Stratford’s Shakespearean Gardens is on track to have heritage status granted following a unanimous vote of city council December 16.
A management report to council from Heritage Stratford detailed the case to be made for the historically significant gardens at 15 Huron Street. Included in the designation would be the Dufton Chimney tower and features (including the top structure and weathervane), original stone walls throughout the garden design, the Huron Street lychgate, Knot garden, herb garden, rose garden, perennial border garden, walkway lamp lighting, the sundial within the gardens and the bust of William Shakespeare.
Reg White, chair of Friends of the Shakespearean Gardens, has been working towards this designation for a number of years now and was very happy to see those efforts pass another milestone in council chambers Monday night.
“We decided that since the garden is 88 years old, we deemed that it was historic so it was our idea to contact Heritage Stratford about the designation,” he said. “Naturally that committee normally recognizes architecture and buildings, so when they were approached by us it was a bit of a surprise because they had never considered a garden. It took quite a while to get here, but we finally have arrived.”
Per the Ontario Heritage Act, anything being designated for heritage status needs to have physical, historical and contextual value, all of which the gardens have. Under Part IV of the OHA, there are seven steps that make up the process:
- Identifying a property as a candidate for designation
- Researching and evaluating the property
- Serving the notice of intention to designate, with an opportunity for objection
- Passing the designation by-law
- Appeals and coming into force
- Listing the property on the municipal register
- Including the property on the Ontario Heritage Trust register
The report deemed the gardens satisfied all three of the designation criteria, paving the way for the designation to proceed.
White is already looking forward to the summer when he anticipates the commemorative plaque will be installed. As much as that makes him smile, the call he got from Alex Burnett from the city’s planning department to let him know things were moving ahead made him smile just as much.
“At one point, I thought to myself that it wasn’t going to happen so I’d just have to put it aside,” he said. “But then I got the call from Alexander and it immediately dawned on me that this was happening. It took a while but I understand that, especially when you see how short-staffed they (the planning department) are. And as important as I think the gardens are, I know they’re not at the top of the heap but I can say I’m very happy to see this is moving forward and the gardens will get the recognition they deserve.”
