Committee decides not to designate 2400 Bank Street

The Built Heritage Committee today decided not to designate Ellis House, a nineteenth century farmhouse in South Keys, as a heritage property at this time. The Committee recommended designation in October 2025, but additional research concluded the building does not have the contextual value it was originally thought to have. 

The surrounding context of the property at 2400 Bank Street has been significantly altered over the years. City heritage staff had identified the location as contextually significant due to both the longstanding existence of the route along Bank Street and the opening of the former Canadian Pacific Railway between 1854 and 1855, which ran along the western edge of the property. Although these key transportation routes were emerging when the first building on the property was constructed, they were well established by the time the farmhouse was built, around 1871. 

The property still meets two of the other nine criteria for designation, but a review of other properties in this area is needed to better understand the property’s architectural and historical context in relation to Gloucester Township. Staff will complete that work before returning to the Committee with further recommendations.

The Committee moved to designate 8679 Bank Street – a one-and-a-half-storey stone church building with a two-storey tower on the east side of Bank Street. It meets three of nine criteria for designation. 

The building was constructed in 1900 as St. George’s Anglican Church. It is a representative example of a turn-of-the-twentieth-century vernacular Ontario church, with Gothic Revival influences. The property is directly associated with the growth of the Anglican community in Vernon, having served as an Anglican church for more than 100 years, until it closed in 2016. St. George’s is located within a cluster of properties that define the rural village character of Vernon through their size, construction materials and the institutional nature of their former uses.

City Council will consider the recommendations from today’s meeting on Wednesday, April 8.

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