Residents of Harbour Grace and local heritage groups are seeking answers after two structures intrinsically woven into the town’s mercantile history were suddenly and quietly demolished earlier this week.
Ridley Offices, a stone structure dating to the early 1800s, and Stevenson House, built in 1859, were torn down much to the shock of many.
A registered heritage structure, the Ridley Offices were built in 1838 and served as the business premises of one of the town’s “best-known, and most notorious, merchants,” Thomas Ridley.
Stevenson House from the 1978 publication Ten Historic Towns
Both Ridley Offices and Stevenson House were featured in the 1978 publication Ten Historic Towns.
Resident Ken Haire says the two structures were “more than buildings, they were tangible links” to the province’s history, and their loss “cannot be replaced.”
He’s urging the provincial government to beef up the Municipalities Act to “require special permission to obtain a demolition order for historic buildings over a certain age, even if privately owned.”
