-bullet solutions (which never materialize) in the past.

Click here for Link

10. Loveitalot: The Gore: Extracts from emails from BIA members and Small Property Owners

Protect the Gore

Over the weekend, both Jane and I were included in a very passionate email chain between Hamilton City Council, fellow small business owners, and concerned citizens regarding the threatened demolition of 24-28 King Street East, along the Gore Park streetwall.

Without going too much into the specific details of the ordeal (Kieran and Sean do a much better job of that over atRaise the Hammer) it is an astonishingly disheartening fight. A great number of us feel as though we've been in this exact same spot before (I have written about Hamilton and the wrecking ball here more than I would like to) and so much bad history is at risk of being repeated. While individuals try to do so much small good where they can, City Council and speculators can take them ten steps backwards with one short-sighted decision.

The Gore is our city square. It is an irreplaceable public space that needs to be preserved. Gore Park lies in the centre of our city, and the remaining buildings that line it are beautiful examples of Victorian architecture in Canada. As Canadians, we have such little in terms of historical buildings, when compared with the old architectural beauty of Europe, or even America. We have to protect these assets that tell our history. Especially when (in this case in particular) there is no plan in place for development - only for destruction.

Not to mention the fact that 24-28 King Street East currently sit on the Heritage Canada Foundation's Top Ten Endangered Places list.

Click here for Link

11. Globe and Mail: Mapping Fort York and Toronto-Steve Otto meets Nathan Ng
John Lorinc

Mapping Fort Yorks legacy with 21st-century tools

On April 27, 1813, the British commander of Fort York, then a remote colonial outpost, ordered his troops to detonate a building packed with gunpowder in an attempt to distract the advancing American forces. The massive explosion of the so-called Grand Magazine could be heard for miles and killed several soldiers.

Apparently, the reverberations were still faintly audible as recently as this past March, when Toronto resident Nathan Ng decided to post a question on the fort’s Facebook page, asking about the exact location of the storied blast.

Mr. Ng is a 40-year-old tech manager who grew up in Kitchener and has lived here for about 15 years. He describes himself as “a Toronto enthusiast.” “The question,” he recalled recently, “got back to Steve Otto and he sent me a note.”

Editor's Note:
Steve Otto has a genius for finding the next gen!

Click here for Link

12. Whig Standard: The case to save Ontario's oldest high school: KCVI
author: Floyd Patterson, poster: Lindsay Davidson

Why KCVI should be a Heritage Site

A pencil-and-parchment start in an oversized woodshed seven generations ago launched the classroom learning that became Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, long celebrated as Ontarios oldest high school.

Rewind to a 1785 scene with young children learning arithmetic in the parlour of a missionarys home on a farm, about where Murney Tower Museum is.

The missionary, Pennsylvania-born Reverend John Stuart, MA, UEL, passionately placed schooling and Christian believing on an equal plane. Stepping ashore at Cataraqui, to be known soon as Kings Town, next Kingston, he had found clustered on the edge of the wilderness 40 or so wooden houses, the shattered stonework of an old fort and a population of 300 with no school. Mission one: educate our boys. (Girls, not expected to wield power in politics or business, were taught by their mothers, or at private finishing schools if affordable )

Stuart had been granted Lot 24, the lands bounded by the lakeshore, and a survey line where Barrie, University and Concession streets now exist. Sent to spread the gospel from the Ottawa River to Niagara, he chose Cataraqui as mission central, and, in his home near present George and King streets, taught his and the settlements children.

He successfully appealed to Gov. Henry Hope of the Province of Quebec for funds to build a school at Cataraqui, but Hope would provide money only for lumber and nails, none to hire a teacher. The log and frame school, presumably built by the townsfolk, was the first government-supported school in the soon-to-be-named Upper Canada.

Near Church Street and School Street (todays King and Lower Union ), it was used until it started to collapse 40 years later, rain dropping on students lesson papers, for lack of funds to repair the roof.

Stuart taught without payment for the first 14 months.

Success with his school for basics sparked the urge to build another school to teach classics - English, Latin and so on. He asked newly arrived Lieut.-Gov. John Graves Simcoe for funds. Simcoe wanted disciplines taught that would educate young men to be successful as political and business leaders, and was planning government-financed grammar schools at Kingston and Niagara.

On this optimistic note Stuart started a grammar school course, alongside his junior classes, in the existing school, but the money was never forthcoming for a second building - so in restricted space he pushed on with his higher-level program teaching 13 boys.

By 1792 Gov. Hope, with Simcoes pleading, had provided 100 pounds a year to help cover costs.

This is regarded by the legislative council, and education researchers, as the beginning of secondary schooling in Ontario.

Scraping by looked less hopeless by 1807 when the legislature passed the first Grammar School Act that divided Upper Canada into seven districts requiring, in each a grammar school, an annual legislative grant of a 100 pounds, and a school board appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor.

Stuart's post-elementary curriculum of Latin, Greek, English and Mathematics, in the log school house, became the Midland District Grammar School. Sadly, John Stuarts great energy ran out. The dedicated clegyman died, age 71, in 1811.

Against a backdrop of triumph and trouble, as the country slow-marched toward provincial and national maturity, the grammar school bucked hardships, and enjoyed moments of fame, for the next 20 decades.

During the War of 1812, teaching master John Whitelaw complained to the school board about the profanity of the soldiers at the blockhouse nearby; worse, he and his learners were evicted three times so soldiers could be billeted in the school.

It was designated The Royal Grammar School for eight years after Headmaster Rev. John Wilson attracted special annual grants of 250 pounds a year by royal consent. (A young John Macdonald, later appointed first prime minister, studied the classics under Wilson.) Removal of the royal grants in 1828, and competition from private grammar schools run by the Presbyterians, Baptists, Catholics and Methodists, strained finances. Because of the deplorable state of repair at the 1792 site, some parents withdrew their children.

Political and religious sensitivities dogged early schooling - bitterness over the Loyalist flight from unfriendly America after it defeated the British in 1776, and Canada defeating America in the War of 1812, then having to mount border guards against American patriots, invited in by radical William Lion Mackenzie to help him to oust the autocratic executive council from power.

Simcoe blamed enthusiastic and fanatic teachers for aiding the conspiracies that led to the American revolution, and urged school authorities to watch for disloyal preachers and teachers so they could be unmasked and suppressed to keep republican heresy from spreading over the border and into the homes, churches and classrooms of Upper Canada.

The Common Schools Act of 1816 required teachers to be subjects of Great Britain or to have taken an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Some teachers transferred their religious affiliation to the Church of England to ensure they would be hired, although for low pay and low social status.

A prime qualifier for leadership in Upper Canada education was Christian commitment. Groups could disagree on doctrine but wanted assurance God was watching over the classrooms, or, as Simcoe put it, required was  ... the general system of truth and morals as taught in the holy scriptures. In many pioneer schools, each day began with the singing of God Save the King and the Lords Prayer.

Finally, the trustees replaced the log-and-frame building with a new school on the public reserve east of Barrie Street. Sale of the original site to one of the Cartwrights provided enough to build the limestone Gothic-revival design now known as Sydenham Public School on Clergy Street. While it was being built, Venerable Archdeacon OKill Stuart donated the use of the east wing of his home, Summerhill, for Midland District Grammar School classes

By mid-1853, moved into their stylish new digs, and renamed Kingston County Grammar School, they next qualified to be called Kingston Collegiate Institute (KCI) in 1872 by reaching enrolment of 60 boys studying Latin and Greek and employing at least four teaching masters.

Four years later, a fire gutted the second storey, forcing classes to Kingston City Hall. At the re-opening after repairs, Jan. 8, 1877, the first girls were enrolled, and soon outnumbered boys, 90 to 80. The first female teachers, or prefectresses, were hired to teach the girls. By 1885, overcrowding forced the school board to build another school, a Victorian-style, three-storey building for 250 students on lands at Earl and Frontenac streets.

On the ceremonial stone, placed by Lieut.-Gov. George Airey Kirkpatrick, it reads To commemorate a Centurys Work of this school, Sept. 3, 1892 Maxima Debeture Pueris Reverentia. (Youth deserves the greatest respect).

Over-crowding prompted four major expansions, and as many internal reconfigurations, over the next 38 years, and the demolition of the 1892 building in 1959. In its 150th anniversary year, 1942, principal F.W. Danbys 11 years of dedicated leadership ended when he died during his lunch break.

By that date, it had become Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, with a staff of 45 and 1,500 students. Enrolment dipped over time, then ramped to 1,500 again in 1986 when government policy required sharing space with the separate school board.

About this time, another campus partner arrived: Module Vanier, providing French immersion education. Two other second-language programs, Mille Isles, and a French Transit Unit, 190 Grade 7s and 8s utilized KC space.

K.CVIs history recounts the transition in school discipline, from strict enforcement of behaviour and rigid demands for top performance, to more individualized learning, and inspiring youth to learn, rather than demanding it with a heavy hand.

A Bicentennial Look at KCVI recalled the 1940s and '50s: The teachers ruled the roost in those days. You spoke only when spoken to, and if you were caught misbehaving, some teachers thought nothing of grabbing you and giving you a good shaking. The 1968 Hall-Dennis report, Living and Learning, led to removal of corporal punishment in Ontario schools.

In 1987 the school board tried to close KCVI because of a dip in enrolment, but backed off when 250 angry people opposed closing at a meeting. In 2013, Edward Holden is the 28th principal, managing 900 students, and a further 100 at the alternative school downtown.

The ancestral experience of the community, reflected in the KCVI story, stirs pride in even the non-alumni as they see its humble beginning within wood-framing hewn from the local forest. 2017 will be its 225th birthday. The Frontenac Heritage Foundation has urged the Limestone District School Board to designate KCVI as a heritage site under the Ontario Heritage Act. School board chair Helen Chadwick has said this will be placed on a meeting agenda.

Floyd Patterson, a member of the Whig-Standard's Community Editorial Board, has been an open-line radio host, and TV producer, a newspaper columnist, and a city councillor.

Click here for Link

13. Winnipeg: Debate over Milner House's future resurfaces
CBC Manitoba

Debate over Milner House's future resurfaces

The future of Milner House, a heritage building in Winnipeg's West Broadway area, is under debate again as neighbours raise new concerns the house may be demolished.

Milner House has been the centre of a battle involving area residents, who want it to be preserved, the City of Winnipeg and Great West Life, which owns the building.

Built in 1909, Milner House has been vacant since 1990. The insurance company bought it in 1991 with plans to demolish it and expand its parking lot. But so far, the city has said no to that plan.

However, talk about Milner House is starting to resurface at city hall.

"The reason the house has been talked about now is that there is going to need to be some kind of a rezoning application in order to legitimize the parking that's already there," Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Jenny Gerbasi told CBC News.

Gerbasi said the application, which could include plans to demolish Milner House, has not yet been filed.

Great West Life declined to comment on the home's future on Thursday.
Meeting set for next week

A meeting with all interested parties is slated for next week, and the West Broadway Community Organization says it wants to be there.

"In this city, with the housing crisis as it is  less than one per cent vacancy  having a house sitting vacant is kind of a problem," said Greg MacPherson, the organization's executive director.

MacPherson said at last estimate, it would cost around $500,000 to restore to home. While that seems like a lot of money, he said something needs to be done.

"If the city can't leverage enough pressure against them to make them change that approach & if they're going to remove the house, the neighbourhood needs something of equal or greater value," he said.

Ken Opaleke, who lives across the street from Milner House, said he would not even consider letting the building be torn down.

Opaleke is also the director of West Broadway Outreach, an inner-city youth program, and he said there's a severe need for new digs "like this, as a space where we can, you know, inspire children to go on to do amazing things with their lives.

"That'd be huge for us."

Click here for Link

14. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Beer flows again as remodeled Pabst brew house opens its hotel doors
Isaac Stanley-Becker

Mark Felix - Valet parking awaits outside the Brewhouse Inn & Suites on Wednesday. Pabst brewed beer in the building from 1882 to 1996, and now it has been renovated into a hotel.

It was 1996 when the brew house at the Pabst Brewery Complex last manufactured its trademark Blue Ribbon beer.

On Thursday, the taps flowed once again — but as part of a much different enterprise.

The Brewhouse Inn & Suites, the latest redevelopment project in a growing trend of transforming historic city buildings into modern-day commercial establishments, played host to a grand opening Thursday celebrating the first few months of the hotel's operation. More than 500 guests attended the event at the inn, affectionately dubbed the Pabst Hotel, and at the adjoining restaurant, Jackson's Blue Ribbon Pub.

The Brewhouse Inn is a 90-room extended-stay hotel that opened its doors in April at the northwest corner of N. 10th St. and W. Juneau Ave. It occupies the former Pabst brew house and adjacent mill house, buildings that were abandoned when the Pabst Brewery Complex closed in 1996. The re-purposed buildings are just two of 25 factory buildings that were abandoned in the wake of the complex's abrupt closing, the result of massive layoffs and pension disputes with the Brewery Workers union, Local 9.

"It was like a neutron bomb went off in the place," said Pete Northard, the new hotel's general manager, on a recent tour of the space. "Workers left personal belongings in their lockers, open beer bottles were strewn around."

The brewery complex stood vacant until 2006, when Milwaukee philanthropist Joseph Zilber's investment group, Brewery Project LLC, purchased the original 19th century buildings to form The Brewery, a complex that is home to residential, office and retail space.

The Oregon, Wis.-based Gorman & Co. developer purchased the brew house and mill house in 2011 and spent 18 months turning them into a six-floor boutique hotel that maintains many of the brewery's original features, including spiral stairwells, arched stone doorways in the lobby and the iconic brew kettles, the bottom halves of which were cut off and removed after the factory's closing. King Gambrinus, the unofficial patron saint of beer, looms over the atrium in a restored stained-glass window on the far end of the large, open space that features skylights.

Click here for Link

15. Owen Sound Sun Times: Grey County seeks donations for bridge restoration
Denis Langlois

The county applied for Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund to help pay for the restoration costs. It was approved for $166,500.

Grey County is asking the community and all heritage enthusiasts to donate money to help offset the almost $600,000 cost to restore an historic 140-year-old arched bridge near Chatsworth.

Were asking at the county for all the people that said to us Please restore that bridge and we will gladly make a donation, now were counting on you to come forward with your donation, Coun. Arlene Wright, chairwoman of the planning and community development committee, said in an interview.

She said as far as she is aware this is the first time the county has asked the community for donations to help fund a project.

Every one of them will be gratefully received, she said.

Click here for Link