Lower Coast musicians, artists and writers are coming together to show their love for Granthams Landing Community Hall, one of the handful of heritage buildings remaining on the Coast.
A benefit concert for the hall will take place Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse. Award-winning playwright and songwriter David King will co-host with jazz diva Wanda Nowicki. The line-up features Anna Lumiere, the Billy Hillpicker Band, w.b. fitzsimmons, Clay Hepburn, Charlotte Wrinch, Chris Jordan-Knox and more. The event will also feature a silent art auction, with donations from clay artist Susanne Biden, painters Marlene Vermuelen, Maggie Citrin and Jan Poynter, multi-media artist Diego Samper, and others.
The little hall tucked into the edge of the forest on Church Road, just above Marine Drive, was built in 1931 with volunteer labour. It was first owned by the United Church and used briefly as a church before it was turned over to the Granthams Landing Property Owners Association, then the Granthams Landing Improvement District, and finally, when the latter dissolved, to the SCRD. It was closed last May due to structural problems with the roof and foundation.
The Hall Restoration Com-mittee is working with the community and the SCRD to get the hall reopened by summer 2016. Granthams Landing residents have offered their labour, and financial support has so far come from individual donors, the Heritage Playhouse, and the Gibsons Copy Shop. Various other businesses have been approached, as will be the B.C. Heritage Fund, although the majority of the money needed must come from the regional district.
Some seniors may recall gathering at Granthams Hall on Friday nights to meet the “Daddy boats” (Union Steamships) that used to pull into Gran-thams Landing wharf bringing working men back from the mainland. Or remember a particularly lively card game, a wedding or a funeral, all of which have taken place in the charming building. Over the last few decades, people have enjoyed private or public functions at the hall, attended a dance or yoga or life drawing class, a meeting of the Granthams Wharf Committee, or a community potluck supper. The hall is the centre of the Granthams Landing community, but it belongs to the entire Sunshine Coast. The benefit is an opportunity for the entire Coast community to demonstrate its appreciation for Coast history.
