Heritage conservation documents get new home at Perth Campus

A trove of materials documenting 40 years of heritage conservation and revitalization work in communities across Canada and around the world has a new home at the Algonquin College Perth Campus – and a new lease on life.

The collection is the work record of Commonwealth Historic Resource Management, a consultancy firm John Stewart co-founded and has directed since 1984. Prior to Commonwealth, Stewart, a landscape architect, was the first director of the Heritage Canada Foundation’s Main Street Program.

Launched in 1980 with a pilot focusing on Perth, Ont., this downtown revitalization project has benefitted hundreds of Canadian communities. The program focused on building preservation combined with economic and social revitalization.

Stewart oversaw more than 200 of the program’s revitalization projects and his records are included in the collection along with more than 1,100 other sets of information from his other heritage conservation work in Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean and elsewhere. Specific information focusing on the different projects has been collected and archived in the “D” Series, beginning with the first set of information, D-1, and ending with the last somewhere greater than D-1200. Each represents a project.

The archival collection includes over 700 printed reports, 8.5 metres of reference materials, 15,000 photographs, 8,200 slides and numerous architectural drawings and landscape plans. About 200 old, antique and sometimes rare “how-to” books are also a part of the collection. This original material will give current students unique insights into the theory and practices of building conservation.

Students in the newly established Bachelor of Applied Science – Building Conservation program and the Heritage Carpentry and Joinery program at the Perth Campus Heritage Institute will have access to the collection for research purposes.

Over his career, Stewart has been involved in the maturing and recognition of the importance of sound preservation practices from grassroots efforts to documented conservation principles, and believes Algonquin College is an amazing part of that growth, instilling in their students understanding and recognition.

“The college understands the importance of built heritage conservation and the importance of fostering in their students an ethos to preserve. The importance of being able to share with them even a bit of our experience is amazing,” he says. “Back in the old days, everybody just wanted to knock buildings down or cover them up with aluminum siding.”

The students and College are also an important part of what makes Perth the vibrant community it is with a thriving downtown, says Stewart.

And that’s a big part of why Commonwealth made this significant donation to the College.

“It’s not heritage, it’s not conservation, but it is the maintenance of a community and the prospering of it so that it continues to survive and to thrive.”

Celebrating John Stewart

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