When Heritage was a questionable affair

While most of us consider our heritage important, Bob did something about it. In 1967, he and his late wife Mary Anne were part of a small committee charged with beautifying the capital for centennial year; it rapidly became a committee to prevent the razing of the centre of the city. The plans included a scheme to fill in the Rideau Canal to create a road into the centre of town, and tearing down the Union Station to make way for a parking lot. Both daft ideas were scrapped, thanks to Bob's hard lobbying as to the folly of the scheme. In 1970 Bob chaired the heritage committee of "A Capital for Canadians," that was instrumental in saving the Chapel of the Rideau Street Convent, Billings House, The Nicholas Street Gaol, and even the East Block on Parliament Hill that was, incredibly, slated to be gutted and modernized for government offices.

He wrote a scholarly book on its architecture, which, although out of print for years, it is still consulted as the reference work on the building. For saving these important heritage structures, Bob was awarded the City of Ottawa Heritage Office Award in May 2002.

He established Heritage Canada - not to be confused with the government department of the same name -- in April 1973. In addition to founding Heritage Canada, he saved the 1875 Grant House at 150 Elgin Street that became its first headquarters.

A year earlier, Bob Phillips undertook, again with Mary Anne, the monumental project of reconstructing an 1819 barn on his Cantley property. The reconstruction took from 1972 to 1976 to fully realize the dream. It became known as "The Grange", the crown jewel of their collection of five other rescued heritage log buildings that were erected on the property over the years. The Grange was the most ambitious log restoration ever attempted in Canada.

As fate would have it, the great structure caught fire on April 25, 1992, with a loss of Bob Phillip's many treasures and his personal library, including a collection of 16th-century maps, and a life-time of photo albums. At first the building was considered a total loss; but, on close examination it was determined that the logs suffered only charring an inch deep. Bob determined it would be rebuilt, and, indeed, rebuild it he did in time to move in for Christmas, 1992.

The Grange became one of the most celebrated meeting places of West Quebec, where Bob's hospitality welcomed thousands for events which ranged from fund-raisers to his grand Dominion Day parties.