The 100-year-old house was designed by John Lyle, the architect who designed Union Station and the Royal Alexandra Theatre, and it was built for John Bayne Maclean, founder of Maclean’s magazine. There are few surviving Lyle structures in the city.

Residents want to save this historic building. The owner wants to demo it. Yesterday, workers apaprently started picking off the historical elements, possibly in a move to make the building harder to designate as historic. The owner of the property claims the building was merely being secured for winter.

“Everything that was done today was in our rights as the property owner,” said John Todd, president of 1626829 Ontario Limited. The company purchased the property for $2.3 million in October 2008.

The building was not designated as historic when the developers bought it, but it seems they knew that the designation was being sought. I heard a representative from the residents’ association this morning on the radio. She said they would be satisfied with a redevelopment that respected key historic elements of the building, and that similar redevelopments had been carried out elsewhere in the area.

I think the developer needs to stop messing with this property until the matter is settled. The community and the City have some say here. If the developer knew going in that designation was being sought, I think they have some responsibility to work with the community and the City to determine a mutually acceptable outcome for this building.

Come on, 1626829 Ontario, it’s time to do the right thing.