Quantcast
Family gives original Lansdowne designs to city – Metro US

Family gives original Lansdowne designs to city

The architect of the Aberdeen Pavilion would not be pleased with what’s happening to Lansdowne Park, his great-grandchildren believe.

Yesterday, the descendants of Moses Chamberlain Edey donated several original drawings of the agricultural buildings he designed for Lansdowne Park to the city archives.

They are making the donation now so they can inform and help guide the developments at the park, because the concept of a modern shopping mall would not fit the original vision for the space, said Edey’s great-grandson, Dr. Alvin Cameron, a semi-retired veterinarian who runs the Westboro Animal Hospital.

“That would go against what he believed in,” said Cameron. “There will be some development. That’s going to happen, but it would be nice if it were done in the right way.”

Ideally, Cameron said a design competition should be held to come up with plans for the entire park.

The family, Alvin, James, and Donald Cameron, and sister Gail Watters, are donating around 80 drawings of buildings dating back more than 100 years. The types of buildings range from stables to grand homes to landmarks like the Aberdeen Pavilion and the Daly Building, which was controversially destroyed in 1991 and eventually replaced by the 700 Sussex Dr. luxury condo building.

“They are works of art. They are the sort of thing that you would conserve, restore and put on walls,” Cameron said.

Cameron said the drawings were almost lost in 1959, but his mother fished them out of a trash bin and took them to her farmhouse where they remained until last year when the siblings rediscovered them.