A house that a railway foreman built for his family in Acton around 1874 is up for heritage protection. Halton Hills council's agenda for Monday, Nov. 9 includes a by-law to designate the Wilson-Moore House, at 16 Wilbur Street North, as a heritage property.
Heritage designation under the Ontario Heritage Act, the provincial law for protecting historic places, means an owner needs the town's permission before changing the features that make a building significant. Council already approved a staff report recommending the designation on July 13. Monday's by-law is the formal step that follows.
The man who built it barely got to enjoy it. George Wilson, a railway foreman, lived in the house only briefly before moving to Allandale, where he was killed in a snowplow accident.
The second half of the name comes from Elizabeth Maud Moore, a caretaker and housekeeper who owned the property for many years afterwards. She eventually sold it to her own former lodgers, John and Helen Wood. Today it is still a home.
The by-law protects what makes the house a piece of 19th-century Acton, including its frame construction and its roughcast stucco cladding, a coarse, textured plaster finish. Not everything is covered: the front wooden porch, the rear addition and the rear shed are not among the protected features.
If council passes the by-law, a copy and the reasons for the designation are registered against the property, so the protection stays with the house when it changes hands. Under Ontario's process, passage is followed by a period for appeals before the designation comes into force.
Monday's council meeting runs from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. in council chambers at Halton Hills Town Hall, 1 Halton Hills Drive, and is live-streamed for anyone who wants to watch from home.
