Goodbye good ol' telegraph building!

Today, my conscience was nagging at me. It began at about 6 o'clock this morning. I knew that as the sun set on downtown North Bay, dawn would bring the demolition of one of it's older buildings.

I recently read that some of Canada's most 'at risk' architecture involves building that were built about 50-60 years ago. It seems that if a building can make it through its first 60 years of life, it will be okay. It can breath a sigh of relief and hope that know one pokes around too much and finds hidden caches of asbestos or a growing mold problem.

In North Bay, we have done some silly things. Irreversible and silly things. We once had a beautiful post office with grand limestone pillars facing onto Main Street. Now gone, demolished. North Bay Collegiate and Vocational School. Demolished. Queen Victoria School. Demolished. John Ferguson's home. Demolished. Carnegie Library. Demolished. We are one of two communities that have demolished a Carnegie Library. What an embarrassment!

I have been outspoken about the evils of demolition for the sake of progress. Yet today, as the not-so-grand red brick telegraph building came toppling down, I couldn't help but cheer. I think that just like rules of social order, demolition for the greater good is acceptable.

I still feel a bit guilty that I didn't chain myself to a few of the granite tiles at the front entrance of the building and declare that the site should be honoured as a UNESCO world heritage site. Okay, I'm only about 1 percent guilty that I didn't take this route. But still, would the community really have benefited from a red brick box impeding the development of the Oak Street improvements? Absolutely not. Was the building an outstanding example of a particular style of architecture? No. Will we miss it when it is gone? Probably.

I know this because just like people leave this earth, when buildings are no longer around community they become grander, more ornate, and beautiful than they ever were in reality. My grandmother told me that the day that the Mackey House burned, the number of vermin left homeless was an epedemic in itself. Yet, for those who remember the good ol' Mackey House, it was just about the most glorious place you had ever set you sights on.

So, goodbye old telegraph building. I hope that in retrospect, you become a stately art deco office suite with marble floors and the finest interior wood finishings. I won't tell anyone the truth.