Future of heritage site secured. (Sault Ste. Marie).

The future of the Sault's Bushplane Museum and the longevity of a waterfront landmark were secured over the, summer thanks to a well-known Sault businessman who stepped forward to acquire the property.

The regional tourist attraction's next door neighbour, Jack Purvis, president of Purvis Marine Ltd. and operator of one of the largest tug, barge and salvage companies on the Great Lakes, purchased the parcel of land housing the former provincial government aerodrome and a vacated insect forestry research lab.

"There's a lot of people in town who don't appreciate, the history of the place," says Purvis, who is making the rest of the facility available to museum officials should they have any future expansion plans. "They have an option on the rest of it when they can afford it."

The hangars and machine shop complex, which houses the Bushplane Museum, is situated on the eastern edge of the downtown on prime waterfront property at Bay and Pim Streets.

The facility has historical significance as the first, headquarters of the Ontario Provincial Air Service in the 1920s, whose role was fighting forest fires, conducting aerial surveys of timber and wildlife, collecting insects for researchers and housing government transportation.

The old hangar, built in 1924-25, was deemed historically significant for its then innovative use of engineering technology that used large steel beam trusses to support a low-pitched gable roof. The truss roof span was reportedly the largest span of beam used up to that time. Additional hangar space was added in 1947, and the entire facility was in use until 1991, when the Ministry of Natural Resources pulled out.

One of the conditions of the sale by the Ontario Realty Corp. was to continue museum operations, says Purvis. Purvis leased the building back to the Bushplane Museum under a 30-year lease.

"We wanted to do what we could to preserve Bush Plane (Museum) and all of the historical aspects of its operation," says Jim Butticci, a spokesman for the Ontario Realty Corp., which placed the three surplus buildings on the parcel up for sale in February. "Therewas potential there, and we recognize that."

Neither Purvis nor Butticci would disclose the sale price.

"We bought it to support the Bushplane people at as small an expense to Purvis Marine as possible," says Purvis.

That is why Purvis plans to use the original 1920s hangars, which encompasses more than 15,000 suqare-feet for boat and trailer storage, this winter.

Also included in the deal on the 11-acre parcel of land is the former Forest Insect Laboratory, an art moderne-style building erected in the 1940s, which fronts Queen Street.

The lab pioneered research into eradicating destructive forest insects such as the spruce bud worm, and was built as a result of a joint research agreement between the federal agricultural department and the provincial lands and forest department.

Purvis has plans to move two undisclosed tenants shortly into the former insect lab and the aerodrome's old machine shops.

Purvis, whose marine transportation business sits on the former government dock at the foot of Pim Street, also has an interest in some adjoining vacant property just to the west, a former Petro Canada tank site.

The vacant property, which sits astride Bay Street, was rezoned residential years ago to accommodate a previous developer, and Purvis has been negotiating with the oil company over the cost of the environmental clean-up of the site.