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Hold your ground and fight, library architect tells board By Penny Coles Niagara Advance General Brock didn't retreat in the face of the enemy, library architect Philip Carter told library board members, and neither should they flee their home of 150 years. But Brock wasn't fighting tourists, countered Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library board chairman Mollie Enns. And therein rests the stalemate between those who want a new library in a central location and those who want it to stay part of the downtown core. Carter was at the home of Rene Huyge, member of the Coalition for Old Town Advocacy, to present several options to library board members that would allow them to have a modern library in the historic Court House, a fitting home for the first public library Canada, he said. He emphasized the importance of the downtown location, and advised board members to stand their ground rather than turn the space over to tourists, a "fickle" lot who will desert the town once its disneyfication is complete. "Giving up the downtown to strangers would be a mistake," he warned. After establishing his credentials, which he matter-of-factly said make him the most knowledgeable library architect in Canada and an expert in restoring heritage buildings, he presented slides of several new libraries and restorations he has designed, all offering everything a community library could ask for and much more. He then presented some options for using the present Court House library space with a sympathetic addition behind the building, providing about 12,600 square feet - more than the 9,000 square feet the library PHOTO: Jim Alexander, heritage activist, and architect Phillip Carter examines drawings of expanded Court House library.