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4 Oakville Beaver Weekend Sunday, April 9, 2000 Shell House had been sold to Metrus Developments (Continued from page 1) said, that the fire had been going for quite some time. " When the firefighters first arrived, they couldn't get in because the windows were boarded up," said de Hooge. " We had to knock the walls down." The first priority for firefight ers was to ensure that no one was inside Shell House, despite the fact it had been closed and board ed up for years. A recently dated m ilk carton and other material found outside the place gave rise to the possi bility that someone might have been recently living in or around the structure. According to de Hooge, police are investigating a report that four or five youths were seen in the area the night before. Five trucks and crews were called to the scene of the twoalarm fire, said de Hooge, and one crew was still at the scene late Friday afternoon. Once the flames were sup pressed, inspectors from the Town's Building Department declared the house unsafe. As a result, the remaining unstable portions of the building had to be brought down before fire preven tion officers could get inside and search for a cause. It is believed Shell House was built, originally as part of an estate, about a century ago, says former mayor Harry Barrett, cur rently vice-president of the O akville Historical Society. " It was part of an estate Shell O il Products Ltd., bought when they built the refinery here," said Barrett. " Shell should have given it to the town, but they reneged. `Th e Town should have had that house and we would have made it part of our waterfront redevelopment," said Barrett. " It was a historic house." W h ile Shell operated the refinery in Bronte, it used Shell House for staff functions, and made the facility available to community groups. " It was also the home base of the Shell Fuelathon to about the mid-1980s," said the former mayor. " The house became surplus when Shell shut its operation down, although it continued to own the house. Shell acquired the house when it purchased property for a refin ery during the late 1950s, said Lesley Taylor, a company spokesperson. This refinery was demolished in 1982. Later, the Shell Research Centre was demolished. " We used the house for com pany functions and social events, and allowed the community to use it as w ell," she said. Taylor said all the files con cerning Shell House were turned over to Metrus Developments Inc., when it purchased 338 acres of Shell's property in December 1999. Metrus plans to build a 2,000 unit housing development. Shell still owns 285 acres zoned for industrial use in Bronte. Metrus had not made any formal proposals regarding its plans for the Shell House to the Town of Oakville, said a planning depart ment spokesperson. The property was originally part of the land purchase from the Mississauga Indians in 1805, said Harry Buxton, an Oakville Historical Society board mem ber. " These waterfront lots were surveyed, and then sold to wealthy landowners to build their summer homes." Buxton, who had worked for Shell from the late 1940s until his retirement in the late 1970s, remembers the staff functions held at Shell House. " For a while, Shell had a resident care taker living there." Buxton said Shell abandoned the house sometime after his retirement, " and it's been empty ever since." Flo Reynolds, secretary and past-president o f the Bronte Historical Society said the house had been left as a " derelict, which is sad because there was a time when it was a very nice res idence." R eg iste r N o w fo r S p rin g /S u m m er Classes! Sheridan Night Classes Start April 24, 2000 in Mississauga, Brampton, Oakville and Burlington. C h o o s e fr o m o v e r 7 5 0 c re d it a n d g e n e ra l in te re s t c o u rses t o s u p p o r t y o u r e d u c a tio n a l a n d le is u re p u rs u its . O v e r 8 0 % o f c o u rses a re c a re e r o r ie n te d f o r y o u r p ro fe s s io n a l a d v a n c e m e n t. Jonathans cancer benefit April 14th Jonathans Restaurant of Oakville is holding a $200-a-plate fundraiser for the Canadian cancer Society-Oakville Unit on Friday, April 14th. Funds raised by the event will go towards research and education pro grams aimed at fighting prostate cancer. With the help of Jonathans, B e r i n g e r Vineyards and Lifford Wine agency, the Cancer Society is promis ing an unforget table evening of gourmet food and an exciting new line of wines from B e r i n g e r Vineyards in California.. The event is at 7 p.m. at Jonathans Restaurant, 120 Thomas St. Black tie is optional. Tickets are $200 per person (inclusive) and with tax receipts issued for $125. 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