Heritage house should have been saved

Dear Editor,

Very simply, the Harriet Cock pioneer home should have been saved at all costs, not convenient costs.

It looks to me, reading Mr. Wittnebel’s article, that Rio-Can saved approximately $35,000 by not moving the structure in a timely fashion when it was green lighted in essence to do so in 2012, versus making a perfunctory heritage donation to the City of Oshawa to pay some homage to Windfield Farms.

As I’ve lamented in the past, parking lots and shopping malls win the day, because I guess we don’t have enough of those in Durham Region.

How about saving the home and incorporating it into the mall planogram, as was successfully in Ajax in 1999 with the iconic McKay House, having it used as a medical, legal or dental office space or even administrative use.

So now, apparently a tiny standing heritage plaque (which may or may not be visually well located) is supposed to be the consolation prize, throwing the dog a chewed bone as it were.

This was an opportunity, now lost forever, to have glorified this absolute icon of an easy historical feminist giant of her century.

A truly nauseating outcome is all I can say.

R.M. Hues