Heritage Canada Foundation 2004 Annual Report Card - February 21, 2005, Press Release

Heritage Canada's 2004 Annual Report Card Lists Five Worst Losses And Top 10 Most Endangered Places – Press Release

Ottawa, ON, February 21, 2005-The Heritage Canada Foundation has chosen Heritage Day to release its second annual report card - a listing of Canada's ""Top Five" worst building losses and its "Top Ten" most endangered places of 2004. Topping the list of destroyed heritage is Saskatoon's 1931 Gathercole Building, which despite the exhaustive opposition from a citizen's group, was demolished by the City as part of the private sector's redevelopment of the waterfront site. The Gathercole Initiative Group had tried various routes to save the former Saskatoon Technical Collegiate, including its rehabilitation for use as a combined market and arts centre. Its last effort was to try to force a city-wide referendum, which did not succeed, and the historic landmark came down.

The Report Card also features the Hotel Shediac (1855) in Shediac, New Brunswick, one of the oldest hotels in Eastern Canada, and the Salmoni Building (1849), one of the oldest provincially designated properties in Amherstburg, Ontario, which despite public protests and reuse feasibility studies were both demolished.

Each year, several grain elevators and lighthouses disappear from the Canadian landscape. Often left vacant and neglected, these structures are increasingly susceptible to vandalism and fire. Taking fourth and fifth places, respectively, are the Carstairs Grain Elevator in Carstairs, Alberta (1940 and 1976), demolished in October and the Pictou Bar Lighthouse (1903) in Nova Scotia, which was lost to fire.

The second feature of the 2004 Report Card is the foundation's first annual Top 10 List of endangered places in Canada. The list, which was compiled from stories and news items that the foundation has been following and reporting on throughout the year, includes St. Joachim Church in Lakeshore, Ontario; the Roundhouse, E&N Railway in Victoria, British Columbia; Port Dalhousie's heritage conservation district in St. Catharines, Ontario; 5 Place Ville-Marie in Montréal, Quebec; Hamilton, Ontario's Tivoli Theatre; Woodward's Department Store in Vancouver, British Columbia; Edmonton's Immigration Hall; the South House at Rothesay Netherwood School in Rothesay, New Brunswick; the Wright-Scott House in Gatineau, Quebec and lastly, the Harding House in Regina, Saskatchewan.

"Hopefully, by shining a national spotlight on our endangered places, we may be able to generate public and political support for their preservation. And in so doing, prevent them from being featured on any future worst loss lists," said Brian Anthony, the foundation's Executive Director, on the release of the 2004 Report Card.

Heritage Canada continues to promote Heritage Day, the third Monday of February, as a national holiday.

For more information, contact Carolyn Quinn, Director of Communications at cquinn@heritagecanada.org or by phone at (613) 237-5987, ext. 229.