By Doug Draper
The Welland Club – a stately building dating back to 1911 and located next to a tree-covered park and overlooking the waters of the fourth Welland Canal on the City of Welland’s King Street – began burning in the early hours of Sunday, July 25, and may have been gutted beyond any hope of repair.
The Welland Club. 2008 file photo by Doug Draper
This blaze is the second that ripped through an abandoned building in Welland, Ontario in little more than a month. This past June, a fire gutted the old Welland High School building on the city’s Main Street.
What is going on here? Could it just be a coincidence that two empty buildings that have had a long, proud history in the city caught fire through some internal malfunction – an electrical shortage or whatever – within a matter of five weeks. Or could it be arson?
In the case of the Welland Club blaze, a Niagara Regional Police spokesperson was quoted in the Welland Tribune saying there was a lightening storm in the early hours of Sunday and, who knows, the building could have been struck by lightning. Well maybe. But maybe not.
The remains of a once-proud Welland High School. Photo by Doug Draper
Let’s hope that police and the Ontario Fire Marshall’s office to take every last step to uncover any possibility that arson was involved these two fires.
For those in Welland, including advocates for heritage in the city and region who have tried unsuccessfully for years to get the Welland Club designated as a heritage site, let’s hope there is still enough of the building left to save. Judging from the photos of the place, taken after the fire, it doesn’t look very promising., and wouldn’t it be sad if this classic structure were replaced with just one more soulless, glass-box structure.
That is the tragedy of losses like this. There is no replacing the fine work that went into older buildings like this. We can’t afford to. So get out the erector set and build another box.
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Niagara At Large 
Such happy memories there for many, many people, it is tragic that Welland keeps losing heritage. Who owns the Club now, why wasn’t any designation done over the years? Evertime that I drove by I wondered why anything wasn’t been done for it. An excellent location, with great history, it still should have had a great future. Look at what Thorold saved….could we still not do so?
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I’ve always admired the architecture of the Welland Club. It’s buildings such as these that add character to towns, and attract people to towns. Towns/cities with enough foresight protect and cherish their historic buildings, knowing that the immediate cost may be high, but the dividends are much higher over time. Let’s hope we can preserve this one.
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The Welland Club was so badly damaged that only two days after the fire, demolition crew have come in and within a week or so it will be all but a memorye. as of this moment, they have already torn down half of it.
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