07-20-2015, 01:05 PM
(07-20-2015, 11:27 AM)nms Wrote: In Stratford's case, the plan was to build a hotel. The plan fell through when the powers that be concluded that Stratford did not have a need for a large, year-round hotel since the primary clientele, the Festival crowd, was seasonal.
Quoting from "Stratford: Its Heritage and Its Festival":
Quote:In 1964, a suggestion by Mayor C. H. Meier that city hall should be demolished for a new development that would accommodate a hotel for tourists as well as city hall offices began an argument that took several years to resolve. In 1969, when the council agreed to demolish the late Victorian landmark, six women in Stratford spearheaded the "Save the City Hall League" and approached the council with a petition to retain the building. This issue was not resolved until 1972, when the developer finally withdrew from the discussion and the city hall was spared.
I have a hard time believing that public opposition played no role here. And regardless, I was responding to a claim that the public didn't care about heritage before the 90's. Stratford itself certainly makes plenty of reference to the battle to save city hall.