HAMILTON — Leanne Pluthero, an author and a resident of Hamilton, has been involved in a long fight to save Century Manor, an abandoned heritage site in Hamilton that used to be its mental health asylum.
Her great grandmother and great aunt once worked at the site and Pluthero said she’s determined to save the building.
“That was their job, that was their livelihood,” she said. “They did the laundry, they would interact with the inmates, they would talk to the patients. It was their everyday thing.”
Century Manor, which was called the Hamilton Asylum for the Insane and later The Hamilton Psychiatrist Hospital, was built in 1884 and has been abandoned since its closure in 1995.
Since its closure, there have been many attempts by the city and advocates to preserve the building, including Mohawk College. The college had plans to incorporate the 214-hectare property into its master plan for the future expansion of its campus.
The deal began in 2017 when the college worked on a partnership with the city, which would buy the building, and the city would then use the funds to create affordable housing.
Paul Armstrong, chief operating officer of Mohawk College, said they had approved the plan with the previous Liberal government but Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives were elected in 2018.
“It was a change in the government that made a decision to not proceed with the deal we had with the city and so here we are three years later, the land is still sitting surplus across the road,” Armstrong said.
Many Century Manor advocates, including historian and former Mohawk College student Robin McKee, believe the deal with the college could have been the best option to protect and preserve the building.
“It would have saved the building and repurposed it as a residence,” McKee said.
He stressed that it is necessary to protect Century Manor because it represents an era of the city and is the only original standing building of that era of Hamilton.
“My interpretation is that their goal was to maximise the value of that property so that they can sell it for as much money as possible and I doubt they even considered what the city’s vision or goals were for the property or Century Manor,” city councillor John-Paul Danko said.
Pluthero has gathered 4,000 signatures on a petition to save the building that she launched on Change.org.
“For me the building is priceless but the government doesn’t think like that. They do not care,” she said. “And I know about 200 people who would stay around the building to protect it if they decide to tear it down.”