February 8, 2012

Historic Forest Hill mansion now on city’s heritage list

by Lacy Atalick

City council recently added Maclean House to their inventory of heritage properties, barring the owner from demolition to the house at 7 Austin Terrace. The home was built in 1910 for John Bayne Maclean, the founder of Maclean’s magazine.

It is considered a heritage property because it reflects the early work of John Lyle, the architect who designed Union Station and the Royal Alexandra Theatre, as well as its connection to the founder of a media empire. In mid-December, the owner removed elements of the property once they became aware that Heritage Preservation Services had undertaken a review of the house in an attempt to allegedly avert a heritage designation, according to Coun. Joe Mihevc.

The city was granted a 60-day stop work order from Aileen Carroll, the Minister of Culture at the time. Mihevc said the owners wanted to demolish the house and build townhouses. “The onus is on the developer to come back with a proposal that respects the heritage qualities of the house,” he said. “Hopefully... they will come with a proposal to restore what they did.”

This article appears in the March 2010 issue of Village Post

Did you like what you read here? Subscribe to Village Post »

Comments to the Post City Magazines website do not reflect the opinions of the company or the author of the article in question. We do not edit comments for grammar, length or clarity. Offensive comments will be removed at the discretion of Post City Magazines. To read all of our website policies, click here.

Add your comment:
Verification Question. (This is so we know you are a human and not a spam robot.)

What is 2 + 2 ?