Ancaster Update

[thistleclub]

Money finally runs out on ‘semi-interesting’ Hermitage ruins
(Ancaster News, Richard Leitner, Apr 10 2014)

Already leaning so precariously they’re fenced off from the public, Ancaster’s Hermitage ruins appear destined to come tumbling down one way or another.

Hamilton Conservation Authority directors last week gave staff the go-ahead to seek a city heritage permit to lower the remnants of the stone mansion to a safe height, but only after making it clear they want to spend as little money as possible.

Vice-chair Jim Howlett said he doesn’t want to see the Sulphur Springs Road ruins “sponge from this generation anymore” because they are of little real historical significance despite their colourful past.

Built in 1855 as a summer home and hobby farm by George Leith, a wealthy Scottish immigrant, the Hermitage was later owned by his eccentric daughter, Alma, who let barnyard animals wander inside the mansion.

After it was destroyed by fire in 1934, she lived in a one-room cabin built inside the ruins’ walls until her death in 1942. The authority acquired the site 30 years later and successfully applied to have it designated as a heritage property in 1990.

“It’s sort of got a history of soaking up other people’s money,” Howlett said, calling the original cost of construction “a small fortune” in its day. “The world got nothing out of it other than a fire and a semi-interesting tourist stop.”

Tony Horvat, director of land management, said a plan to be submitted to the city’s heritage permit review committee will preserve the ruins’ distinctive arched entranceway but reduce other sections to a height of 1.2 metres or less.

The plan also calls for the removal of 350 cubic metres of earth to lower the property’s grade by half a metre and “air out” the underground brick foundation, damaged from freezing and thawing because it’s often saturated with groundwater.

Estimated at $144,000 to $194,000, the project is scheduled to begin in early August if the necessary city and Niagara Escarpment Commission approvals are in hand.


Read it in full here.