Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

Preston Springs Hotel

Demolished Motel/Hotel in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

May 17 2010

 |  1840
 |  0
Recent status Demolished
Location # 1555

This place is over 100 years old. I have been in it about two years ago.

~ This location was once the place to go for the "healing" sulphur springs that ran under the once magnificent hotel. After that it became a nursing home. After the costs of reparations and upgrades bankrupted the owners they sold the building and it has remained empty since. It has switched hands plenty of times and progress is made little by little but it always ceases to a halt quickly.

Update - Dec. 2012: The building has been sold to a Toronto developer and is to be converted into a boutique hotel and spa.
ISHOOTTHINGS CONSTANT UPDATES AND FOLLOWING:
UPDATE JAN 2020- The City of Cambridge Building dept does a report of the structural strength of the hotel and it found many faults. City says "It must come down".
NOV 2020 - Paul de haas admits he wants to demolish the hotel and the council meeting to DE-DESIGNATE the hotel is TOMORROW (the 3rd). This could be it folks. THIS is how MASS DEVELOPERS deal with history and how designations protect(<-----ishootthings negatory opinion, not location creators LOL). We all watched it before our very eyes.
11/5/2020- The update from the meeting of the City of Cambridge Council, is that demolition is voted DOWN. So even though the developer, De Haas, pleaded (IMO a poor case of)...[paraphrasing]...A project that we knew was huge abut attempted anyways while in the meantime we have had a large string of success changing large spaces into..... to council for 7 minutes-ish. It hurt my ears to listen to him cover all the "speculation" for a lack of a better way to word it and try to prove its invalidity. ...constantly securing (more paraphrasing)... WELL THEN. hmm. Alright. This is the point when any feasable proposal prettywell has to be accepted. And its only recently Ive started taking an intrest in the other side (meetings, happenings of things with designations) and really in the local area. If a workable proposal IS accepted, and the developer wants it razed as he has stated, who will pay for it if it is to stay? The plot thickens day by day and month by month and this, being the first place I had ever truly explored, in 2010 with a Canon Powershot something or other that I lost a long time ago, has a lot of emotion in it for me. I would love NOTHING more than to be able to bug the hell out of just a FEW MOAR people to try to get a tour of Preston Springs (restored), and get nowhere, wondering what it turned into. It just got better so ahhhhh, prepare for the unexpected and maybe unprecedented. Those spring(s) of sulfur, are a RARE THING and need to be protected itself somehow.

Christmas Eve 2020: City of Cambridge issues the 2nd emergency demolition order. Place is doomed. Go if you havent.

Jan 2021 - Senselessly demolished. :'(

Took a week to demo. About a month to remove all the debris. “Injunction Night” was shot the LAST possible night it was explorable and it was a bit on tilt.

Comments

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3 years ago

Jan 3rd 2020. The orginal portion of the designated landmark is where they started to raze it. Nothing in the end was salvaged (front door, one stair railing from the first flight, some bannister pieces going up) and this all went down sideways. Original portion is gone now. Working on the addition. Ive spent the last few days, shooting the vandalism that Sittler Demolition is doing. In the end, I have no regrets for grabbing my own personal piece of history.

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4 years ago

Scratch that lol, made it in

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4 years ago

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/9817759-preston-springs-hotel-must-be-demolished/?fbclid=iwar1sk-ucknu4xwxcc1uavigl7nmfkwfyq6xdvl66wawgkaxv1dyd1vs3_vg

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4 years ago

Went here today, couldn’t find a way in. If you find one, please let me know as I would like to see inside here.

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4 years ago

Sucks that they aren’t gonna try and restore it. I’m gonna try and visit it as soon as I can.

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4 years ago

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/9817759-preston-springs-hotel-must-be-demolished/?fbclid=iwar0eclsnw3clfmvpbhmgwtl7xd5q-wy5cjtxyc8qv2gzlgpj250tu8m4epa

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6 years ago

Status update, building still stands, recently the first two floors have been boarded up, it appears that there will be another attempt at renovations.

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6 years ago

status of this place?

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10 years ago

It's up for sale again, for twice as much as it was sold for last time. http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/preston-springs-hotel-back-on-the-market-at-double-previous-price-1.1717692

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11 years ago

So when i get pictures i will post them to the group even tho i am not a full member

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11 years ago

I happen to have contact info for entry to this building. Will be going there in the future when my wife is well enough to walk thru the hotel. Her Grandparents worked here when they first came over from Germany and her aunt had a dress making shop in the front lobby of the building. The building is owned by a nursing home now and renovations have been stopped due to too many unforseen accidents

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11 years ago

Great pictures Johjen!

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11 years ago

http://news.ca.msn.com/ontario/cambridge/new-owner-for-historic-preston-hotel

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12 years ago

It's almost impossible getting in. And it's extremely risky. Also, most people know about it anyway since it's such a public location...but understandable. My bad!

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13 years ago

What a shame. Hope they do something with this beautiful piece and bring it back to life

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13 years ago

there is an interesting story about a guy from Preston who went to Germany for the mineral baths for arthritis. It didn't help, and the people at the German baths recommended he go to Preston Springs.

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13 years ago

I want in to this place too but there is no contact information on it! I would love to get permission to go in here

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14 years ago

Was there a bar in the downstairs? If so, I have been there, and it gave me the creeps, and not just from the patrons LOL