Harvey Hall‘s days may be numbered if those fighting to save it aren’t able to raise $20,000 by the fall.
Fundraising committee vice-president Jane Chrysostom told Global News they need at least that much, in addition to the $25,000 they received from a federal grant, to fix the aging building’s roof.
“It’s a community icon. It’s a New Brunswick icon,” she said of the hall.
The hall has been used as a community gathering place, as well as a school and other functions, since it was built in 1884.
“It has a lengthy history here for the community and it’s worth saving,” she said.
She said while there was lots of work to be done to the building, the most immediate, pressing need to ensure the long-term viability of the building was to fix the leaky roof.
When her group received the government grant, they had an initial one-year deadline to use the money for repairs.
“Unfortunately, our time ran out when we were trying to get bids to get the jobs done,” she said, as they were unable to find a contractor available to make the repairs in time.
They received an extension until this fall, but it won’t be extended again.
“If we don’t use that money soon, and it’s exclusively for the roof, then we have to forfeit it,” Chrysostom said.
Her group has raised just over $6,000 through a GoFundMe campaign.
The hall is being used as a performance space, with the likes of comedian James Mullinger and musician David Myles performing there recently.
Chrysostom said they receive funds from the admission price for performances, as well as donations from residents and former residents, but the committee is looking for larger help from other sources.
“We’re looking at organizations that are in the roofing business, organizations that are in the plumbing business that have community project building in their structure. We’re really looking everywhere but it is pretty much a grassroots effort,” she said.
The hall was built by the Reid brothers, two New Brunswick-born architects who went on to success in the United States. They became two of San Francisco’s most prominent architects in the late 1800s through to the early 1900s.
The hall is New Brunswick’s only example of Eastlake architecture, an offset of the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture.
Chrysostom said in addition to replacing the roof, they want a permanent solution to some of the building’s structural instability and would like to build accessible washrooms as well as make cosmetic repairs to the building.
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