Fate of 1820s stone building in Fredericton causes worry

Concern is growing for an old stone building in downtown Fredericton, once the home of a thriving woodworking factory and now possibly headed for demolition.

TheRisteen building atthe corner of Queen and Smythe streets, the first cut stone building in New Brunswick,could be torn down to make way for a new development.

GabrielElzayatsays he wants to put apartments on the property.

The prospect saddens Carl Risteen,great-grandson of JosephRisteen, who took the building over in the1870s.

"This building here is the cornerstone basically of Queen Street, so it's the first house in Queen Street," Risteen said.

Hestill lives in the house that his great-grandfather built adjacent to the building.

"It would be a shame to see it gone," he said.

It was built in the 1820s by Anthony Lockwood, surveyor general of New Brunswick. When Joseph Risteentook it over, he created the Risteen Sash and Door factory.

"My great-grandfather bought the burned-out shell in about 1870 or thereabouts and fixed up the interior and built the big extension on the back the big wooden part on the back for his woodworking factory," Risteen said.

The products of that factory can still be found in the finishings and doorways of the New Brunswick Legislature, said Risteen.

But the building itself may not last much longer.It's one of several buildings developer Elzayat has acquired on the block.

He said he's not sure whether the building will be torn down or salvaged, but he's open to ideas about incorporating it into his new development.

The city said it hasn't received an application for development yet, but tenants are already on the move.

Ross Davidson, whose kitchen supply shop has been in the building for decades, has been told to vacate by the end of February.

"We got a notice from our landlord that the property was going to be redeveloped and that was it," Davidson said.

Some are worried about what the loss of the building will mean for the city's heritage.

Heritage enthusiast Marcus Kingston wants to find a way to save it.

"It's been sitting on the spot for nearly 200 years and it deserves to stay," he said.

Despite its history, there's no heritage designation to protect the Risteen building, which means developers are free to do whatever they want with it.