A Sad, Sad Day In St. Thomas, Ontario

[Destiny]

Our Historic Alma College was burnt to the ground this afternoon,,,


Here are pics of what it looked like this morning

[Destiny]

and here are pics from this afternoon:
















it collapsed quite a bit more since these pics were taken .... very sad, very devastating.... all of my friends called me today around 1pm to tell me that "My Castle" was burning down, u see my family and I just moved here to St Thomas this past September the day after we moved my husband drove the kids to their new school and they swore they saw the most beautiful castle ... I'm like yeah.. OK a castle... right.. so the next day they drove me to see it, I was breath taken.. this huge castle in the middle of town, in a regular residential neighbourhood... so I went to school the next day talking about this beautiful castle ... when they all (my new friends) finally realized what I was talking about they just laughed at me .. and teased me about "My Castle" ... such a sad, sad day

[cheetah]

Omg Destiny this is so sad. How devastating! I hope no one was hurt. I am sorry for your loss of that beautiful castle. Thanks for posting these amazing but sad images.

[Destiny]

No one is believed to have been hurt, the building has been abandoned for a few years now.. here's a pic of Alma College in it's prime:



If u get a chance to read about the history about the college, it's very interesting. It was built in the 1800's as an all girls school (before we even had the right to vote), paving the way to women's rights .. people from all around the world sent their girls there for an education .. it's a huge loss...

here are some links if your interested to learn more:

http://www.hauntedhamilton.com/31_ar...macollege.html

http://www.pbase.com/toogy/alma_college

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/200...8/5698856.html

[Destiny]

here's the A-Channel news story: http://www.achannel.ca/london/news_57570.aspx

[liljj07]

OMG that is so beautiful and it does look like a castle. Do you know how it burned down? I can't belive this. well my favorite pictures are definitly in the 1st post and the one in the 4th post is nice to

[zixxi]

so sorry to see such a building be lost

[Naomi]

It was beautiful. This will never be able to be replaced. If you can you should get a piece of brick from "Destiny's Castle" as a momento.

[lynnmm]

i'm sorry for such a great loose

[Destiny]

Originally Posted by liljj07

OMG that is so beautiful and it does look like a castle. Do you know how it burned down? I can't belive this. well my favorite pictures are definitly in the 1st post and the one in the 4th post is nice to

The fire marcials are saying it's arson, and rumor has it that a couple of boys from a local high school started it ... also I saw 3 cop cars infront of a house a couple blocks away this afternoon, I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the fire yet .. but it's a fairly small town (35,000 people) so my quess is that it does

[Destiny]

Originally Posted by Naomi

It was beautiful. This will never be able to be replaced. If you can you should get a piece of brick from "Destiny's Castle" as a momento.

LOL funny u should say that, I just read this article from the St Thomas Times Journal (local newspaper)

"Arson at Alma

Police say blaze deliberately set

The spectacular fire which destroyed historic Alma College on Wednesday in St. Thomas, is arson, St. Thomas police said Thursday morning.
"With the help of the Fire Marshal's Office, we have determined that it is arson, at this point," Const. Anders Nielsen said.
"And, as such, the scene down there is being treated as a crime scene."
Nielsen said the determination was made late Wednesday.
But he declined to discuss what investigators found at the burned-out school which led to their conclusion.
Nielsen also warned members of the public who have been trying to collect souvenir bricks to stay away from the property.
Not only is it a crime scene but the walls are unsafe, he said.
Souvenir hunters could be prosecuted with interfering with an investigation, he said.
There are no suspects as yet."