Archive for December, 2008
Guild Inn Fire Part Two
I want to start by thanking all of the people who have emailed me, sent notes on face book or have posted their thoughts on my previous Guild Inn Fire post regarding the fire. It is heartening to know that fans of the Guild Inn, whether residents of Guildwood or visitors to the Guild are also feeling a mix of sorrow and disappointment over the loss of a listed heritage building on the site.
I will be posting at least one more post on the Guild Inn fire that will include pictures from within the Studio building taken last summer by a resident who has a very special attachment to that building and who has graciously agreed to share their story. Until then, I will share the pictures my sister, Jessica Laforet took on her own visit to the Guild Inn to survey the damage. I will also take this opportunity to thank her for taking these pictures and letting me post them here.
Maureen Vollum has an excellent flickr page that shows much of her fantastic photography. One picture that was of interest to me especially for the purposes of this entry was her beautiful picture of the Studio taken last winter. Please visit her flickr page to see many other examples of fine photography. This link will take you to the picture of her’s I am referencing.
Guildwood Rez also posted their pictures of the fire on their blog with a picture of the Guild Inn Studio as it was before it was closed in 2001. I have not seen the Guild Inn site so beautiful in almost a decade, and the comparison is stark.
Finally, many of the comments I’ve been receiving both publicly and privately relate to the City’s complete and utter mismanagement of the site. I agree with the comments who suggest the neglect of the Guild Inn is almost criminal. Guildwood residents have been led to believe for years that a plan was in the works or right around the corner to solve the Guild Inn’s fate. In truth, since the City closed the Inn in 2001 and began ignoring it’s responsibility to preserve the site, what had been an ongoing conversation took on new importance. Councillor’s Soknacki and Ainslie both failed Guildwood by leading residents to believe all would be well, as plan after plan fell through. Both men sat on the budget committee, Councillor Soknacki as it’s Chair and yet neither has been able to get the City of Toronto to carry out the required maintenance to preserve this jewel.
Councillor Soknacki’s record on the Inn was a lot of bluster in the Guild while at Council he moved motions to delist the Guild Inn as a heritage site and raided the Guild Cultural Reserve Fund to balance the three budget’s he wrote as Budget Chief, starving the Inn of much needed funding to maintain the site. In the $20 billion he spent as Budget Chief, he was unable to allocate the funds required to maintain the site.
Councillor Ainslie promised residents the Guild Inn would be restored during his term, and two months in, the plan fell through. Two years later there is a prospect but no plan to present to the community. It is my view that residents deserve a voice that will stand up for them at City Hall and use their position to advocate for our community and worry less about their city wide appeal and what plum committee positions they can get out of being a quiet team player.
I hope residents will not let the City and it’s elected representative off the hook for their role in allowing the site to deteriorate to the point of floods and fire ultimately determining it’s fate while they ignore the reality that with every day the site continues to decline, and becomes harder and harder to restore. I encourage residents to call on Councillor Ainslie to take his job as Ward 43 Councillor seriously. Residents need ask him to focus his time and energy on the issues that matter to his constituents and once and for all get the necessary resources to protect what is left of our beloved park.
When I read articles where Councillor Ainslie is discussing the City’s snack food policy, whether to sell or continue a long term lease with McDonalds Canada in Yorkville, and refusing to forgo a pay increase even during the current economic crisis (he was also the tie breaking vote last time Council raised their salary), it’s as if the company Controller spent all of his time organizing the hockey pool while the company slid into bankruptcy. Guildwood deserves better. This fire should be an eye opener to something many of us have feared for years.
1 Comment »Guild Inn Fire
I was deeply saddened today to learn about a fire in Guildwood Village at the Guild Inn early Christmas morning. When I opened the Toronto Star’s article “Fire destroys garage at WWII training base” – I had no idea that it would be about my favourite place in Scarborough. Before I go any further, I want to point out the Toronto Star’s article was wrong in that the fire was not in a garage, it was a listed, heritage building that served as an Artist Studio on the famous grounds.
The history of the Guild Inn goes far deeper than it’s war time use as a hospital for returning soldiers from the fields of Europe and a training centre for Canadian nurses. It had been an Artist colony that started during the Depression and carried on for decades. It was home to a boutique hotel that allowed tourists to visit the artist’s in residence and home to the founders of my neighbourhood – Rosa and Spencer Clark.
The City of Toronto closed the Guild Inn in 2001 and has virtually ignored the site since. In fact my interest in municipal politics began when contacting then Councillor Soknacki in November 2004 to question whether the City’s plan was to demolish the Guild Inn by neglect to pave the way for a housing development. He ignored my first attempt to communicate with his office, and it was not until February 2005 that his then Executive Assistant and current Ward 43 Councillor Paul Ainslie contacted me to see if I had received a reply and to share with me the details to demolish the site to build a condoized hotel, twice the size of the previous hotel in it’s place on land that would be leased to the developer for seventy five years. It was in my opposition to this plan that Councillor Soknacki suggested I should run against him if I thought he was doing a bad job in relation to this project.
That plan, like the other plans Soknacki’s office pushed to the community fell through, conveniently two months after an election where it was a key issue. The total lack of leadership Guildwood has seen at City Hall has left a once proud symbol of culture and creativity in Scarborough in rough shape, boarded up and awaiting it’s fate and declining.
The building that burned down this morning was a listed heritage building that had been so badly ignored by the City it when it flooded one winter, the water was allowed to sit and freeze, causing mold and damage to the structure. And that was when the City had plans to restore it! From what I witnessed this afternoon when I stepped away from my family’s Christmas celebration to walk over to the site to survey the damage, the building is likely beyond repair. Much of the structure completely burned, and what is left appears gutted. I did not stay long because of reports that Asbestos may have been released into the air by the fire. According to the Toronto Sun, contractors were in the building the day before removing Asbestos as well. It is my hope that the City will at least act quickly in determining the action plan for the current state of the building, and move equally quickly to clean up the site. Boarded up buildings are bad, burned out ones with possible Asbestos are far worse.
It was a cloud that hung over what was otherwise a beautiful Christmas with my family, three generations of Laforet’s whose Guildwood roots go back to 1968, as I found my thoughts returning to the fate of the Guild Inn, and the likelihood that 2009 will be another year of no promises or false promises on the fate of Guildwood’s heart, and residents will be forced to endure another year of their once prized park sitting in a state that does not reflect the spirit of the Inn. The Guild Inn for me will always be a special place, one filled with childhood memories of playing in between the architectural relics, Guildwood Day picnics, Art’s festivals and plays and Christmas carol singing in front of the grand old Inn. It also saw me stand up for what I believe in a very public way by running for public office in it’s defence. I sincerely hope the destruction of this heritage building will force the City to move, and get real with getting the site back on it’s feet and to restore the Guild Inn to being the heart of Guildwood Village.
Finally, my sister Jessica took pictures of the building during her visit to the site today and I will share them once I receive them electronically from her. If anyone has pictures of the Studio building they would like to share, please do pass them along and I will post them as well. Until then, this video shows what the building looked like before the fire.
14 Comments »
Merry Christmas!
I would like to wish a very Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates the holiday. Instead of writing anything of my own, I will instead embed Her Majesty the Queen’s Christmas Message for 2008. I have to say I am impressed to see that the Royal Family has maintained a youtube channel since October 2007. Although I am not a fan of Stephen Harper – he appeared to be able to contain himself and not diss any ‘socialists or seperatists’ and in the spirit of the season, I will share his christmas address as well. I am a fan of President Elect Obama and have also embedded his christmas address. Enjoy.
Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas Address
Prime Minister Harper’s Christmas Address
President Elect Obama’s Christmas Address
