Owner fights wrecking ball for his home

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This article was published 30/12/2011 (5117 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE man who owned the Alphabet House downtown is trying to stop the city from tearing down two other homes he owns that are slated for demolition.

Ed Ackerman has asked the court for an injunction to prevent the city from tearing down a house on Frances Street and one around the corner from it on Bannatyne Avenue.

In court documents filed last week, Ackerman said the city was wrong to demolish his Alphabet House on Gertie Street in 2010 and shouldn’t be moving ahead with the demolition on Bannatyne without giving enough notice to the next-door neighbour.

Tim Freeman, who lives next door at 438 Bannatyne Ave. said in a Dec. 21 letter to the city filed with the court he just learned about the demolition occurring about one metre from his home.

He’s asked for at least one month to get an engineering report on his house before Ackerman’s is torn down.

A city spokeswoman Thursday declined to comment saying the matter is before the courts.

In court documents, the city said there are serious structural problems with the homes and Ackerman hasn’t followed any orders to bring them up to standard or tear them down.

Neither Ackerman nor Freeman could be reached for comment.

In October 2010, Ackerman’s Alphabet House at 89 Gertie St. was torn down while he and his friends watched.

The artist, animator and former mayoral candidate’s 1891 home was festooned with letters as part of a stop-motion animation set.

A city order a year earlier had told him to make extensive repairs to the home or fence it off and have it demolished. He said he spent $60,000 on masonry work after the city ordered an engineering report that said structural repairs were required.

Ackerman said he didn’t do the work the way the city wanted and the demolition order was issued. Ackerman went to court to try and block the demolition. A week later, the home wreckers went to work.

He said at the time he was taking the city to court to rebuild his Gertie Street home.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca