Restoration Project On Former Oxford Jail Close To Being Completed

Thursday, 9 January 2020 13:28

The project cost approximately $250,000 which was left by the late Bruce Flowers, who was a former teacher in Woodstock.

WOODSTOCK - The renovations on the former Oxford jail will be completed soon.

The four-month project has seen reconstruction done on the outside of the building, including the two chimneys.

Supervisor of Facilities for Oxford County Mike Amy says contractors actually had to rebuild the bricks on the project.

"The way the bricks are manufactured today are different than they were 100 plus years ago. And in order to get the intricate details of the bartizan turrets, we needed to cut them into different shapes. And the way bricks are manufactured today there's voids in them, which if we cut them in half or on 45-degree angles, those voids would be exposed. So we had a couple different options. We ended up going with the quickest and cheapest and best quality was going to actually be to produce them directly them on site."

Amy adds the contract workers ended up building 1,260 brick pieces, which were custom made so they could all fit together.

He says they did experience some delays due to the weather and the type of bricks used on the construction.

The project, scheduled to end this month, cost approximately $250,000 which was left to Oxford County by the late R. Bruce Flowers, a former teacher in Woodstock.

He says the County is very appreciative of the donation that was left by the late Mr.Flowers.

"This is the type of work that goes above and beyond what we have the ability to do. We can maintain and basically preserve of the building, but these added features are usually above our budget scope so a project like this doesn't happen without an individual like Mr.Flowers."

Amy says the project began in the middle of September. The renovation project, located on 410 Buller Street, was presented to County council last year. The facility is now a public health building.

The outside of the facility is having some of its original features reinstated, including the two bartizan turret on the corners of the main entrance of the building.

Amy says it means a lot to the community to have this heritage building preserved.

"The building has its heritage designation through the Ontario Heritage Trust, which is a provincial body that oversees heritage buildings. The Ontario Heritage Trust has been engaged through their review process, they reviewed the drawings and specifications and have agreed to it."

He adds they plan on restoring some of the building's windows, which is currently being reviewed by the Ontario Heritage Trust. He says any work that's done to this building has to be reviewed and approved by the Ontario Heritage Trust before they go ahead with any major work.

It's scheduled to wrap up by the end of this month before it's officially presented to council in March. In addition to being presented to council, a formal presentation will be held for Mr.Flowers' family that same month.