TIMMINS - Bill Gvozdanovic wishes every kid grew up with the iconic McIntyre arena in their backyard.
Tuesday, the Schumacher councillor regaled members with stories of the glory days ahead of members voting to take the next step in designating the 80-plus-year-old building of cultural heritage value or interest.
For the next 30 days, a notice will be posted on the city's website. If there are no objections, a bylaw will be brought back to council to officially add it to the municipal heritage registry. If approved, it will be the third property added to the list.
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Most people who grew up in Timmins or have visited the City with the Heart of Gold have a story about the McIntyre Community Building.
The iconic brick structure was built by J.P. Bickell in the 1930s and is steeped in Canadian sports lore.
Bickell was the McIntyre Mine president and had a nearly three-decade association with the Toronto Maple Leafs, where his hats included owner, president, chairman and director.
While not a mini replica of the former Maple Leaf Gardens, the Mac has design cues from the historic Toronto ice rink — including using steel girders and cement in the construction, the brickwork and the art deco style.
Through the years, the Mac was the home ice to generations of up-and-coming NHLers and has had a significant role in the Canadian figure skating scene.
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Growing up in Schumacher, Gvozdanovic remembers skating from their house on Croatia Street and practicing on the official ice surface before skating home.
"Then we were rink rats in there. If you go for lunch and you see those vines on the curling club, you probably think, ‘Oh, those are nice.’ Well, we used to use those vines because they used to have wrestling in the curling club and we would go in there in the afternoon and open the window a little bit, because we had no money to get into wrestling, and we would climb those vines and sneak in through the windows to get in,” he recalled.
As a teenager, he made $2.15 an hour working at the building.
"Everybody leaves and here I am in the lobby, 14-15, years old, and I'm sweeping along the floor, and ... all of a sudden, I look up and who's sitting on the bench? Hulk Hogan. Me and Hulk Hogan in the lobby,” he said.
At those times, packing the Mac had a different connotation than it does now.
"Back when we were kids, there was nothing like when the Mac was packed. Schumacher Bears, Timmins Northstars, the Schumacher day dance ... there's no place that I would have rather grown up and experienced that than in Schumacher,” he said.
The case for the Mac
The application for the designation was put forward by the Schumacher Historical Society, with former mayor Tom Laughren and TimminsToday columnist Mike Mulryan leading the push.
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The heritage attributes listed in the application are:
- Original brickwork detailing on the front facade
- Proportion of window openings
- Marquee entrance to the arena
- Illuminated signage at entrance to the coffee shop
- Stone relief on front facade displaying name and date of construction
- Steel girder and truss system, which is a structural and design feature inside the arena
- Plaster mouldings in the auditorium
- The bar area and associated furnishings, such as the stools, which are an original feature inside the McIntyre Coffee Shop
“I don't think there's too many in town that would argue the historical value of or imagery of that whole complex, from the Mac right up to the head frame and that segment or community and what it means to the community,” said Coun. Steve Black at Tuesday's meeting.
He also questioned what the designation commits the city to for the building and its potential future uses.
Coun. Andrew Marks, who was chairing the council meeting in the absence of Mayor Michelle Boileau, sits on the municipal heritage committee.
The designation, he explained, means that changing any of the historical attributes listed requires asking council for approval.
He used the Timmins Transit station on Spruce Street South, which used to be the train station, as an example.
“Those arches, when the City of Timmins came in and redid that facility, they put those arches back because that's a historical element. City hall, which has been designated a historical building, we're asking that the granite and the window spacing be kept the same,” said Marks.
While the transit building isn't on the municipal heritage, it is one of six municipally owned facilities added to the municipal heritage register list as non-designated properties in 2022. A non-designated property doesn't have the same protections as a designated property.
