Church hall on the block
by Greg Nesteroff - Nelson Star
posted Apr 25, 2011 at 10:00 AM
Nelson’s Anglican church hall is up for grabs. The congregation of St. Saviour’s Pro-Cathedral has decided to sell the old stone building on Ward Street, and put the proceeds toward restoring and maintaining the neighbouring church. The hall, which is listed with Valhalla Path Realty, has 8,700 square feet on three levels, including five bathrooms, a large kitchen, vaulted ceilings, and multi-purpose room. The asking price is $675,000.
“It’s been a long process,” says church warden Julia Roberts. “The reality is the hall was built in 1922 when the world was different.”
Back then, the hall was used for youth programs, badminton, scout meetings and even as a movie house, but “we don’t have the same needs nowadays. We aren’t really using the building very much.”
Roberts says while they meet for coffee there after services, “it’s a few people clustered at one end.”
And while the building has several tenants and is self-supporting, Roberts says trying to maintain both the hall and the church, which is even older, “becomes quite a strain on the congregation … It takes too much volunteer energy looking after repairs, and there’s the whole tenant relations piece, which drains energy that could be going to more church-related projects. We’re supposed to be doing outreach to the community, not managing buildings.”
Church members discussed selling the hall a number of years ago, but only recently decided to let it go. The building actually belongs to the Diocese of Kootenay, headquartered in Kelowna, and the sale required their approval. The for sale sign went up two weeks ago.
“It’s an interesting and unusual building,” Roberts says. “It’s zoned R3, multi-family residential. Somebody could take it and completely remodel it.”
Read more at The Nelson Star