For sale: Mural-filled, historic church built in 1871. Price: $1

But being named a historic site doesn’t mean that a developer must preserve the murals or the other decorative motif elements that made the church noteworthy.

Before the diocese sold the church, the city’s heritage committee recommended designating it under Ontario preservation law, implementing an extra layer of preservation control. But the diocese wasn’t in favour of that, because it worried it would complicate the sale. And city council ultimately declined to impose the additional protection.

“Because it’s not designated anything could happen to it,” said Nathan Etherington, chairman of Brantford’s heritage committee.

In a good scenario, a buyer could “recognize the value, that it could add to their business and work with the actual heritage attributes,” he said.

“The other side of the coin is they see it as a worthless property and demolish it.”

“In a perfect world we’d love to see the murals to still remain on the wall, even though they are deteriorating,” he said.

Etherington, from the heritage committee, said he hopes the church doesn’t become another example of demolition by neglect.

“We don’t have anything really that comprehensive in terms of murals in Brantford, that size and that ornate,” he said.

In Brantford, there’s been an “attitude towards heritage and business in the sense that business kind of trumps heritage,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the purpose of heritage. The purpose is to protect it.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/for-sale-mural-filled-historic-church-built-in-1871-price-1-1.4130230