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Restoration begins at historic site

Fossilized remains of trilobites and other sea creatures captured in mud roughly 450 million years ago are permanently etched in the stonework at Red Deer’s Old Court House.
Rob AssiŽ working
Saskatoon-based stonemason Rob Assie chips out a damaged piece of Tindal limestone from the cornice over the front entry to the Old Court House.

Fossilized remains of trilobites and other sea creatures captured in mud roughly 450 million years ago are permanently etched in the stonework at Red Deer’s Old Court House.

“See? We call this one the ribbed clam,” says building manager Dick McDonell, pointing to a small creature embedded in the mottled Tyndall limestone that is unique to Gillis Quarries, based in Winnipeg.

Nine years since purchasing the 80-year-old building from the City of Red Deer, McDonnell and his partner, Jim Dixon, have embarked on a restoration project on their 24-suite office condo, including cleaning up the brick and limestone and then fixing up the spots where those structures need repair.

Overall, the Old Court House is in remarkably good shape, said Saskatoon-based stonemason Rob Assié, hired for the job because he is the only person in the world who specializes in Tyndall limestone, formed during the Late Ordovidian period along what is now Manitoba’s Red River.

Alberta’s historical resources staff had provided a list of four stonemasons who might be able to do the work, said McDonell. Assié was the only one who specializes in Tyndall stone.

He has replaced one of the steps and, on Monday, was repairing a piece of stone at the underside of the cornice above the building’s main entry.

“It’s called a dentist’s repair or a Dutchman’s cut,” said Assié.

Instead of replacing an entire piece, the damaged portion is chipped out and replaced with a new piece from the same quarry.

Trained in Weymouth, England, the 33-year-old founder of the Tesella School of Stone Carving has performed restorations on some of Canada’s most important buildings and historic resources, including the House of Parliament.

He doesn’t have a favourite.

“There are a lot of beautiful buildings in Canada. These are World-class buildings,” said Assié.

“They look a lot different from up close,” he said, edging skyward in the scissor-lift used to carry him and his tools to the top of the building.

McDonell said his learning curve has hit a sharp upturn since he and Dixon started planning the restoration project.

It became personal when he discovered that the stone for the building had been mined from a quarry located just three blocks from the home on Spruce Street, Winnipeg, where he lived as a child.

McDonell was eight years old and had just learned to ride a bicycle the day he pedaled down the street to find a “honking huge” hole in the ground.

After giving him a talking to for travelling so far from home, his mother told him that the hole was a limestone quarry, belonging to Gillis Quarries Ltd., the world’s sole supplier of Tyndall limestone.

Similar to limestone found in Indiana, but unique because of the mottled pattern running throughout the formation, Tyndall limestone was first used in 1832 in construction of Fort Garry, just north of Winnipeg, according to information on the Gillis website.

The company was founded in 1905, when stonemason August Gillis and his two sons emigrated to Winnipeg. Now based in Garson, MB, the Gillis Quarries is still operated by descendents of its founding family, said McDonell.

The Red Deer Court House was first planned in 1907, but wasn’t built until 1930 through 1931, by then Premier John Edward Brownlee’s United Farmers of Alberta government.

Replaced by the current provincial court building in 1983, the Old Court House is now a designated historic site and as solid as the day it was built, said McDonell.

“It’s built like a bomb shelter. Its basement walls are 16 inches thick.”

bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com