Provincial order renews fears that Century Manor will eventually be demolished

A new provincial plan to turn Mountain brow land into housing and mid-rise buildings has heritage advocates once again fearing for the fate of Century Manor.

And city officials have concerns the province's plan doesn't take into account the city's broader vision for the land.

The province says it will honour the heritage designation of Century Manor, one of Hamilton's oldest buildings and a last remnant of the Hamilton Asylum of the Insane. But the three-storey building has been empty for more than 20 years, and the province axed a plan in 2018 that would have seen Mohawk College turn it into a student residence.

Then last week, the province issued a zoning order to allow homes to be built on the land. 

Leanne Pluthero, who runs a Facebook group about the building, fears the province will find a way around the designation and demolish the building. She's launched a petition.

"I love the history," she said. "I love the architecture. It's one of the very last Victorian gothic buildings on that grand of a scale. We don't have anything else like that left."

"If you rip down Century Manor, there goes 160 years of our mental health history gone to just a plaque."

Century Manor was built in 1884 as the East House for the Hamilton Asylum for the Insane. It had several functions over the years, including as a reception hospital, addictions and forensic psychiatry wings, and a school for adolescents. It closed in 1995.

One by one, the former asylum buildings have disappeared, starting with the grand Barton building in the 1970s. Infrastructure Ontario (IO) owns Century Manor. Patricia Saunders, a heritage advocate who once worked in the building, tried for years to get a look inside. She feared the province was neglecting it as a precursor to demolishing it. 

Even Ted McMeekin, a provincial cabinet minister in 2014, tried to get his own Liberal government to let him inside, and was told it wasn't open for tours.

"It could be one of the grandest buildings in Hamilton," Saunders said then. "My concern is that nobody seems to care."

Mohawk toured it by flashlight

Someone did. Mohawk College had a flashlight tour of the building in 2018, and struck a deal with the province to turn Century Manor into a student residence. It pledged $9 million to restore it, and at least one developer was interested.

Mohawk planned to buy 8.5 hectares for $9.52 million to expand its campus. The province would use that money, plus $5.5 million of its own, to build a tower at 191 York Blvd. with 20 per cent affordable housing. In 2018, the new PC government backed out of the deal.

The province says it hasn't finalized any plans for the site. But last week, it used what Coun. John-Paul Danko (Ward 8) termed "the nuclear option," issuing a zoning order allowing single, semi-detached and multi-residential buildings as high as 18 storeys. The province says it wants to build more long-term care beds. 

Century Manor is designated under section 25. 2 of the Ontario Heritage Act, the province said Wednesday, and this doesn't change that. The zoning order also doesn't take away previous institutional uses, it said. It just adds new ones.

"This minister's zoning order is part of our government's plan to get shovels in the ground faster on critical projects," said Conrad Spezowka, spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, in an email. "We believe that the development of long-term care and housing is an option for the site as part of our government's commitment to ensure more seniors get the quality care they deserve."

The land, he said, "has not been sold and no final decision has been made on the future use of the site."

Mohawk still wants it

Mohawk College says it's still interested, and has told the province that.

"It is our understanding that the recent announcement doesn't preclude the college from continuing to pursue its goals for growth," the college said in an email. 

Like Danko, Mayor Fred Eisenberger was unhappy with the zoning order.

"The city has a longstanding vision for the best uses for this site, developed over many years and in consultation with the community," he said in an Aug. 13 statement. 

"Our vision is for new development that complements the existing institutions of Mohawk College and St. Joseph's with a district that provides for additional institutional uses, including long-term care housing, and that advances the educational and research sectors in the city."

Danko said he's gotten emails about Century Manor, but there isn't much he can do.

"IO owns it so ultimately they're responsible," he said. "As far as I know, there's no plan for it at all beyond the 2017 city plans."

"At this point, it's up to the province."