I am writing to express my support for the establishment of the Nature Centre at Baybrook House in Comox. I have some experience in the various factors involved as I have degrees in Environmental Studies & in Architecture from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, where I worked for a prominent restoration architect before moving to BC many years ago. I have also worked at the Comox Archives & Museum and am very familiar with the life & work of Hamilton Mack Laing.
Comox has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a lasting historic legacy with the preservation of Mack Laing’s first house ‘Baybrook’ as a Nature Centre. The actual house structure itself has a fascinating story, as it was assembled by hand from a mail-order kit by Mack Laing himself on that site. To convey an accurate representation of history we need to preserve modest wood structures as well as the stone or timber structures of the wealthy.
The physical location of Baybrook House at the mouth of Brooklyn Creek is of utmost importance as it looks out onto a bay abundant with birds & wildlife, that inspired Mack Laing and many other writers and naturalists. In heritage building restoration terms, the physical site is as important as the structure, as without the site context, a great deal of the meaning of the structure is lost.
As is well-known, Mack Laing’s will specified that his property ‘Shakesides’, where he lived at his death, be left to the Town of Comox for a natural history museum and he left an amount of money to the Town towards that end. Only part of that stipulation was fulfilled with the establishment of Mack Laing Nature Park. Now there is a proposal for nature programming at his first house Baybrook that would tie all these threads together with a unique facility supported by a great portion of the Comox Valley.
I urge the Town of Comox to have the vision to fully support the proposed Baybrook House Nature Centre . We have lost so much history in the Valley due to neglect, fire, vandalism and development that when the opportunity arises for preservation it should be embraced. It is hard to understand how anyone who values the natural history or human history of the Valley would not be in favour of this proposal.
The Report on the Mack Laing House available on the CV Nature website spells out the economic case for this project . A professional engineer & architect have reported that the home is structurally sound and able to be renovated at a modest cost for the purposes of a Nature Centre. Broad-based support has already been demonstrated both in-kind and by direct donations. All that is needed is for the Town of Comox to fully support this project. History will record either a lasting legacy or an irreplaceable lost opportunity.
Krista Kaptein
Courtenay BC
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