Kingston has dealt with its share of fires that have destroyed local landmarks. In light of Monday’s devastating blaze at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Global News caught up with a couple of historians to take a closer look at how some local heritage buildings rose from the ashes.
One realizes Kingston certainly isn’t as old as the Notre Dame, but fire has taken its toll on a number of properties in the Limestone City. Peter Gower is a historian and author and says one of the biggest such incidents took place in 1840.
“It spread from the waterfront,” Gower said, describing the catastrophic fire that year that destroyed much of downtown Kingston. “Of course, city hall wasn’t there at the time, but the marketplace was behind and it devastated the marketplace. It was not helped by the very combustible goods that were in the freight yards waiting to be shipped, including a storage of gunpowder which exploded.”
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Seven years later, according to architectural historian and author Jennifer McKendry, the city came up with a new bylaw forbidding the construction of wood buildings within a certain distance from downtown.
Fourteen years after the great Kingston fire of 1840, a blaze broke out at St. Paul’s Church on Queen and Montreal streets in 1854, destroying the roof and interior. Later, in 1865, Gower says the market wing at city hall caught fire.
According to McKendry, another big fire took place 1876, when a numbers of blocks on Princess Street near Montreal Street were wiped out. Fast forward to January 1st 1899 at St. George’s, when a New Year’s Day fire ravaged the cathedral. It destroyed the interior, as well as roof and the dome.
McKendry says it really is a story or restoration.
“That dome was rebuilt, so it does sort of a parallel with what they hope to do,” McKendry said. “A modest parallel, obviously, with Notre Dame in Paris.”
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And while the fire in Paris may have taken the bricks and mortar, all are hoping the spirit of the cathedral remains intact following whatever kind of rebuild takes place.