Heritage Restoration Chronicles

Blackwood Cathedral Revival

Hamilton, ON

This one hit different. The old Blackwood United sat abandoned for 30 years after a fire gutted the interior back in '91. When we first walked through, pigeons owned the place and the roof was more holes than slate. The community wanted it back though - real bad.

We kept every salvageable stone, numbered each one like a puzzle. The original limestone had this incredible patina you just can't fake. Replaced the roof structure using traditional timber framing techniques, but added modern insulation where nobody'd see it. The stained glass was mostly toast, but we found the original designs in the parish archives and worked with a craftsman in Waterloo to recreate them.

Now it's a community arts center. Still feels like a cathedral when you walk in, which was the whole point. The acoustics are incredible - way better than we even planned.

The Ironclad Foundry Complex

Toronto, ON

Talk about a beast of a project. This foundry made train components for over 80 years before shutting down in the '70s. Four massive buildings, all connected, sitting empty near the waterfront. The bones were solid - those Victorian-era engineers didn't mess around - but decades of weather had done their thing.

The developer wanted to gut it and start fresh. We convinced them otherwise. Those cast-iron columns? Irreplaceable. The brick bearing walls? Three feet thick in places. The overhead crane system? Still functional after we cleaned it up. We turned it into mixed-use space - offices, studios, a brewery in the old machine shop.

Biggest challenge was the environmental cleanup. Century-old foundries aren't exactly clean. Took eight months just to remediate the soil and remove contaminated materials properly. But we kept the character intact - exposed brick, original wood beams, even preserved some of the old signage and equipment as art installations.

Grantham Station House

St. Catharines, ON

Small project, big heart. This little station served the Grand Trunk Railway for decades before getting abandoned when the line shut down in '64. Sat there rotting for almost 60 years. Local historical society fought to save it, and we helped make it happen.

The foundation was shot - had to rebuild it from scratch using period-appropriate materials. The Gothic Revival details on the roofline were mostly gone, but we found old photos at the railway museum and recreated them. Original ticket window? Still there. We turned the waiting room into a small museum space and the station master's office into a community meeting room.

It's not glamorous work, but it matters. This station was the heart of that neighborhood for generations. Now it is again, just in a different way.

Ravenscroft Manor

Kingston, ON

This place had a reputation. Locals called it haunted - honestly, it looked the part when we started. Three-story Gothic Revival mansion, completely overgrown, windows smashed, interior stripped by scavengers over the years. Built by a shipping magnate in the 1870s, abandoned since the '80s.

The new owners wanted to turn it into a boutique hotel, which meant serious structural work while keeping the Gothic character intact. We had to rebuild two of the three chimneys from scratch, replace most of the flooring, and completely redo the electrical and plumbing - none of which existed when we started, obviously.

The staircase though? That was worth saving. Hand-carved walnut, still solid. Took weeks to strip decades of grime and bad paint jobs, but underneath it was gorgeous. We also salvaged the original fireplaces, the ceiling medallions, and even some of the wallpaper patterns which we had reproduced by a specialist in Ottawa.

Opened last year. No ghosts reported yet, but the building definitely has presence. That's the thing about these old places - they've got personality you just can't build new.