A local historian is pleading for support from the community to help save a piece of Chatham-Kent's heritage.
Hans Van Der Doe, who has been a historical researcher and explorer in Chatham-Kent for the past 20 years, has inspired a petition to keep the Kent County Law Library in the community and prevent the province from dismantling it.
"I'm saving this building not only for Chatham-Kent, but I know its history well," explains Van Der Doe. "I was the one that wrote the designation bylaw under part four of the Ontario Heritage Act back in 2003 on the property for the people of Chatham-Kent to secure its future. Now I find that it's [under] threat."
Van Der Doe says one of the people who heard his plea decided to start the petition on Change.org to gain support. Lesley Pelletier's petition currently has 260 signatures since it was created on Thursday.
Van Der Doe says the building was created so Kent could be considered an official county.
"In 1849 when the building was built... they were breaking up Southwestern Ontario into counties," explains Van Der Doe. "They approached every local area and asked them if they wanted to be a county. Our ancestors chose yes and we wanted to be the County of Kent, but in order to do that, one of the requirements was that we needed a courthouse, jail, and county offices."
Van Der Doe says the newly first-elected council put down $20 each to get started on the building. He says during this era, the highest paid worker would only make an average of 50 cents a day.
He says one of the things that amazes him the most is how dedicated the county's council was towards the building. He says one of the councillors lived near King's Corner and would ride his horse and buggy to the site on Stanley Ave. every day at 6am until the building was complete.
After the Provincial District Act was passed in 1847, the District of Kent was created. Construction then began on the County Jail and in 1851, the courthouse was opened.
In 1973, the building and property were sold to the province by the County of Kent for $1. Then about 15 years ago, the province announced that it would be moving the Provincial Court Offices from the original location on 17 Seventh St. to its present location on Grand Ave. in Chatham.
The Kent County Courthouse and Jail was officially closed on July 4, 2014. It is one of only four remaining buildings in Chatham that predate 1860.
Van Der Doe says since 2004, the majority of the building has been empty. He says the only thing that has been housed in the 1849 section of the building is the old jail.
The historian says the province allowed him and eight other citizens to tour the building on Friday so he was able to see the current condition of it. Van Der Doe says there's hardly anything wrong with the building, aside from a few new cracks in the wall and faded paint.
"I stood by the judge's chair, which was actually built by workers and inmates for the first presiding judge," he says. "It actually still is in its original courtroom where it's been since 1850. I just couldn't save the library anymore, I had to save the whole building."
The historian says the building is so solid he doesn't think it can be demolished, it would have to be dismantled.
"The reason it was built out of limestone was for it to last for us for the future and to today and beyond. They were thinking ahead and I'm just thinking ahead now for the rest of the future," he says.
At a previous visit to the library, Van Der Doe found the first Law Books donated by Kent's first presiding judge, as well as a time capsule of the history of law and justice over the last 154 years in Chatham-Kent.
However, Van Der Doe says he learned in May that the province is planning to dismantle the law library and throw the books away, like it has tried to do in the past.
He fears what will happen to the building.
"I do believe they're going to pull this right from underneath our noses and either demolish it or sell it to someone else," he says. "I'm not going to stand and watch our history be sold from underneath us anymore.
Van Der Doe says, unfortunately, the decision doesn't belong to Chatham-Kent.
"The province is going to decide when they're going to get rid of it," he says. "They're going to decide how much they're going to sell it for. Our council will discuss how they will profit from this. They have no interest in buying this for us, nor do they care."
He says the building belongs to the people from Chatham-Kent so the municipality and province shouldn't try to take it away. He encourages everyone to reach out to their local councillors, mayor, and MPP to voice their opinion on the issue.
"I cannot stop the people who write their own rules from squashing their own rules... that's one of my fears," he says.