Rod Stewart
Nominated for the James D. Strachan Award for Craft for his exceptional achievements over a long career in Port Hope, particularly in decorative plaster molding restoration
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Port Hope would be a greatly diminished heritage town were it not for Rod Stewart.
His career began in building restorations, ending as North America’s leading specialist in the restoration of decorative plaster moldings.
Peter Stokes with Rod as his builder began the conservation of Walton St. in the 1970s by restoring its dominant building, the St. Lawrence Hotel for its owners, Peter Schultz and A.K. Sculthorpe. Along with LACAC and town Council contributions, Rod then joined with Barton Myers Architects to develop the first downtown plan in the 1980’s. Rod completed field work with Stokes again for his masterful study of this zone that became the documentation of the Downtown Heritage District in 1993-96.
After the 1981 flood, Rod began to purchase seven individual sites within this district, restore them, and then sell, so that he might start another. A good example was his creation of Furby Books, locating a Walton St. location for it, renovate, before finding owners who became specialists in independent bookstores. It is a feature of the town’s main street. His own home is a factory updating, beside the former railway’s wayside station that he restored and owns.
This led him to purchase the long-closed 1923 movie theatre on Queen St. in 1988. When its restoration overwhelmed him, he accepted A.K Sculthorpe’s idea to create a genuine theatre. To this end, he purchased the adjoining building, sold both at a discounted price, and joined in the new board’s creation of a Foundation in 1993 to realize the dream of renovating this “Atmospheric” theatre. Since modern lighting threatened the projection of clouds upon the ceiling, he designed a system to hide the lights so that the ceiling would be unobstructed and restored the cloud machines. After four restoration projects, the theatre has been nationally designated as he had initially insisted and is a central component of the town’s cultural life.
With his shift in focus to specialized restoration work, Rod became a member of the Canadian national committee of ICOMOS and a founding member and newsletter editor of the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals. Both organizations held conferences in Port Hope at his suggestion, unusual proceedings for a small town. He is now a member of the charity that has purchased and is restoring the former Royal Bank building on Walton St. (Opera house/Music Hall) that ACO saved by accepting ownership while the chapter found a team committed to its restoration.
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