Councillors and local history buffs in East Gwillimbury, a town north of Toronto, are scrambling to protect a historic log cabin and First Nations settlement from the threat of demolition — but they may be running out of time.
“I’m terrified,” said Andrew Lenkov, one of the residents who uncovered the site’s history. “This is a Canadian historic treasure.”
At issue is a 20-hectare site on the banks of the Holland River, near Newmarket— a site that Pentacore Development bought in 2023 for $6.8 million, property records show.
The company is planning a 161-unit townhouse development for the property. And in June 2024, the town issued a demolition permit for the handful of abandoned, derelict buildings on the site, not realizing it contained a log cabin that Lenkov and neighbour Geoff Brown, a long-time history teacher, say could be more than 200 years old.
There is also evidence, they say, that First Nations people lived on the property, which could also contain Indigenous artifacts.
“How did this one slip through the cracks?” Coun. Scott Crone asked at an East Gwillimbury council meeting Sept. 16, after Lenkov appealed to councillors to preserve the property. “That’s what I’m struggling to understand. It should’ve been on the list.”
Town revoking permit, but still in effect for now
The list Crone was referring to is the list of heritage properties that most municipalities maintain. Listing is the first step toward an official heritage designation which, under provincial law, can help protect those properties from demolition.
One of the problems, according to Lenkov, Brown and Coun. Loralea Carruthers is the fact that the cabin sits well back of the property’s western boundary, Sand Road, hidden by trees. It has also been sheathed with more modern, 20th century building materials, making it almost invisible from the outside.
A look inside the structure, however, reveals walls of thick hand-hewn beams, carefully notched and chinked, and still solid despite the cabin’s age.
Lenkov said he only learned of the cabin’s existence about two years ago when he moved into a home that abuts the cabin property. He said he learned of its significance through seniors in the neighbourhood who recalled the old cabin and the property’s historic past.
Lenkov and Brown began researching the property’s history, but realized earlier this month that they were running out of time in their effort to have the structure preserved, because a demolition permit had been issued by the town.
They got in touch with Carruthers, who said in an email to CBC Toronto on Sept. 15 that the town is now in the process of revoking the demolition permit, but it will remain in effect until Sept. 26.
She said she’s been told by the developer that demolition won’t take place imminently.
At its evening meeting on Sept. 16, council voted to add the property to its heritage list, the first step toward more comprehensive protection under the provincial Heritage Act.
But it’s unlikely the heritage listing approved by council on Tuesday evening would trump the demolition permit, which was issued to the developer more than a year ago, according to Alan Preyra, a municipal law expert based in Toronto.
Michael McLelland, an architectural historian with ERA Architects in Toronto who has worked on sites in East Gwillimbury in the past, said listing gives the town a 60-day window in which the building cannot be demolished. It gives the community time to examine the site’s history in more detail, before a decision is made about designating it an official heritage site.
A designated structure can only be demolished with the permission of the local municipality, provincial rules state. But the municipality must respond to a demolition application within 90 days.
Unclear if designation will trump demolition permit
He said given East Gwillimbury’s past as one of the earliest Ontario settlements, “there’s a lot to unravel” on the Sand Road property. “The municipality really needs to act on that.”
Carruthers refused to speculate on how a heritage designation could affect the developer’s plan for the property. Pentacore’s submission to the town this past summer says it only planned on using two of the site’s 20 hectares for its townhome development.
CBC Toronto has contacted Pentacore but has not yet received a response.
Both Lenkov and Brown say they’d like to see the entire property made into an outdoor education centre where students could learn about the area’s natural and human history.
Brown, whose home also abuts the site, said “as a history guy, backing onto this site is amazing…In the best of all possible worlds, we’d like to see the entire site protected because it has historical significance from over 200 years ago.”
Lenkov called council’s decision “a positive first step.” He said he and Brown “have done everything we can do at this stage. It’s now out of our hands.”
