A 19th-century stone home considered important to the agricultural history of rural Ottawa was demolished on Sunday — a day before a city committee could have taken a step toward protecting it.

The Scissons home at 910 March Rd. in Kanata North was a one-and-a-half storey stone farmhouse built sometime between 1891 and 1895 in the former March Township.

On Monday, the Built Heritage Sub-Committee had an item on its agenda to potentially give the Gothic Revival-style home its designation under the Ontario Heritage Act.

If passed, it would have gone to full council on Wednesday for approval and the notice of intention to designate it could have gone to the owner this coming Thursday, cancelling any demolition permits.

However, the owner got a demolition permit from the city last Thursday and knocked it down on Sunday.

The home on March Road was knocked down over the weekend. (Jean Delisle/CBC)

"It was absolutely awful timing and a real race against the clock," said Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower, who chairs the sub-committee.

He said there are only a handful of 19th-century farm homes in the area and it reflects the agricultural history of rural Ottawa.

"I'm pretty devastated and sad for the community because this is a house people have known on March Road and it's an absolute shame when one of these buildings is lost."

Glen Gower, chair of the city's Built Heritage Sub-Committee, is 'devastated' the Scissons house was demolished the day before an emergency heritage designation was to begin. (Laurie Fagan/CBC )

A staff report presented at Monday's committee said the former city of Kanata identified the building as having historical interest and it had been placed on a heritage reference list after amalgamation.

But staff assured the committee the demolition was lawful.

Court Curry, the city's manager of heritage services, said the stone dwelling was to be included on the city's heritage registry earlier this year but that was delayed until November due to spring flooding in the area.

Placing the home on the registry would have provided a 60-day cooling off period in order to determine if there was actual heritage value, he said, but he added staff were confident it would meet the standards.

Court Curry is manager of heritage services at the City of Ottawa. (Laurie Fagan/CBC )

"It's a sad day for rural heritage," he said.

"Last week when we became aware that the demolition permit had been issued, I reached out to the owner to explore options including moving the house on the site — unfortunately they weren't interested in discussing other options."

Curry said his understanding is the home is owned by the descendants of the original owner and they are in the process of selling it to a housing developer.

He said the city is closely monitoring 500 properties slated to be added to the city's heritage registry next month so what happened to the Scissons house doesn't happen again.

Had time to stop it

Michael Polowin, a lawyer representing the party in the process of purchasing the home and the three hectares of land that surrounds it, would not reveal who his client is.

He said the blame lies with the city's heritage staff, who had many years to grant heritage designation but never did.

"Let me be clear: by Oct. 10 heritage staff had signed off on the demolition, agreeing there was no impediment," he said.

He said only when the demolition permit was issued Thursday did he get emails from Curry that the heritage survey of the home should be completed by Friday, ahead of Monday's meeting.

"This is abysmal behaviour and city staff, much to their chagrin, do not run the city," Polowin said.

"They didn't do their job and they are trying to cover their rear ends by pointing fingers at my client and that's not fair, my client did everything right."

Polowin said he couldn't comment on whether his client had any guilt about tearing down a 19th century home that was part of local history.