A former church that is now the Picks and Sticks Music shop on Locke Street has been designated a heritage building — against the building owner's preference.

The City of Hamilton's municipal heritage committee approved the designation, due to its cultural heritage value, despite building owner Doug McKerlie's pleas for exemptions to allow him to replace the original large wooden windows with aluminum ones.

"It's not practical," McKerlie said of the requirement to keep the original wood windows. He told the committee meeting on Thursday that the maintenance of those windows is prohibitive.

"Having a nice aluminum window not covered by a storm window will look a lot nicer … we can put very nice windows there … it's a pretty simple request," he said.

He pointed out the windows are massive and have already been altered by the previous owner.

Committee members however, said he had recourse, if the wooden windows become beyond repair, to return to the committee to discuss it.

The committee encourages the retention, repair and thermal upgrade of original windows of heritage buildings because windows help define the character of buildings.

McKerlie, who leases out the building to Picks and Sticks, also told the committee he didn't think there was a "particularly compelling" case for a designation under Ontario's Heritage Act.

The city received a request for designation in 2009 from a previous owner.

The building, at 140 Locke St. S., which was Immanuel Congregational Church when it was built in 1896 and later became Trinity United Church until 1967, was constructed in the 19th-century neo-Gothic style of architecture.

It possesses characteristics of this style, including decorative brickwork, arched window and doorway openings, and stone window sills.

In 1967, the building was bought by Whitehall Antiques for an auction hall until the 1990s.

A former owner renovated the interior and exterior of the building around 1990-91 — including a brick addition to the north side.

The committee excluded the addition and the landscaped parking lot from the building designation. The designation is now subject to city council approval.

While some, like McKerlie and Locke Street BIA chair Tony Greco, question a heritage designation given all the changes made to the building over the years, city heritage planner Chelsey Tyers told the committee the building "contributes to the character of Locke Street in that section" as well as reflecting the neo-Gothic arches of its time.

Carmela Fragomeni Carmela Fragomeni is a reporter with The Hamilton Spectator. Email | Twitter

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