Winter Ave. demolition spurs meeting on historic home protection
The Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Trust held a meeting Tuesday night to address concerns people have about a recent heritage home being torn down in St. John's.
About 60 people attended the session to discuss heritage protection in light of a 130-year-old home being demolished on Winter Avenue last week.
The destruction of the house led to significant public outcry and debate, with many arguing more should have been done to save the historic home.
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At Tuesday's meeting, Historic Trust president Peter Jackson said it's important to bring people together to air their concerns.
"We really felt that we needed to try to engage the public," he said.
"[To] bring them in together to have the opportunity to have a voice, to voice their concerns to us."
Those at the meeting talked about ways to stop a similar loss in the future.
One of the ideas involves offering tax incentives for people who own historic properties, which would help ease some of the extra financial burden that comes with restoring heritage structures.
Jackson is hopeful public engagement could prevent the destruction of future historic structures.
"We need a unified voice," he said.
"To speak toward city council, and work towards this not happening again."