Former convent near Cornwall demolished, ending decades-long preservation fight

A century-old former convent that was once protected by a heritage designation was demolished last week in South Stormont Township despite a concerted effort by some in the community to save it.

The convent and former school of the Roman Catholic parish in Saint Andrews West, Ont., about 90 kilometres southeast of Ottawa, was saved from the wrecking ball in the late 1970s, and again two years ago.

But despite the efforts of a pair of local activists, heritage designation from the township, and an appearance on a popular Instagram account dedicated to saving historic structures, a demolition company razed the building earlier this month.

Jordan Munn, a local chef who recently returned to the area after years abroad, and Kae Elgie, a former chair of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario, began leading an effort to save the structure when South Stormont's attempt to find a demolition contractor first came to light in 2021.

"This is bad news for future generations," said Munn, whose petition to save the former convent garnered nearly 1,400 signatures.

Last week, Munn was among a handful of people standing behind a security fence and photographing the rapid demolition of the structure.

"What's the point of having historical preservation on buildings if it can be taking it off?" he asked as excavators pulled down the convent's tall brick walls.

Heritage status repealed

Munn and Elgie took their battle over South Stormont's bid to repeal bylaw 3418, which conferred heritage status on the building, to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Though the tribunal sided with the pair, the ruling wasn't binding and within a few months South Stormont council had again voted to repeal the building's heritage designation.

"It was just all show," said a dejected Munn, who had envisioned a refitted retirement home or apartments for the property.

The three-storey brick edifice, constructed in 1908 after the original Grey Nuns convent of the 1840s was lost to fire, had been vacant since 2017. 

It faced the wrecking ball in 1978 after the nuns moved out, but the town rallied around the building. It was renamed the Raisin River Heritage Centre and served variously over the years as a book depot, library branch and headquarters for the Cornwall Township Historical Society.

Remediation pegged at $2M

With costs to remediate lead, asbestos and a bat infestation and make the building suitable for public use estimated at close to $2 million — and no takers, even when the township offered the building for free — South Stormont's chief administrative officer Debi Lucas said the township decided "it was time to come down."

But the decision to remove the building's heritage designation doesn't mean the township has given up on heritage preservation, Lucas said.

"This was a very unique situation in a unique location," she explained.

Lucas said the cost to demolish the building, construct a commemorative memorial, prepare the site and hand it back to the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (CDSBEO) will likely reach $450,000.

A complicating factor in the search for a new occupant was the fact that a CDSBEO elementary school had been constructed near the convent, which then had a perimeter of only two metres preserved around it. Even the structure's septic system was outside its own footprint.

The school board wanted final say on who or what could cross its property, and when, to access the former convent.

"CDSBEO highly values Catholic heritage in our communities," said the board in an emailed statement to CBC.

Munn said the school board's inflexibility helped doom his efforts to save the building.

Commemorative monument planned

Preserving the thousands of aging buildings constructed for ecclesiastical purposes, often on a monumental scale, is a difficult and special challenge, said Andrew Waldron, head of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals. 

But doing so is often the most environmentally friendly option, he said. "The greenest building is the building that already exists."

Waldron said he believed federal tax incentives like those in the U.S. would offset the extra costs of retaining the building instead of demolishing it.

He said as with lighthouses and grain elevators, communities and other stakeholders need to accept that preservation may include some modification.

"We are moving away from the notion that heritage is just simply a museum piece or that it's untouchable," Waldron said.

A wooden altar from the convent was removed prior to demolition, and some other artifacts have been dispersed to area museums, but the rapid demolition meant little of the timber, trim or windows was saved.

The Township has salvaged 2,500 bricks from the demolition site and will pay to construct a commemorative monument  that incorporates a cross and two figures from the convent. 

At a nearby historical interpretive park commemorating villages lost during the flooding of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s, Long Sault, Ont., resident David Dalgleish, accused authorities of taking "the easy route" instead of investing in the community's cultural heritage.

"Religion has played a strong part in this particular region of Canada," he said, pointing to the role of the original Saint Andrew's parish hall during the War of 1812 when it was pressed into service as a hospital.

"It makes me so mad. We've lost so much of our identity in this area," Munn agreed.