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Gorge Road landmark should be saved: heritage advocate

Heritage advocate Pam Madoff said a red brick house built in 1885 should be saved and the non-profit that owns it should further investigate what caused the structural instability that has made its headquarters unsafe.
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Marianne Sorenson at the 1UP Victoria Single Parent Resource Centre's heritage house on Gorge Road East.

Heritage advocate Pam Madoff said a red brick house built in 1885 should be saved and the non-profit that owns it should further investigate what caused the structural instability that has made its headquarters unsafe.

The 1UP Victoria Single Parent Resource Centre was forced to shutter the house at 602 Gorge Rd. East in January after an engineering report found that due to ground shifting, the structure is likely to collapse.

The centre’s executive director, Marianne Sorenson, is meeting with the City of Victoria’s heritage committee this week to discuss removing the heritage designation so the property can be redeveloped. The centre does not have the $1 million it will take to remediate the building, which includes lifting it and pouring a new foundation.

Madoff, a former city councillor, said the house is not crumbling because of age, but because something caused the soil underneath to shift. She suggested looking next door, to the B.C. Transit bus maintenance and storage yard, which, at some point in the past several decades, was expanded to the heritage building’s property line.

A large concrete lot sits below street level, while the house is on a small, triangle-shaped precipice overlooking the bus yard.

“If you look at the site and you look at the ground conditions between the site and the B.C. Transit yard, my first question would be what was the work done by B.C. Transit to expand their yard, how was it done in terms of retaining the bank in between the house and the transit yard,” Madoff said.

“I know there’s been more than one intervention of B.C. Transit expanding the yard over time. How was that done? Has the soil been retained? Those are all questions you have to ask to understand how the house has gotten into this situation.”

Madoff said the house would have been built on a much larger parcel of land that’s been carved off over time. It was one of three homes in the area built by Maurice Humber. The other two brick homes have since been torn down.

“It’s been a landmark in that neighbourhood since it was built,” Madoff said.

Sorenson said the engineering report did not come to a conclusion as to what made the ground unstable. She said that would require more study, something the non-profit cannot afford.

In a statement, B.C. Transit did not give a timeline for the bus- yard expansion, but said the transit authority is aware of the resource centre’s need to relocate.

“The Single Parent Resource Centre has been a good neighbour to B.C. Transit, and both agencies have been collaborative with regards to discussions that may impact either property,” transit spokesman Jonathon Dyck said.

City of Victoria spokesman Bill Eisenhauer said the city has not received an application from the property owner to have the heritage designation removed. If an application is made, it would be reviewed by staff and referred to the heritage advisory panel. The decision to alter, demolish or remove a heritage designation is made by city council.

Eisenhauer noted there are grant programs available to assist with structural improvements, restorations and repairs.

Since abandoning the building at the end of January, the resource centre has been in a temporary location across the street at Centennial United Church. But it can operate only three days a week and the centre can only offer limited services in a large gymnasium, which is a far cry from its previous location’s multiple rooms for toy and food donations, counselling, parent coaching and mentoring.

Stephanie Holt, a single mom whose 13-year-old son Rylan has autism, has been relying on the centre for the last decade.

Now a volunteer with the centre, Holt said it has always been a community hub for parents and kids, a safe space that removes the isolation of single parenting. Holt said she and her son were devastated when they learned the centre, which has operated out of the heritage building since 1991, had shut its doors.

She said the church’s gymnasium is not conducive to her son’s well-being given his special needs, nor does it provide the privacy needed for counsellors to help parents or children struggling with mental health issues.

“Without having a centre, I’ve lost a part of me,” Holt said.

She hopes the centre can find a new permanent space soon.

“I will do anything I can to help us get that back.”

kderosa@timescolonist.com