It’s a major blow to the St. Mary’s area.
Fire has destroyed the old cold storage building, a national registered heritage structure located on the point in St. Mary’s.
The building was under renovation, being converted into a community museum, and was close to being opened to the public.
A significant historical loss early this morning in St. Mary’s as the old Cold Storage Building was lost to fire. @VOCMNEWS @CBCNL @NTVNewsNL Photo credits- building Yvonne Bishops. Fire Colleen Critch pic.twitter.com/V3Q9LOpPDM
— Sherry Gambin-Walsh, Liberal (She/Her) (@Sgambin) June 29, 2022
The call came in around 6:30 this morning but despite the best efforts of local firefighters, the building is a complete loss.
Area MHA Sherry Gambin Walsh tweeted out the sad news this morning.
Historical loss in St. Mary’s this morning. The old Cold Storage burns down. Video credit Colleen Critch @NTVNewsNL @CBCNL pic.twitter.com/bG5wCviSwe
— Sherry Gambin-Walsh, Liberal (She/Her) (@Sgambin) June 29, 2022
A devastated David Fagan, President of the St. Mary’s Battery Restoration Committee, which had dedicated thousands of hours of work to refurbish and establish a museum in the building, says it’s one of just two existing cold storage buildings left in the province.
He says the loss is immeasurable. He says the building contained artifacts, some of which were hundreds of years old. They had just completed a replica of an 18th-century barracks with furniture of the era. “That is all gone now” says Fagan.
