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| Marven Creaghan stands in front of the annex building, part of the old Chatham hospital scheduled for demolition this spring (Photo by Rick MacLean/The Telegraph Journal) |
MIRAMICHI – Marven Creaghan is waging a last ditch fight to save a former nuns’ residence in Miramichi from the wrecking ball, and he’s running out of time.
He’s hoping to save a three-storey building attached to the old Chatham hospital from demolition. Called the annex, the building is slated to disappear this spring as part of a government plan to tear down the entire complex of buildings except for an adjoining nursing home.
The 18,400-square-foot building was built in 1954 as a home for members of the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph, who used it until 1964 when the province took it over. The sisters’ connection to the care of the sick in the area dates back to 1869 when four nuns arrived to open the first hospital in Chatham, a three-bed facility. The present building is the fourth hospital established by the nuns.
Workers are already busy tearing apart another part of the old hospital, but Mr. Creaghan wants to save the annex both because of its link to the area’s heritage and because he sees its demolition as an unnecessary waste of a quality building.
“It seems a shame that they wouldn’t allow somebody to use it. It riles me to think the government is ready to [destroy] that building while they’re renting space elsewhere.”
He approached the Department of Supply and Services in January, seeking more time to find a use for the annex. He argued the province is working with a developer to save the old Newcastle hospital while assigning its counterpart to the wrecker’s ball.
“I talked to the deputy minister [Stephenson Wheatley] and asked him to put a stay of execution on that building for half a year to give us time to come up with something. I even had a potential use for the building. A group of Catholic priests in Ontario, many of them of Maritime origin and or retirement age, are looking for more information. Despite that, the deputy minister said he wouldn’t extend the date.”
Mr. Wheatley said while he understands Mr. Creaghan’s interest, it’s going to take more than that to save the annex.
Mr. Creaghan, he said, has “a soft spot in his heart for the old buildings, but he has nobody that really wants to do anything with them. If you don’t get old buildings down in a hurry, they become very costly to maintain. We said to Mr. Creaghan if you’ve got someone who wants to use any of those buildings and comes forward with the money to maintain them, we would quickly relook at what we were going to do. Nobody came forward, so we’re proceeding with the demolition.”
Valdo Grandmaison has spent years redeveloping old buildings, including the City Hall in Miramichi. The owner of Le Group Frederic in Moncton is working on a $5 million plan to redevelop the old Newcastle hospital as condominiums, apartments and housing for seniors. Concerns about the cost of removing asbestos have delayed a deal with the province, but he’s hoping work can begin later this month.
In addition to environmental concerns, changes in building codes can make renovations difficult, he warned. There can be problems with everything from accessibility of wheelchairs to the width of individual steps on a staircase. An old building is worth about $15 to $20 a square foot once it’s cleaned up. If it’s going to cost that or more to clean it up, it makes more sense to build a new structure elsewhere, he said.
“It’s fine to say a building has character and it’s worth saving, but it’s worth saving at what expense? Sometimes they’re just not worth salvaging.”
Still, he keeps doing it. “It’s like an antique car or plane. You know there’s a cost, but you can’t rebuild a ‘57 Chev. They were built in 1957.”
Despite the problems, the area’s local Liberal MLA backs Mr. Creaghan’s efforts to save the annex. Jim Doyle was on the board of the Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home when it tried unsuccessfully to interest the government in redeveloping the hospital into independent living units for the disabled, the elderly and special needs children, a rehabilitation centre, and a detoxification unit.
“The annex is a beautiful building,” Mr. Doyle said.
“I know older women and men on the Miramichi who are alone who would be more than pleased to have a nice place like that and, have the advantage of being able to go downtown.”