The third and final installment. I promise. 🙂
To the basement…
A view of one of the basement classrooms.
One of the staircases. As we go lower, the water damage becomes more evident.
Boiler room…
No lights, and not much going on. Although I spy some yummy asbestos on the duct work…
This is the set of stair I referenced in part one. This phantom staircase would have lead up to the front door. Why they sealed the stairs off in the lobby, but not from the basement, I have no idea…
Some nice built in cabinets…
Basement bathroom…
The other staircase.
The old Prince of Wales logo was still on the gym wall.
At the end of the day, another one is lost, gone forever….
Like most buildings, the time to try and save this one, would have been 10 years ago, as the University let it sit idle. However too little too late.
It is a shame though that a School Building couldn’t have been adapted for re-use as a school building…
It seems that once again the cheap way to go wins out. With a bit of vision this could have been an amazing reuse project, incorporating the old into the new engineering building. Hopefully John Campbell can become a shining example for others to try and strive for.
Andrew, I really enjoyed looking at these photos of the interior of the old school. Despite my comments regarding the issues that may have contributed to the demise of the building, like you, I wish the School Board could have maintained the building better. I wish the University could have maintained the exterior. It would have been fine if the interior was completely gutted, and even if the side additions were demolished. Just saving the oldest, center part of the school would have been a wonderful thing.
This is why I mentioned the building on Ouellette to you. Maybe someone could buy it now, while it is still in reasonable shape, and it might be saved. I was told that building was built in 1914.
I see some interesting retrofits in those pictures. In the updated cabinets photo, I see shiny metal conduits connecting two metal electrical boxes with grounded plugs. It’s too low to be a fire retrofit for security lights, so it would appear that this building has updated electrical.
In the picture, I also see a heating duct grill, and with the heating ducts in the boiler room, it would appear it’s also been updated with a modern HVAC (probably on the roof) from the old steam radiators which they didn’t get around to moving. I don’t see puddles in the basement. This building was a much better candidate for reuse than I expected. With all those retrofits, it would have been a lot cheaper to reuse it than I had expected.
Question. Were the floors wood or concrete?
Your photos of Prince of Wales brings back some good memories. You are right in that another piece of our past is gone. Prince of Wales was actually built prior to Dillon Hall. Progress!!
Well here is some additional info about this building. It was built by the town of Sandwich. The land was bought from the Askin family and according to my title abstact which goes all the way back to 1838 the land and the building cost $6,000.00 dollars and I will check this to be sure when I get a chance but it was built in 1918. This is just before the houses were built in the adjouning area. My partner and I own the last remaining parcel of the Askin property which was a grant from Victoria when she first ascended to the throne. This is is why our abstact goes all the way back to 1838.
bob
It was great to see the inside of the school again.I went there from Kinder. to grade 8.Obviously it looked much better then.Also looked a lot bigger.It was a great school to go to in those days.I actually blame the closing of that school and St Anthony behind it for the decline of the neighbourhood.
Once the schools close, families leave.Let this be a warning to all when the school board talks about closures.I have lived in different parts of the city and always find myself back in that area.
I don’t know what it is,but it is home.I have bought my second home there now and won’t be moving again.It’s also nice to see young people getting a good deal on a house in that area and fixing it up.I can’t believe more people don’t move to the area.Ever seen the price of a house around Western in London?
PS The flag pole is still standing in front of the old school.