Copper Cliff still fighting to preserve 1910 fire hall, which city considers heritage but wants to sell

People in Copper Cliff are hoping to convince Greater Sudbury city council to preserve a 110-year-old building that the city considers a heritage structure, but wants to sell because it's too costly to repair.  

The fire hall on Serpentine Street was built in 1910, making it one of the oldest buildings in Sudbury still standing.

"It was celebrated in 2010 as being a 100-year-old building, renovated again in 2013,  was designated in 2014 and then bang in 2016 it wasn't worthwhile any more,"  says Margaret Julian, chair of the Copper Cliff Community Action Network.

The old fire hall was actually added to the heritage list—a lower level of protection than official designation— by the city in 2014, but then two years later it was closed to the public, with a remote police office and community meetings moved elsewhere.

At the time, the city said repairing the badly damaged foundation would cost $600,000.

Then in November 2019, Greater Sudbury city council declared the building surplus and went to put it up for sale.

"The building has rendered no service to the community and it is highly unlikely that the City would utilize this building in the future," reads the staff report.

Julian says she would love to see the fire hall stay in public hands, especially since in the early 1990s people in Copper Cliff chipped in $200,000 to convert the brick building into community hall when it was no longer being used by the fire department.

"That would be the dream, but I don't think it's going to happen," she says.

Instead, Ward 2 city councillor Michael Vagnini, who represents Copper Cliff, will ask council Tuesday night to begin the process of adding the fire hall to the register of designated heritage buildings.

While a listed heritage building, which in Sudbury includes the David Street water treatment plant and the old Capreol fire station, can be demolished or altered with just 60 days notice to the city, a designated building cannot be changed without city council's approval.

There are currently eight designated buildings in Greater Sudbury: The Church of the Epiphany, Flour Mill Silos, Bell Mansion, CP rail station, Belanger Homestead, St. Anne's Rectory, Northern Ontario Railway Museum and Anderson Farm.

Julian hopes that whoever buys the old fire hall would then be forced to at least preserve its outside appearance. 

"Sudbury is very frustrating, because they've torn so many historical buildings down. You still need a link to the past," says Julian. 

"So if this building gets torn down after it's sold, what's going to happen to the other buildings on the designation list of the city?"