When Heritage Centre Wellington discussed the focus of these articles, we agreed that we should feature the distinctive architectural styles in our community. We also wanted to talk about what we are doing as a committee and what the future will hold for the heritage of our community. To know where you are going, it helps to know where you have been.
To that end, I recently met with Raoul Robinson.
Raoul Robinson, until 2010, had been a mainstay of Heritage Centre Wellington and, before the amalgamation of our township, the Fergus LACAC (Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee). Between the two committees, Raoul served for a total of 22 years advising this community’s elected representatives in matters of heritage. Who better to give us an idea of where we’ve been?
Raoul moved to Fergus in 1984, sharing a large heritage home on Provost Lane with his twin brother. A little research into the history of his home told Raoul that it had been built in 1890 by one of the Steel brothers who ran a hardware store on St Andrew Street. This interest in local history and heritage grew over the next four years and in 1988 he applied to be included on the Fergus LACAC.
I asked Raoul what he thought the most significant changes were regarding heritage during his 22 year tenure.
“Two things,” he said. “New provincial heritage legislation that had teeth, and amalgamation.”
I knew from my work with Heritage Centre Wellington that amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act in 2005 had considerably strengthened a municipality’s ability to identify and preserve significant heritage attributes, but I wasn’t sure how amalgamation applied. Raoul explained that thanks to amalgamation our township was now able to identify and protect our many significant rural buildings and structures.
I asked Raoul how things had changed since 1988. At that time, he told me, there was little communication between the LACAC and the Fergus Building Department. Often significant heritage buildings were being demolished without any notice given to the LACAC committee. Now, all demolition permits are scrutinized by the building department and forwarded to Heritage Centre Wellington for committee members’ input.
Raoul, acting as chair of the sub-committee, was instrumental in the designation of the Heritage Conservation District Plan of Brock Avenue in Fergus. It was an exercise, in small scale, of creating a heritage district designation. In close consultation with property owners, the entire process took approximately one year from concept to approval by an Ontario Municipal Board judge.
I asked Raoul what he considered his greatest triumph while serving on our heritage committees and there was no hesitation in his answer.
“The Inventory of Urban Heritage Buildings and The Inventory of Rural Heritage Buildings,” he said. These two comprehensive volumes have been an invaluable resource to Heritage Centre Wellington’s current committee as we have been building our Heritage Register.
To balance the question, I asked Raoul about the greatest regret throughout his 22 years of heritage service.
“When I joined the Fergus LACAC,” he said, “Fergus had been losing a significant stone building each year for the past twenty years. These were irreplaceable losses and were what prompted the creation of the Inventories.”
It took a long time, but the end result was much better communication between the building department and the heritage committee.
Looking to the future, I asked Raoul what he saw as the greatest challenges that Heritage faces in the coming years. He sees two main challenges.
The first was the inherent potential conflict between Heritage Legislation and the Ontario Places to Grow Legislation. Places to Grow puts an emphasis on infilling the Urban boundaries to reduce sprawl. This creates a balancing act between meeting the requirements of increasing infill and maintaining the heritage characteristics of our neighbourhoods.
I asked him what the second challenge was.
"A big stone building that no one wants," he said.  In general, large heritage stone buildings bring challenges that few developers seem eager to tackle.
“What’s the solution?” I asked.
“There has to be genuine co-operation between development and heritage interests and everyone – Heritage Centre Wellington, the developer and the Building Department – need to come to the table with a common interest: Adaptive reuse that maintains heritage characteristics.”

Dave Beynon is a member of Heritage Centre Wellington.