A Yellowknife man is calling for less demolition and more preservation of the capitol's past as the territorial government moves closer to tearing down a long-standing building with deep roots in the community.
The former Yellowknife RCMP building, which now sits vacant and boarded-up at 5109 51 Street in the city's downtown, is on the chopping block.
In six to eight months, the The Department of Infrastructure (INF) plans to demolish the building, which is owned by the GNWT.
“I just think it would be a shame to lose it,” Tom Hoefer, a longtime Yellowknife resident.
Hoefer would like to see the building spared, preserved and re-purposed given its historical significance in Yellowknife.
Erected in 1947, the building was one of the first to spring up in the city’s New Town. Its establishment on Yellowknife’s expanding front marked a relocation from the Mounties' home base in Old Town, where the original headquarters was located.
By the 1950s, when Hoefer was a young boy living two blocks from the headquarters, the building had become a central part of the city’s core.
“I grew up as a kid walking past that building every. It was a bright and shiny building at that time,” said Hoefter with a chuckle, adding he would routinely stop by the station to return lost items he’d found around town.
“It was very impressive to me as a kid growing up here because here’s all these nicely uniformed guys that would look on you kindly,” he reminisced.
Built in 1947, the former RCMP headquarters was one of the first buildings to take root in Yellowknife's New Town.
It was a place where artillery was stored in the basement, while driver’s licences were handed out upstairs.
It was a different time, and, for Hoefer, a time worth remembering.
But the INF has no intention of keeping the longstanding building standing. Without a historical designation, the building is up for grabs in the department's bid to free up valuable city space.
“... The building is not listed as a designated building for heritage purposes and is not under the consideration for designation as a heritage building,” wrote INF communications coordinator Greg Hanna in an email.
Two different labels can be ascribed to buildings with historical importance in Yellowknife. Heritage designation applies to any “heritage resource that is designated by a by-law passed by council and becomes part of the heritage by-law and current zoning by-law. Heritage recognition is reserved for heritage resources that are not designated by a by-law, but are acknowledged through a motion of the Heritage Committee, according to a city spokesperson.
For either or those labels to be attached to the building, its owner would have to initiate a process to have it recognized.
Despite Hoefer's calls to keep a piece of Yellowknife's past, the GNWT has no plans to preserve the structure. It's set to be flattened in six to eight months to make way for a new, yet-to-be announced government facility.
“Personally, I like to save as many old buildings as you can because that’s the early days of Yellowknife and it’s the architecture of the time which, they just don’t build buildings like this anyone,” said Walt Humphries, president of the Yellowknife Historical Society.
“It’d be really nice to save it, but to save a historic building you need a use for it,” Humphries added.
Hoefer has thought of a new use – to transform the aging building into an in-demand spot for a new visitors centre.
Earlier this month, city councillors greenlit a strategy that would include the establishment of a centralized visitor centre to replace the current one – which sits in the city hall's basement. Councillors are eyeing the downtown as a possible new home.
If all goes as planned,and the building is torn down next year, Hanna said the land “will be utilized in the future for a new GNWT facility. Hanna didn't say what facility would potentially fill its place.
For Hoefer, the government's plan to move ahead with demolition is emblematic of a “in with the new, out with the old” mentality in the city.
“We have this tendency to knock stuff over and forget about the past. “It helps us remember where we can from and where the town came from,” said Hoefer.