A city hall committee is recommending a 98-year-old Osborne Village church be added to Winnipeg's list of protected heritage buildings in order to thwart a plan by the property's owners to demolish the landmark.
The historical buildings committee wants the First Church of Christ, Scientist, on the northeast corner of River Avenue and Nassau Street North, to be put on a list that exempts it from demolition.
Former First Church of Christ, Scientist
"Usually when we're talking about heritage buildings, you hear about it in the Exchange District or St. Boniface," said the committee's chairwoman, Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Jenny Gerbasi.
"But this is Osborne Village. And Osborne Village has a (neighbourhood) development plan which has a section on heritage and it speaks to this. And it's very clear that we should not be demolishing buildings except as an absolute last resort."
The First Church of Christ, Scientist was already on the city's historical buildings inventory awaiting evaluation before the city received an application for demolition late last year. The inclusion on the inventory meant the historical buildings committee would have to evaluate the church's significance before the city could issue a demolition permit.
The city's planning, property and development committee will now consider the recommendation to upgrade the church to the buildings conservation list.
If it concurs at a meeting March 25, the matter will go before city council.
Ben Haber, co-owner of the former church at Nassau Street and River Avenue, strolls through the 98-year-old building.
In a report, the historical buildings committee called the church "an excellent example of a beaux-arts classical style, a form of architectural design that is based on academic precedents of ancient Roman and Greek motifs."
Construction of the church began in 1910 to accommodate the growing number of Winnipeg followers of the Christian Science religion, founded in the United States in the late 19th century. Christian Science held that reality was spiritual rather than material, and that spiritual healing could help overcome sickness and injustice.
The Winnipeg church was built in two stages and dedicated in 1924.
The committee recommended the building be given a Grade 2 classification and added to the city's buildings conservation list. The list of more than 200 buildings includes structures of architectural and historical merit that are exempt from demolition.
The list has three classifications. Grade 1 is "outstanding" building stock, according to the city's website. Grade 2 represents the majority of the list's building stock, and Grade 3 buildings are defined as "moderately significant heritage examples."
Gerbasi said committee members, who include councillors and heritage experts from the provincial and federal governments, as well as from the architectural community, evaluated the church for a historical designation last month.
The Church of Christ, Scientist, sold the building five years ago.
The current co-owner, Ben Haber, refused to comment on the record, but spoke with the Free Press at length on condition his remarks not be published.
A proposal drawn up for Haber outlining steps to rehabilitate the church's interior listed a price of $700,000 and said the job could exceed that amount by up to 20 per cent.
The proposal by 360 Indoor Air Solutions Inc. included several steps for "mould and asbestos remediation."
The entire building would be fogged to eliminate airborne spores, and walls, a boiler, pipes, floors and stairs would be removed, the proposal said.
Gerbasi, who toured the building recently, said the property owners have not submitted plans to replace the church with another structure.
"They're using as their reason that there's mould in the building," Gerbasi said. "Well, mould can be cleaned up... I've been inside it when we evaluated it. I can tell you it's a gorgeous building, inside and out."
joe.paraskevas@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
