Former Ridgeway high school facade will ‘have to come down’ after fire

The heritage-protected facade of the former Ridgeway-Crystal Beach High School survived a “suspicious” fire Monday morning, but it will likely have to be torn down for safety reasons, Fort Erie’s fire chief says.

The 1927 facade was the only part of the school meant to restored after the demolition, which began in late July to clear the property for 113 new homes. The wall was intended to be built into the new subdivision.

“We’re certainly gonna work at it from the back of the building as much as we can, but just for safety reasons, it’ll likely have to come down,” Fire Chief Mark Schmitt told Fort Erie Radio from the scene Monday morning.

Volunteer firefighters were called to the vacant school shortly after 1 a.m. Monday, Schmitt said. Crews found a significant fire at the rear of the building that spread quickly to the front wall facing Ridge Road.

No firefighters or members of the public were injured, according to Schmitt.

The facade received its designation under the Ontario Heritage Act on January 22, 2018, months after the school’s final students were transferred to Greater Fort Erie Secondary School. Removing it through the town’s heritage process would have required written consent from a majority of town councillors, so that consent was never sought.

The developer instead obtained a heritage permit to preserve the wall and fold it into the new neighbourhood.

“Whatever the profit is that they make off of the demolition will be put back into restoring the facade,” Kim Smith, community planner with the Town of Fort Erie, told Fort Erie Radio last September.

The Town of Fort Erie said in a news release Tuesday afternoon that any decisions regarding the facade would be driven first and foremost by safety.

“Great care was taken to preserve the front facade wherever possible while ensuring the fire was fully extinguished and that fire crews could operate from safe positions,” reads the release.

“Given the compromised condition and deterioration of the structure, safety remained the primary consideration driving all decisions.”

The school known for generations as “the biggest little school in Ontario” traces its roots to 1909, when high school classes began in Ridgeway at the old Masonic Building down the road, taught by two teachers.

The Ridge Road building followed in 1927, designed by Toronto firm SB Coon and Son and built for $96,000–about $1.4 million in today’s dollars.

The school grew in stages over the decades that followed, with a cafeteria added in 1956, offices, a library and classrooms in 1960, science labs and a physical education wing in 1966, and a south-end addition in 1973.

Declining enrolment forced the school to close in June 2017, along with Fort Erie Secondary School. Both student bodies were merged into the new $30-million Greater Fort Erie Secondary School, the first high school the District School Board of Niagara had built since 1971.

The 15.7-acre property sat on the market for years, listed at $10.9 million, before owner Bryce Ivanchuk bought it following the school board’s approval of the sale in April 2021. Council approved plans in October 2024 for 64 homes on the rear block of the property, alongside an earlier approval of 49 lots fronting Prospect Point Road North.

Schmitt said all services to the building were shut off and the last demolition workers left the site Friday, meaning any activity that started the fire “would likely be from a human origin.”

Niagara Regional Police confirmed Monday afternoon that the fire is being investigated as arson and asked nearby residents and businesses to review surveillance footage and report anything suspicious.

Schmitt asked residents to stay away from the site while crews are still working.

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