Dismantlement of conservatory wraps up at University of Guelph

A conservatory that has stood at the University of Guelph for decades has been demolished. CTV’s Tyler Kelaher tells us what’s next.

A conservatory that has stood on the University of Guelph campus for nearly a century is officially gone.

The structure, that eventually became known as the DM Rutherford Family Conservatory, was originally built in the 1930s for the Ontario Agricultural College. It served for years as the entryway into a series of working greenhouses used to teach students about floriculture, the cultivation and management of ornamental and flowering plants.

The working greenhouses were demolished in the 1980s and 1990s, but the conservatory remained as a reminder of the past.

However, the conservatory required significant repairs, including the replacement of most of its glass and wood.

The University of Guelph closed the building to the public in November 2023 due to wood rot.

In December 2024, city councillors gave the school the go-ahead to demolish the structure as long as any salvageable steel, limestone and glass elements were preserved. Those pieces were to be incorporated into a commemorative garden that would replace the conservatory.

In an email to CTV News on Thursday, representatives from the school confirmed the deconstruction of the conservatory was completed after several weeks of work.

What’s next

The school will now turn its focus to the development of the garden.

“The university is committed to preserving the spirit of the conservatory by creating a commemorative garden in the current location, telling the story of U of G’s agricultural beginnings and meaningful student memories made on the site. During the process, members of the university and broader community will be invited to share their input, memories and stories to help inform the garden’s design,” school representatives said in the email.

Students from the university’s landscape architecture program will be invited to submit designs for the garden, part of a competition set to launch in the 2025 fall semester. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2026.