Paul Wilson: Delta's days nearly done
Paul Wilson | CBC News | Posted: May 16, 2012 12:08 PM | Last Updated: May 16, 2012
City's oldest high school was built to last
It is the oldest, grandest high school in the city. So those students back in 1967 had every right to believe that Delta, pride of the east end, would never die.
They packed a time capsule with greetings from prime minister Lester Pearson, pictures, timetables and a few secret items, then buried it. On that front lawn facing Main East, a waist-high granite marker says the treasure is to be unearthed on Canada's 150th birthday in 2017.
Well, we know now that Delta's not going to make it. The board of education has just voted to put Delta down, no later than 2015.
A whole city block long
What will become of this brick and stone Tudor Gothic beauty, a whole city block long? The board‘s too busy shutting high schools right now to be thinking about that.
Delta Collegiate was founded in 1924. Hamilton was already an industrial powerhouse, much of that muscle in the east end. Housing followed the factories and one high school — Central, which burned down a couple of decades later — was not enough anymore.
The premier of Ontario, G. Howard Ferguson, was at Delta's opening night. The school had labs for physics, chemistry, biology, a boy’s gym, a girl's gym, a shooting gallery, a big auditorium with balcony. But Ferguson announced it was just the beginning, that the school would grow.
Schools were built for the ages back then. The bricks were local, the stone from Manitoba.
Sir John was jealous
Sir John Gibson, one-time lieutenant governor of Ontario, admitted at the opening ceremony that east-end Delta made him jealous, as he lived in the west end. (But it got Westdale secondary half-a-dozen years later.)
In 1950, with Hamilton now well into a post-war tear, Delta opened new wings. They said it could now handle 2,000 students.
Official capacity of Delta today is said to be about 1,400. But it has only 775 students. Thus, the board's decision to close it.
'You could not build this place today.' —Walter Furlan
Delta makes the city's Inventory of Buildings of Architectural and/or Historical Interest. But it is not a designated building, so there's no protection from demolition. And council has shown little appetite for forcing historical designations on the board of ed.
Are condos an option?
Are condominium lofts an option here? It would be a huge project, but perhaps. The difficulty is that a unit on Main East couldn't command the same price as what will be fetched at the condo conversion, for instance, of the one now taking place at Dundas District school. Yet, construction costs are the same. So developers would need coaxing.
Walter Furlan knows old buildings. He's in the restoration business, has done work at Auchmar and just a couple of months ago went to the House of Commons to advise on window problems there. He has two sons, one a Delta grad, the other in Grade 9. I asked Walter to go walking through Delta with me.
He stood in awe of the work. The carved stone, the ornamental iron, the cornice mouldings, the oak doors, the hand chiseling on the stone details. "You could not build this place today."
He said there was another place we needed to go, up the marble steps to the very top, to the Tower Room. It's almost always locked now, and Gordona Cubrilo from the custodial staff was assigned to take us up there.
The Tower Room used to be for art
When Delta opened, the room in the tower was for art studies, all that beautiful light spilling in from the north, the east, the west. Later, it was a music room.
But evolving safety standards saw the room closed off. Now it's the history vault, opened for alumni events. It is a treasure trove of all things Delta - jackets, photos, trophies, copies of the Lampadion yearbook back to the beginning. Thousands and thousands of young lives remembered here.
Janitor Cubrilo does not have the links to Delta, but she understands. She came from Yugoslavia 14 years ago. "I'm an immigrant, but I love Canadian history," she says. "I love Delta and I don't want it to go. It's so sad."
Pigeons rule the grand front arch now
Delta's most spectacular feature is the grand arch at the main entrance. Once it was used every day. And now, hardly at all. The pigeons took it over decades ago.
The arch interior gets power-washed for September and June. The big gate is pulled back and the Grade 9s walk up those marble stairs.
They're supposed to get to use them once more when they graduate. This year's new crop, however, will arrive too late for a shot at that honour.