Feature Article

LIGHTNING, FIRE RAVAGE MICHENER CENTRE LANDMARK : 2003

Written By: Michael Dawe
Published By: Red Deer Advocate Centennial Book
Article Used with permission. © Copyright Michael Dawe and the Red Deer Advocate, 2007
2007-01-01

On Wednesday, June 18, 2003, lightning struck the Michener Centre Administration Building, setting off a very serious fire.

The beautiful four-storey, redbrick building, built in 1913 on the brow of the East Hill, was one of Red Deer’s grandest old landmarks.

It was built as church-based ladies' college. The fire was one of the most spectacular in Red Deer’s recent history.

Despite the enormity of the blaze, only the roof and top floor were completely destroyed.

The lower floors remained remarkably undamaged by the flames.

That was mainly due to the skill and enormous dedication of the city fire department.

The building had also been constructed with many fireguards in place.

It had originally been a college and the architects had been very mindful of the terrible tragedy that would have occurred if a fire swept through such a facility.

There was still extensive fire, smoke and water damage.

Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the blaze, it was determined that the building was salvageable.

The building was fully insured for fire.

After an examination of the damage, the insurers offered to pay several million dollars towards the repairs.

Moreover, the building had been declared as one of Alberta’s first municipal historic sites by the City of Red Deer in 1984.

The provincial government, as the owner, agreed to the designation, partly because it agreed that the structure was historically significant and partly because government policy was to encourage municipalities to take the initiative and to make historic site designations.

In 1992, an application had been made to the provincial government to have the building also designated as a provincial historic resource.

While the Historic Sites Service unofficially agreed that there was merit to the request, no action was taken for several years.

When follow-ups were made to find out the status of the application, government officials stated that there was a tremendous backlog of historic site designation requests, a list made worse by the government cutbacks of the early 1990s.

Despite the fact that the building was insured and that there was at least a municipal historic resource designation, nothing much was done with the building for a long time after the fire.

Some important files were removed, but the roof was not covered over.

Almost all the office furniture was also left in place.

Little explanation was offered to the public for the delay.

All that was said was that the building was still being examined to determine if it could be saved.

When the municipal historic designation was pointed out to government officials, the response was that the provincial government was not bound by such a designation, even though it had agreed to it in writing.

Consequently, a public petition was started to prompt the saving of the building.

There was such strong support that 5,255 signatures were gathered in less than eight weeks.

Mary Ann Jablonski, MLA for Red Deer North, presented the petition to the Alberta Legislature.

Finally, in the summer of 2004, Alberta Infrastructure issued a formal "request of expressions of interest" to "restore the building to a productive and viable life-cycle use" and "to preserve and maintain a municipally designated heritage site and landmark."

After considerably more delay, at the end of December 2005 (Alberta’s centennial year), the province announced that the building would be restored, reconstructed and expanded for a new use as administrative offices for the David Thompson Health Region.

The total cost of the project was estimated at $11 million, with $3.6 million coming from the insurers, $4.7 million from the provincial government and the balance from the David Thompson Health Region.

Approvals for the work were finalized in the summer of 2006. During the winter of 2006-07, the building was largely gutted.

Little was salvageable by then, due to the lack of any mitigation work after the fire and the long delays in starting any restoration.

Nevertheless, the outward appearance of the building would be restored. During the summer of 2007, a new roof was finally constructed, in keeping with the original appearance.

The remaining inside work was scheduled to be completed by 2008.

After many frustrations and delays, one of the last of the grand old buildings of Red Deer was finally being saved, primarily due to grassroots public pressure that this important part of Red Deer’s history not be lost.

So much of old Red Deer had been demolished in the years of phenomenal growth from 1947 to 2007.

The old Alberta Ladies College/Michener Administration building would not be one of those destined to become just a memory.

This article was written by Michael Dawe for the Red Deer Advocate’s Centennial Book. The Heritage Community Foundation would like to thank Michael Dawe and the Red Deer Advocate for permission to reprint these materials online. Please visit the Red Deer Advocate online.The images in the article are part of the collection of the Red Deer Archives. Please visit them online.