The century-old roundhouse in Kentville, N.S., has been torn down, despite attempts by heritage groups and railway buffs to save it.

An excavator ripped into the brick building Monday, bringing down the last roundhouse in Nova Scotia.

The abandoned building used to house locomotives for the Dominion Atlantic Railway. The town bought it a few years ago and the land was slated for development.

Kentville council approved the demolition, saying it could not afford the $1.5 million needed to repair the old building.

Heritage groups argued the roundhouse was unique and tried to save it from the wrecking ball, but they did not meet a deadline to buy the building.

For Natalie Bull, with the Heritage Canada Foundation in Ottawa, the loss of the roundhouse is about environmental waste, as well as the destruction of a historic building.
 
"You've got a building there. Why would you waste all of that capital and start over?" Bull said.

Old materials end up in the landfill and any new development creates new construction waste, she added.

But Kentville Mayor David Corkum said the contractor doing the demolition work found dry rot in the beams and lead paint on the bricks, signs the roundhouse was in worse shape than first thought.

Corkum said any new building will be more energy efficient and use less heat than the roundhouse, and some materials from the old building will be salvaged.

"The materials that can be recycled certainly will be," he said.

Bull said if town planners and government officials were more creative, they could find ways to save old buildings and make them more energy efficient.

She wishes council would have delayed demolition by a year to give the idea a chance.