Patrick Little – Lawyer, St. Catharines Historian

“Nino Donatelli: A Lifetime Restoring St.  Catharines’ Historic Buildings”

Doug Gallaway introduced guest speaker Patrick Little, a St. Catharines lawyer since the 1970s, who talked about his long association with Nino Donatelli who has spent a lifetime transforming St. Catharines heritage buildings.

Patrick said that Nino came from Italy as a child with his family and settled in St. Catharines and graduated from St. Catharines Collegiate.

Patrick used a map to illustrate various areas of the city where Nino has stepped in to refurbish historic buildings which had fallen into neglect. Nino’s first activities were in Port Dalhousie. Patrick pointed out that Port Dalhousie, once a thriving community at the north end of the Welland Canal, suffered hard times when the canal entrance was moved further east to Port Weller.

Nino’s projects in Port Dalhousie included the Port Mansion, the Soap House and Murphy’s Restaurant. Patrick said that well-known caterer Art Smith helped secure a patio licence that Nino helped turn into the largest outdoor patio in Canada with a capacity of 2,000 people in the mid 90’s. The core properties were sold in 2003 to the firm that proposed a major tower development which has never seen the light of day.

Nino and Patrick’s one remaining holding in Port is the Port Dalhousie Pier Marina. Although it continues to thrive with still room to expand, Patrick mentioned one plan that didn’t work out was when they secured a Riverboat to serve as a stationary restaurant at the marina.

Patrick said that Nino was also one of the founders of Cat’s Caboose which he saw as filling a need as the first wings and beer pub around in 1976.

Some of Nino’s most notable efforts have been in the Merritton area where buildings connected to the Domtar paper mills had been abandoned and left to slowly rot away. Nino was assured that the buildings were fundamentally sound and he set out to transform them. The first was for the Keg Restaurant, which opened in 2002, followed by the Stone Mill Inn which opened in 2005.

Nino also purchased Rodman Hall, which sits on 12 acres of property. Built in 1856, the building had a variety of uses but Nino restored it to its former glory and hoped to open a boutique hotel but that didn’t prove viable in St. Catharines and Patrick explained that it is now transforming into an exclusive recovery centre for short term respites.

Patrick concluded his presentation by saying that Nino continues to search out older buildings that might be restored for new purposes.

Duncan McLaren thanked Patrick for his in-depth knowledge and role in saving and restoring historic buildings and presented him with a gift certificate as a token of appreciation.