Senator O’Connor House safe for now

City of Toronto: 1
Toronto Catholic District School Board: 0

The Catholic school board has lost the first round in its bid to tear down the historic Senator O’Connor House, on the grounds of its namesake school, after the city rejected its request for a demolition permit.

“The board has determined that it has no further use for the Senator O’Connor buildings for educational purposes,” said Richard Francki, board superintendent of facilities. “The only reason the board has retained the buildings was in order to allow for their lease to a third party who would ensure their maintenance and upkeep.”

But so far no one has come forward.

Previously, the buildings had been assessed by the city as having cultural heritage value and were protected under the Ontario Heritage Act.

“It’s important that we retain our city’s history and (O’Connor) is part of the original rich history of the area,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who is a Senator O’Connor College School alumnus. “It doesn’t make sense for the school board to destroy its own history.”

The house was built in 1932, and belonged to the late senator, politician, philanthropist and businessman behind Laura Secord Chocolates.  

The land on which it sits was later donated to the Christian Brothers, who built Senator O’Connor College School.

“The impact of losing this great and important landmark is priceless and timeless,” said Mary Fay of the O’Connor Irish Heritage House, a community volunteer organization.

But the board said it simply can’t afford to keep the historical house.

Estimates show that over $3 million would be needed to transform the house into a facility appropriate for educational purposes, Franki said.  

“With limited resources available to us and a large number of priority projects identified throughout our system the board must direct available funds to projects that will directly benefit our students,” he said.

But councillors have noted if the board had made the necessary repairs and maintained proper upkeep it would not be in the situation it finds itself now.

“I refer to it as ‘constructive demolition’,” said Minnan-Wong. “What they’re basically doing is willing it to fall apart because they couldn’t get a demolishing permit.”

However, the board said it had acted responsibly and proactively sought out a third party to take over the buildings.

“The board has recently gone out of its way to ensure preservation of the buildings by offering to lease them to the City of Toronto for one dollar,” said Franki. “To date the city has not responded.”

The school board said its next step will be to appeal the city’s decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.

“They’re going to be spending thousands and thousands of dollars on lawyers to fight this decision,” Minnan-Wong said, “when they could be investing that into saving the house by making the necessary repairs.”