Behind the Mask

The City of Belleville’s Façade Improvement Program encourages owners of buildings in the Downtown Improvement Area of Belleville to “encourage preservation of the architectural traditions upon which the character of the downtown”. It has been interesting to see old buildings emerging from behind modern materials as owners take advantage of the grants available to make changes to the appearances of their properties.

Hastings County Historical Society members have been recording some of the restoration work and donating photographs of the process to the Community Archives. On April 24th, work on the former Maze Mall building at 232 Front Street was recorded by Gerry Fraiberg, Barry Brown, and Gary Magarrell.

In the first picture here, taken by Gary Magarrell in the morning of 24 April, half of the steel cladding formerly covering the building has been removed.

By the time of the second photograph, taken by Gerry Fraiberg in the afternoon of the same day, all of the building’s original windows and details have been revealed.

This building housed the Metropolitan store until around 1975, when it was replaced by Encore Mart. The photo in the header of this post was taken in around 1977, when the Encore Mart was closing down. The building is listed as the Maze Mall in the Vernon's city directory of 1978.

Our thanks to the roving photographers for their work in recording and sharing this restoration process!