The relocation of two historic Michigan Street houses this week shows that progress and heritage don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The two houses are being moved from former provincial government property behind the legislature to adjacent lots on Dallas Road, where they will be renovated and put on the market.
The houses stood on the site of the Capital Park project, a mixed-use development that will include offices, residential and retail uses and a public plaza. Partners Concert Properties and Jawl Development bought the property from the province in 2014 for $34 million.
Too much heritage has been swept away by development, but in this case, the development will be an improvement. On the property sat five historic houses, parking lots and office buildings. Although the houses are worth preserving, the office buildings are not.
Built in the 1940s for temporary use, the office buildings have long been past their prime. To call them non-descript would be undeserved praise. They contrasted drearily with the magnificence of the nearby Parliament Buildings, and detracted from the ambience of the James Bay neighbourhood.
But it would have been sad to see the houses demolished, which is too often the convenient thing to do. Besides the two houses headed for the Dallas Road sites, the other three houses will be clustered on the east side of the property, and will be renovated into 13 rental units.
Ken Johnson, president of the Hallmark Heritage Society and a member of the City of Victoria’s heritage advisory panel, welcomes the relocation of the houses.
“One would rather see houses stay where they were originally built,” he said, “but if they’re at risk of demolition, we would far rather see them moved than destroyed.”
Besides, the two homes were not sitting on their original sites, he said.
“Those two houses have been moved before,” he said.
The 524 Michigan St. house, for example, was built in 1892 on Superior Street and moved in 1910.
Johnson said his society was concerned about the deterioration of the houses for years when they were owned by the province.
“We wrote to the government to try to get something going, but there was no action,” he said. “With a house, lack of action means further deterioration. The government have not been good stewards.”
Johnson said his society is concerned about the future of two other houses in the neighbourhood, still owned by the government and facing onto Government Street.
“I’m not sure what use the government will put them to,” he said. “One of those is being neglected badly, the former home of premier [John] Robson.”
Renovating old buildings is not just about preserving heritage, but also about helping the environment. A study done for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the U.S. found that the greenest buildings are not state-of-the-art new buildings, but buildings we already have.
The study found that retrofitting an existing building to make it 30 per cent more efficient is a better environmental bet than a new building with the same efficiencies. Because of the draw on resources, the new building could take up to 80 years to make up for the environmental impact of its construction.
The environment is also harmed when demolition debris fills up landfills.
The fate of the Michigan Street houses — as well as that of many other of the region’s historic homes that have been moved — shows that when progress meets heritage, neither one has to lose.
