KITCHENER -- A controversial demolition in Cambridge is set to wrap up following a fourth straight day of work.
Crewers were just about wrapped up with the work on Sunday, but residents gathered around the former Preston Springs Hotel Saturday to watch the walls come down.
"We wanted to see an iconic building coming down," said Allan Hedrickson-Gracie. "It's really unfortunate that they couldn't do anything with it, but it's something to see a building come down in such a short period of time."
Crews went ahead with the work laid out under an emergency order issued on Christmas Eve.
The city's chief building official says it's a matter of public safety to tear down the aging structure, and that the workers have taken out heritage items of significance like the entrance door, a fountain, and mosaic tiles.
"The queen was a frequent from what I heard and read," one resident said. "I think it's wrong to have destroyed a building like that, because there's not many other buildings like that in Preston."
A court injunction from the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario halted the demolition just after it started on Thursday, but it wasn't enough to stop crews from getting back to work shortly after.
The demolition work is expected to wrap up by Sunday night.
