This is the final installment of a four-part series focused on property standards and other defined authority under the Ontario Building Code Act.

This week, I thought it might be informative to present an actual real-life example of what can occur when our property standards by-law and the additional conveyed municipal powers under the Building Code Act are not enforced.

At the end of Paxton Lane, a dead-end street in St. Davids, stands the lost and forlorn home of one of the earliest Loyalists to settle in Niagara.

Built circa 1799, it survived the American burning of Niagara in 1814 and was the home of Maj. David Secord until his death in 1844.

But, who was David Secord and why is he important in the historical tapestry of Niagara?

Secord, along with many members of his family, declared Loyalist and joined the Butler’s Rangers in 1777 thereafter continuing his service until this unit was disbanded in 1784.

He saw action in many of the Ranger engagements and is credited with intervening to stop the slaughter of prisoners taken after the Battle of Wyoming Valley.

His service continued with the 2nd Lincoln and, in the War of 1812, fought in the battles of Queenston Heights, Beaver Dam and Chippawa and commanded a regiment in the battle of Lundy’s Lane.

During his military service, he was wounded four separate times in action.

He served as a justice of the peace and was twice elected to sit in the parliament of Upper Canada.

Moreover, Secord was an entrepreneur par excellence. His business endeavours have been generally accepted to have underwritten the early commercial development and viability of the settlement that eventually became St. Davids (named in his honour).

From his fine stone home overlooking Four Mile Creek, Secord oversaw his enterprises.

According to oral history, it was under his roof that Laura Secord took a brief respite during her famous 20-mile trek to warn British Gen. James FitzGibbon of the imminent American attack.

David Secord is buried in the St. Davids Methodist Church graveyard … on lands he had given to have the church and school built upon.

Remarkably, from 1799 until 2008 (209 years), the title of Secord’s home and surrounding lands was held by only three families — the Secords until 1873, the Hanniwells until 1915 and the Paxtons until 2008.

The house received heritage designation in 2015.

For over a decade now, this once gracious stone home has been owned by a developer and allowed to deteriorate in a fashion that can only be described as a textbook case of demolition by neglect.

This irreplaceable piece of Canadian heritage stands with holes in the roof allowing rain and weather to penetrate the interior.

Large sections of its protective parging (stucco) have peeled away and exposed the old lime mortar — which is washing away.

The exterior entry door — which had been standing ajar for at least a year — has been padlocked shut but, according to a photo I received only a few days ago, the plywood hoarding over one of the window openings on the creek side of the building — the window has no glass — has been removed allowing both weather and all matter of “critters” free access.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

In response to concerns raised by some St. Davids residents, a property standards order was issued to the owner back in 2020 — likely requiring the building to be stabilized and the building envelope rendered weathertight.

Whether this order ever became binding is unknown to me, however, it is very clear that the order was neither fully enforced nor were subsequent inspections conducted to ascertain ongoing compliance and monitor its condition.

In the four months since the concern was last raised with town staff — who were then “following due process” and “working with property standards” — the only alterations by the property owner have been the padlock on the door and the erection of temporary fencing around the building with signs declaring it to be “unstable.”

Unstable?

To a poor country boy like me, that implies “unsafe” — and shouldn’t that have triggered the use of the expanded municipal powers defined under section 15.9 of the Building Code Act?

Just sayin’ … there is always more than one way to get something done … if there is the will to do so.

This is only one example, of many, I could cite across NOTL. 

“Out of sight” should never be “out of mind” and can there be any excuse for the glaring issues which affect our built heritage, whether historic or contemporary?

Brian Marshall is a NOTL realtor, author and expert consultant on architectural design, restoration and heritage.