Yesterday I took a journey back in time, thanks to the lucky discovery of a pile of 'not needed on the voyage' magazines in the recycling pile at Glanmore NHS (just got a flash of the youthful and reading-addicted Al Purdy winkling reading material from strapped bundles of paper in Mercer's junkyard). I am now enjoying a pile of Acorn magazines from the late 1980's and early 90's, paying special attention to the ACO Quinte columns.
Built heritage proponents will echo the sentiments in this post's title. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the Summer 1988 issue noted local architectural historian Roger Greig optimistically recounts the hopes of the heritage community regarding the future of the Bogart-Carmen Building (by then called the Cableview Building): plans to create a stylistically sympathetic development incorporating the building's historic front and carriageway, "where demolition once seemed inevitable." This property had been associated with the newspaper business since 1873 as the home of various local papers - the Weekly, then the Daily 'Ontario', then the 'Ontario Intelligencer', later the 'Intelligencer', our current paper which was published at this building until 1965.
However, celebration appears to have been premature. Sold to developers Teddington Ltd.in 1988, the building collapsed in April 1990, while being prepared for an extensive development which was to incorporate the John Forin designed building. Oops. The facade was retained, a "one-storey free-standing screen" fronting the river-side parking lot adjacent to the strip club.
Here are the once-upon-a-time plans, printed in Issue XIII:2 of Acorn, courtesy of the Intelligencer. Sigh.
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