Skip to main content

Demolition starts on fire damaged Kirkwood Block building

Share

It’s been nearly four months since the historic Kirkwood Block caught fire and was left in ruins, but it is now starting to be taken down.

The 110-year-old building, located at Portage Avenue and Langside Street, was deemed a complete loss after the fire.

On Saturday crews started taking it down.

The company in charge of the demolition told CTV News the entire project will take a couple of weeks to finish.

Business residents inside the building previously told CTV News that seeing the building burn down was heartbreaking. One family had been operating there since 1998.

When first built, the building was owned by an investment company and later became a pharmacy owned by R.J. Kirkwood, who the building is now named after.

It later became a popular night spot from the mid 1960s to the 1980s.

The city said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

- With files from CTV’s Danton Unger and Josh Crabb

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

BREAKING

BREAKING Trump chooses anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

Stay Connected