Fate of Richmond Hill’s historic Jefferson Schoolhouse in limbo

'Drowning in debt’ owner seeks demolition permit

Yorkregion.com
February 4, 2020
Sheila Wang

Richmond Hill’s little red schoolhouse is going to learn its destiny in mid-February after bearing witness to the evolving community for the past century and a half.

Council put off its decision on the fate of the 151-year-old Jefferson Schoolhouse until Feb. 12, instead of denying a demolition application as a staff report recommended at the Jan. 22 council meeting.

While most councillors made clear their inclinations toward preservation, Ward 2 Councillor Tom Muench proposed to make a decision later so as to seek a long-term solution that benefited all parties.

“I think it’s a bad sign,” said Vera Tachtaul of the Richmond Hill Historical Society. “I don’t think that’s right at all. It’s a little bit dismissive.”

Tachtaul was one of the members who signed a petition to save the building, which Jim Vollmershausen, president of the historical society, presented to council at the meeting.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever -- Removing the reminder would eliminate an opportunity to make the early history of the community tangible and relatable,” Vollmershausen told council.

Detractors have expressed strong opposition to the potential demolition of the building, which is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Under the act, a property qualifies as a cultural heritage building if it meets one or more of the three values: physical, historical or contextual.

The one-storey structure, located at 11575 Yonge St., fits all three criteria, said Pamela Vega, who is the city's heritage/urban design planner and who prepared the staff report to council.

Built in 1868, it was used as a single room school until 1951 and is one of the last vestiges of the historic Jefferson hamlet.

“I’m passionate about heritage,” said Rashid Mordadi, who owns the site and who filed the request for demolition last November. “If I’m not, this building would have already been burned down.”

Sipping tea in the former classroom where he runs a printing-press business, Mordadi related his struggles in keeping alive a heritage building in Richmond Hill with what he sees as a lack of support from the city.

He bought the schoolhouse property, along with the printing business, from his former boss seven years after emigrating from Iran with his family in 1999 and working hard as a roofer, Mordadi said

Businesses were booming and taxes were reasonable at first, Mordadi said, until he was slapped with a property tax bill that tripled four years later.

It was one of many hard-learned lessons about the price to pay for owning a heritage-designated building.

As taxes increased, the printing business started to decline -- partly due to the construction on Yonge Street in front of his store, he said.

Last year, his tax bill hit almost $19,000.

“I’m drowning in debt,” he said. “I can survive with the piece of bread today, but my kids cannot survive.”

Mordadi filed the request for demolition as a last resort after spending tens of thousands of dollars on maintenance on top of the skyrocketing tax levies.

He said he's had no assistance from Richmond Hill for the past 14 years.

While sympathetic to public sentiment over the heritage building, Mordadi urged people to put themselves in his shoes.

“Come here and feel and then judge,” Mordadi said, bundled in layers of jackets as he tried to keep warm in the one-room house with its word-burning stove.

With no water and sewerage hookups, and higher density developments sprouting all around, the property has become a tough sell, the landowner said.

To him, there isn't much heritage value to the building aside from the exterior brick work.

But Mordadi said none of his proposals to the city -- such as relocating or incorporating the building -- have borne fruit.

“I sympathize with him,” Councillor David West said. “But heritage buildings provide links to the past and provide a great deal of architectural characters and uniqueness, because nobody has the Jefferson Schoolhouse. Only us.”

Its dichromatic brick exterior and simple gable roof are a “rare example” of mid-19th century schoolhouse architecture, the staff report stated.

West, who sits on the Richmond Hill Heritage Committee, supported an amendment put forward by Councillor Karen Cilevitz, who suggested council should “be interested in a potential purchase” of the Jefferson Schoolhouse.

The amendment fell through due to the deferral motion.

“I think time might run out,” Tachtaul said in response to the deferral motion, which is set less than two weeks before the Feb. 25 deadline for the demolition request.