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WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22,1987, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN THE HERMITAÇE We left the main road and walked north into the thick woods. The day was very hot and humid, yet under the canopy of second growth trees, the air was cool and a welcome relief from the oppressive heat. The sun filtered through in patches but not enough to dry up the many potholes on the winding path. After a ten-minute walk we emerged into a clearing of thigh-deep grass and there half-hidden behind the scrub trees that had grown up in the last twenty years was the magnificent classical portico of the Hermitage. The feeling was somewhat akin to stumbling on the ruins of a Mayan temple in a Central American rainforest but, we were much closer to home. The building is one of the most significant in Durham Region yet lies abandoned and severely vandalized. It was originally built in 1899 as the gymnasium for the nearby Pickering College, but following a fire which destroyed the main college building in 1905, the private Quaker school relocated in Aurora (where it still operates) where a larger concentration of Quakers were living. The property was sold and in the early twenties the gymnasium was converted into a magnificent summer house known as the Her- mitage. So where is this remarkable ruin? As you enter Pickering Village from the east o4y Hwy 2 there is a small dirt road winding north through a narrow stretch of dense woods. The path leads to another world. The thick forest cover quickly mutes the sounds of the bustling highway behind. The Hermitage stands just north of the Village on a rise of land with a panoramic view across the deep sloping valley of Duffin's Creek. The land all the way up to Rossland Rd. belongs to Runnymede Developments and large homes are to be built in the next few years along the path leading up to the clearing. The building (what's left òf it) and 27 acres of land eàt to Church St. is to become a public park. But it's the "what's left of it" that poses the biggest problem. The original gymnasium was one large room two storys high but when it was converted to a house in the early twenties, the back part op- posite the main entrance was spit into two levels with a wall-to-wall balcony and a grand staircase overlooking a two-story living room. Large fireplaces were built in both the living room and the dinimg room. The entrance remained much as it was originally designed with its four square columns supporting the large classical pediment two stories above. The building was occupied as a sum- mer house up until the early sixties by members of the Ruddy family (owners of Ruddy signs - no relation to, but close friends of Whitby's Ruddys). When Anita Ruddy died the contents were sold and the building closed up. And so it remaned until recent years. Ajax council recognized the building's importannce several years back and on the recommendation of LACAC hàd it designated un- der the Ontario Heritage Act. This was supposed to give the building a measure of protection. However, within the last five years vandals have ruined the buildings beauty and grandeur. They have broken into it and removed the heavy oak railings from the balcony and staircase. The huge mantels have been torn away frorn the fireplaces and most of the delicately stencilled wall panelling has been smashed. There is evidence that much of this was burnt in the buildings own fireplaces. Outside, the main columns themselves have been badly damaged and one of the four has been toppled. One visualizes an orgy of destruction, each mindless participant trying to outdo the last in terms of how much damage they can do. Nobody seems to know who did it and nobody seems to care much. The plywood which used to seal the front entrance was ripped off ages ago and nobody has bothered to replace it. Somebody has even tried to steal the well. The circular stone structure complete with roof has been pried off its foundations onto steel channels. However, the thieves underestimated its weight and they only got it a few feet before the steel buckled. And there it still sits. Now Runnymede is giving the building back to the Town which now has to decide what to do with it. In spite of the damage, restoration architects say the building is still structurally sound and there is no doubt that the building could be made into a magnificent community centre, meeting hall or a variety of other uses but estimatës for its restoration range anywhere up to $400,000. Fred Roles, who for many years was chairman of Ajax LACAC, is somewhat pessimistic that anything will ever be done. Several years ago before the building Was vandalized he was part of a committee which made some modest recommendations for the building's protection but nothing was done. Now that it needs ex- tensive repairs, he worries that the powers that be will simply let it deteriorate further and further until they can justify demolishing it - just as they did with the Pickering Beach Road schoolhouse (another designated building) just last year. Bob Martindale, Ajax's planning director, also commented on the apparent apathy of ail but a few of the local residents and a local councillor has been quoted as hoping that it will be demolished before the park is opened. The development of that park is likely to cost a few million. You can also~be sure that at some point the comunity will need ad- ditional public facilities of some kind.·But most bureaucrats would rather sit i their offices and plan functional boxes of concrete block than take a walk through the woods to a magnificent building that with a little imagination could serve their needs and perhaps cost no more. 'il A jraee m at"P9UN à in lSime A CONTEST FOR SUMMER STROLLERS AND SUNDAY DRIVERS Sponsored by Whitby's LACAC* to encourage an awareness of our local architectural heritace Each week though the summer, the Whitby Free Press will publish a picture of an architectural detail of a building somewhere in Whitby. A draw will be made froma the correct entries received by the following Tuesday morning at 10:00 am for a copy of"The One-Room School in Canada', by Jean Cochrane. The correct answer along with a picture and description of the building in question will be published in the next issue along with a new mystery detail. Al entries will be entered into a grand prize draw on Sept. 26, 1987 LAST WEEK'S WINNER JOAN QUANTRIL, 303 Garden St., Unit 10. The Ontario County Court House 416 Centre St. S. Commonly known as the Centen- nial Building, this noble Classical Revival building was the meeting place of the County Council and all court proceedings for Ontario County from 1854 to 1964. The wings to each side of the central Greek temple-like entrance were exten- ded and raised a second storey in 1910. the steel fireproof doors to the records vaults remain in place in the south wing. In the near future, LOCATION_ _ _ _---copies of the 130 year old architec- tural drawings will be obtained by Name LACAC from the Ontario Archives and put on public display. Address Phone No. *LOCAL ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVANCY ADVISORY COMMITTEE q b '--I 'p 1 rm-- 11 --- - LI