Willans Barn at Fish Creek Park – December 2008

“Are you kidding me?”

That was all I could mutter to myself as I stood in the kitchen staring at the Twitter feed on my smartphone.  The classic old barn down in Fish Creek Park has been demolished?  How could this be?  It’s a landmark.  I guess I should say it *was* a landmark.

This simply does not make sense.  How could I have missed hearing about this until today?  How could I have missed out on the chance to get down to Fish Creek and see it one last time?  And, more importantly, how does a heritage building in a protected space end up being demolished?

Sadly, the answer is one we have heard all too often — owner neglect.  This time, the owner is the Province of Alberta who apparently, due to “public safety concerns”, decided the barn simply had to go after more than 100 years.  That excuse is bigger than any pile of manure that was ever shoveled out of that barn.

Another historic building is gone, another battle to save our past has been lost.

Source: Fish Creek Park’s century-old log barn demolished after years of neglect