Please send a letter of support before Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019 meeting re: 58 Wheatfield Road, Mimico – Intent to Designate under Ontario Heritage Act
Source: History of the Town of Mimico website. Caption: Alfred Baker House – 58 Wheatfield Road ©Michael Harrison 2011
I am writing to ask you for help, with regard to an urgent and time-sensitive, community-based project aimed at preservation of a key heritage building in Mimico in south Etobicoke.
You can make a huge difference by writing a letter (brief or lengthy: every letter matters) before the deadline.
It doesn’t matter where you live; please write: the Ontario Heritage Act seeks to protect heritage properties all across Ontario. This project is of interest to us no matter where we live in Ontario.
Please write a letter before Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019 in support of the designation of the building, in response to the demolition application as described below.
Please encourage others in your network of contacts to write letters as well.
A demolition application has been filed for a historic house at 58 Wheatfield Road in Mimico, built circa 1908 and attributed to Alfred Baker, architect, who lived at the house with his family. Baker died in 1956 and his family lived there for some time after.
A page at the History of the Town of Mimico website provides background:
Alfred Baker House – 58 Wheatfield Road
The opening paragraphs at the above-noted page (I have added links of my own, to the excerpt) read:
“The large home at 58 Wheatfield Road (originally Robert Street) was built circa 1908 for Alfred Baker.
“Alfred Baker was born in Stratford, Ontario on July 13, 1877. He was the son of Ichabod Baker, a civil engineer with the Grand Trunk Railway and Carrie Matilda Smith. He apprenticed with the architect Harry J. Powell in Stratford in the late 1890s.”
[End of excerpt]
Heritage Preservation Services at City of Toronto
In response to the demolition application, Heritage Preservation Services at the City of Toronto has researched the property and determined it should be designated under the Ontario Heritage Act to protect and preserve it. The staff report is going forward to the Feb. 27, 2019 Toronto Heritage Panel meeting.
The property has been listed on the heritage registry since 1998 (added by the former City of Etobicoke).
The meeting agenda is at the following link:
Toronto Preservation Board (2018-2022)
The staff report supporting designation under the Heritage Act is at the following link:
Intention to Designate under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act – 58 Wheatfield Road
Letters of support for designation should be addressed to (or by email: see below):
Chair and Members of Toronto Preservation Board
2nd floor, West Tower, City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Letters can be sent by email to the Panel Secretary – Lourdes Bettencourt at teycc@toronto.ca
Please send a letter of support before Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019 meeting
It’s a good idea to note, in your letter, that the property has been listed on the Heritage Inventory since 1998 and so the importance of this building from a heritage perspective has been known publicly from that date.
“Submit Comments” option
Alternatively you can simply click on the “Submit Comments” at the top of the item page which brings up an email for you to fill in:
Toronto Preservation Board consideration on February 27, 2019
Please send a letter of support before Feb 27th.
Best,
Jaan Pill
Stratford, Ontario
Jaan
I am the current owner at 58 Wheatfield Road.
Just curious as to why you feel entitled to this judgement? You don’t live on Wheatfield Road, Mimico or even Etobicoke. You have zero knowledge of the condition of 58 Wheatfield Road. You have zero knowledge of my family and our circumstances. My neighbors on all sides of the property and many through the neighborhood DO NOT support heritage designation.
I’m not sure how you can justify your involvement in this situation.
Good to read your message.
Until July 2018, I lived in south Etobicoke for twenty-one years. During that time, I became interested in the history of land-use decision making in local communities along the Toronto and Mississauga waterfronts.
Having developed am interest in this topic, I feel it imperative to do what I can, as a citizen of Ontario, to support heritage preservation in communities across Ontario.