Land Titles building receives structural improvements

YORKTON – The Land Titles building, located at 49 Smith Street East, recently received some much needed attention in regards to the buildings exterior.

"It's a municipal heritage property and it was built in 1908," said Lisa Washington, Manager of Community, Culture and Heritage Recreation for the City of Yorkton.

The Land Titles building received an addition in 1930 and in 1981 an expansion was added.  

"Together, this whole entity is the Godfrey Dean Cultural Center," said Washington, adding,"with this piece it was designated a municipal heritage property in 1989."

"It has character defining elements for it to be a municipal heritage property," said Washington, noting the building reflects the Georgian Classical style of monumental architecture.

"Because it's a municipal heritage property we also want to preserve and conserve the character defining elements—that means we have to work with very specific contractors that know their stuff," said Washington.

Washington said that support to do the work for the project was received through the Saskatchewan Heritage Foundation, an organization which "provides grants to individuals, community groups, municipalities and corporations working to preserve our heritage," as noted on the SHF website.

“In 2020 an exterior masonry evaluation of this portion of the Land Titles building was completed,” said Washington, noting the report recommended repairs to prolong the structural integrity and beauty of the building.

"Some of the practices that were done with local repairmen weren't common to the years of construction,” said Kurt Stechyshyn, Facilities Manager for Recreation and Community Services with the City of Yorkton.

“That's where this company—specifically Willhelm Masonry—came in," said Stechyshyn, adding, "some of the repairs that they do are consistent with the times of the actual construction.”

“They're doing it old school,” said Stechyshyn, adding, “that's the privilege of working with these guys.”

“One of the guys that was on site—he's worked on thousand year old buildings in England previous to coming to Canada—so they definitely have the right people within their company to do the job within the municipal scope,” said Stechyshyn.

Stechyshyn said that few companies are in the business of maintaining older structures like the Land Titles building.

“They grind out every single joint...they go through and have a process to refill it all,” said Stechyshyn, adding, “everything that you see that joins block to block or tyndall stone to tyndall stone, or whatever the case may be, that is what they do—they grind it all out.”

“After talking with them and understanding the procedures they do and why they do it then you can have a better realization to it,” said Stechyshyn, adding, “when [the company] does heritage buildings he's got guys selected from around the province that he pulls in to come to work for him to do these jobs.”
“Very specific people—and I'm going to say they're getting harder and harder to find to be able to comply with these old types of practices,” said Stechyshyn.  

“Something they're running into is age—they've got a lot of older people working on these jobs—and I guess—truth be told as well—this went out with public tenders, with Sask tenders, with everybody it needed to and we had one company that actually bid on the job, so that tells you that there isn't many people that are capable of keeping up the practice,” said Stechyshyn.

Stechyshyn said that preserving the upper parts of the buildings aesthetics continues to be a specialized area.

“Some of the struggles may be as we go higher and we start getting into the corners and the finishings...where we're running into problems and finding people that are actually capable of doing that work,” said Stechyshyn.

“So now we're starting to look into areas of this continent—like in Eastern United States where they still preserve a lot of these old building—and that's where you're going to see the guys that re-create these metals and the different finishes up on the top end,” said Stechyshyn.

“The only thing they didn't touch was the upper level because it is 100 per cent rock solid—there was no failure to it whatsoever—which is not shocking but surprising” said Stechyshyn.

“It preserves the heritage and the history of Yorkton—the Land Titles building is one of several land titles buildings in the province and so we get connected to other municipalities that way,” said Washington, adding, “the unique architecture of the time and talking to the people that were working on this—that knowledge they have—it's intangible heritage right there about how to do the mixing and the work in between because masonry might not necessarily be a trade people want to go into.”

Washington said the building sees plenty of use throughout the year.

“Pre-covid we had over 250 booking annually here,” said Washington, adding, “in 2021 we had 145 [bookings].”

Washington estimated there will be 200 bookings by the end of 2022.  

“It's actually one of our most well-used buildings with respect to arts and theatre groups using it meetings, workshops, parties and social gatherings, community programming...religious organizations that use it on Saturdays and Sundays,” said Washninton.

“Talk with the people and the public that come here and even the users that are renting the spaces that might comes for a wedding—they're choosing this space,” said Stechyshyn, adding, “that's where we want to go a little bit further and start talking about the outside of the building so it's more of an appearance thing—a curb appeal to the public—they can recognize it as an art gallery without reading signage.”

“It's speaks to sustainability, environmental—keeping these [buildings] have value to the community with respect to the stories, the heritage, but also environmentally,” said Washington.