Ajax residents demand answers as 1852 Hartrick House torn down for new homes

The Hartrick House at 120 Roberson Drive in Ajax — built in 1852 as the homestead of a 200-acre farm — was torn down in August after the Town of Ajax, which had owned the house and its 1.7-acre parcel since the 1990s, declared it surplus in 2024 and sold the property last year. A developer is building 11 single-family, two-storey homes on the site, according to reporting by durhamregion.com.

Residents point to a 2017 internal assessment by town staff and the heritage advisory committee that found the house met the criteria for potential heritage designation — a claim supported by the Town's own heritage inventory, which lists 120 Roberson Drive as 'Hartrick Farm / Hartrick House', built 1852, with both design/physical and historical/associative value marked 'Yes'. A town spokesperson described the 2017 work as a 'routine, high-level review' and said no designation was ever recommended, noting the house was never formally designated.

Before the demolition, residents brought a petition to council urging a pause and a formal third-party cultural heritage evaluation report, and privately funded a preliminary heritage evaluation whose exterior-only report found the house met the Ontario Heritage Act's criteria for cultural heritage value or interest. The Town's September 21 council agenda lists the residents' petition — from the Save the Hartrick House Community Group, with four resident delegations — as item 6.1.

At a September council meeting, residents raised transparency concerns; Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier insisted the town was transparent, that the sale followed the same process as every other surplus-land property, and said, 'This has never been a heritage building.' One resident asked for a public apology and suggested a community garden or public gathering area on the site.