This former WW II PoW camp building could be torn down. Its protectors want to give it new life | CBC News

"Marilyn Morawetz stares at the crumbling walls of a historic cafeteria building, still finding beauty in its prairie-style architecture. They're almost never seen in an industrial kind of setting like this, she said. If it goes down, our real fear is that everything will go down and that would be an incredible shame. The 100-year-old building closed in 2008 and sits in disrepair alongside five other heritage buildings that once formed Camp 30, on the edge of the Town of Bowmanville, Ont."

"The nationally designated historical site served as a reform school for boys when it first opened in the 1920s. During the Second World War, it was converted to house German prisoners of war (PoWs). This site had, at its height, 800 PoWs, Morawetz said. When they (the PoWs) had the reunion in 1992, they sat down and had a meal prepared by the school cafeteria that was here and just sort of reminisced about all those things. It was pretty fascinating."

"She chairs the Jury Lands Foundation, a non-profit that oversees preservation of the site. But that could soon come to an end, when Clarington's council votes on what to do with the cafeteria, its only municipally-owned building. It's a serious crossroads for us, she said. Council is considering demolition and with the current economy, maintaining a property like this safely for the community, especially in this state, it's a challenge."

A 100-year-old prairie-style cafeteria at Camp 30 sits in disrepair alongside five other heritage buildings on the edge of Bowmanville, Ontario. The site began as a reform school in the 1920s and was converted during the Second World War to house up to 800 German prisoners of war. The cafeteria hosted a 1992 PoW reunion and was the location of the three-day Battle of Bowmanville, a unique Second World War skirmish on Canadian soil. The Jury Lands Foundation oversees preservation, but municipal ownership, economic pressures, and potential demolition have put the building's future in jeopardy.

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