Fort renovation revealed, but makeover isn’t finished

Parks Canada could not have chosen a better person than Chris Zoetewey to lead the Fort Mississauga restoration project.

The Niagara-on-the-Lake-born technical services officer’s enthusiasm was palpable Friday as he and manager of external relations Sarah Quinlan Cutler led a handful of media representatives through a tour of the tower, which was built between 1814 and 1816, largely using bricks left behind after Americans burned and destroyed the town.

Zoetewey, who was a logistics specialist in the military before joining Parks Canada, shared stories of his days as a student at Parliament Oak and Niagara District Secondary School with The Local. Fort Mississauga was constantly there, at the time actually in play as part of the second hole on the NOTL Golf Club. He winced a bit when explaining that the bars closing off the fort’s embrasures, out of which muskets once fired, became necessary because his contemporaries back then were constantly throwing refuse into the holes. 

And Zoetewey exuded pride as he touted the fort’s invincibility, built with two-metre-thick exterior walls designed to withstand explosions by absorbing force. 

“There’s brick on the outside, and brick on the inside, and the middle is filled with rubble,” he explained. “It’s speculated that the limestone rubble actually came from the demolition of the lighthouse that used to be on this site.”

Because of the heritage value of the fort, restoring the brick is a painstaking process. Each brick that was restored had to be removed and cleaned separately. In the cases where bricks had to be replaced, the restoration experts had to source the proper materials to best match the historic quality of the building. The demarcation line between old and new brick can be seen clearly on the exterior of the fort.

Ironically, the rubble-filled design of the wall is also what has forced a delay in the completion of the fort’s restoration, which began in 2010 but progressed in earnest in 2019 through a Federal Infrastructure Investment Program that infused $7.3 million into the project. 

“Because it’s rubble-filled,” Zoetewey explained, “if water gets into it, it expands. We had the entire tower evaluated and had a heritage recording done. Based on that, we discovered we were getting water into the entire facility between the brick walls.”

The new roof, built to replicate the First World War era of Fort Mississauga when it was used as Camp Niagara, was installed to seal off the top and allow the water to seep out over the next five to 10 years. The roof is designed to be easily removed and restored to its original design. 

“The water has already begun to dry up,” said Zoetewey. “When we go inside, you can see that the walls are definitely drying. It used to be humid inside, that was every experience I had in this building. Now that’s gone. I’m very happy that it’s drying out.”

Zoetewey unlocked the new metal grate exterior door, designed to allow for air flow to promote further drying of the water, and led the group inside. 

Walking through the doorway, which at one time had both an exterior and an interior door, brought to light just how thick those exterior walls are. And immediately Zoetewey’s assertion about the absence of humidity was evident. In fact, there was a gentle breeze blowing through the fort Friday, surely aiding in the drying out of the water inside the walls. 

The group was led down along a new wooden platform, while Zoetewey pointed to the floor many metres below us. 

“We found the original floor,” he marvelled. “Totally by accident. We were removing the brick on the bottom, then we removed the sand, and below the sand we started encountering (original) features. So this platform was extended into both rooms so you can look down and see the original features from the rebellion period.”

It’s a fascinating experience to walk inside the historic fort, the only one of its kind remaining in Canada. Questions arose about life inside the structure, and Zoetewey explained that every attempt was made to keep the work area separate from the living area. He pointed out latrines were built just outside the fort, but chamber pots would have been a necessity while under any kind of attack.

Besides the restoration of the structure itself, other improvements were made to the earthworks surrounding it. Since 2019, crews have removed non-native and invasive trees and shrubs that had overgrown the slopes, restoring the views of Fort Mississauga’s prominent position at the mouth of the Niagara River. They then seeded the earthworks with native Ontario grasses.

Repairs were also made to the sallyport, which Zoetewey said was once walked through by naked soldiers training on the site on their way to bathe in the river. 

The shoreline was also stabilized with 600 metres of breakwall to combat erosion and protect the historic site, and the public walkway was created, including the addition of a boardwalk, to allow safe access to the fort and to protect the NOTL Golf Course.

Because of the need for the walls to dry out for at least five more years, Quinlan Cutler says the doors to Fort Mississauga will most likely remain closed to the general public until that time. 

“The plan for the future is to be able to lead tours inside,” she explained. “This work was really about restoring the fort, so we can give our past a future, to see what we can do with it, so that people can really connect with the history of the area. And not just this era, but all eras of this site.”

Consideration, added Quinlan Cutler, will be given to the best way to welcome visitors inside while protecting the integrity of the building. She also promised there are no plans to have a visitor’s centre at the protected site.

And though he’s not named along with Jonathan Dee, Sean Leigh, Stefan Gingras and John Cook for their award-winning work on the conservation project, Zoetewey expressed great pride in the restoration efforts having won a 2021 Award of Excellence in Conservation-
Engineering from the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals. 

It’s clear that both Zoetewey and Quinlan Cutler can’t wait to open the doors of Fort Mississauga to the public, but both accept the necessity to wait out the drying of the water between the walls. 

“The first phase of the restoration is done,” Zoetewey summed up. “Now we wait for the column to dry. If we were to jump on the restoration immediately, the water in there would just destroy any work we do. Once it’s all dry, we’ll maybe apply for more federal funding to finish the work.”

“It’s been a long haul,” said Quinlan Cutler. “It involved a lot of complications, a lot of thinking and collaboration. Today we wanted to showcase what’s been done and also what still needs to be done.”