The open house at the Devlin Hall took place last Friday, Oct. 2, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. At least that was the scheduled time, but the event ran a little late, as many attendees enjoyed dancing to Melanie Williams’s music, provided by Party Rock through her DJ Services.
Delicious food was served, and the hall was beautifully decorated, thanks to Neila Booth. Everything that was needed to make this a spectacular open house also made it a memorable evening.
Reeve Lucille MacDonald opened the evening sharing insight into all the long hours, hard work and patience that it took to see this project through.
“I’m so proud to be the reeve of this beautiful community,” she told the crowd.
She went on to introduce Deputy Reeve Brenden Hyatt and councillors Ken Badiuk, Elaine Hughes and Steve Loshaw.
“Council worked very hard and volunteered a considerable amount of time on this project,” MacDonald said.
“In 2023, near the start of this term, Council La Vallee had a community meeting and, from it, developed its first-ever strategic Planning. Renovating and improving the hall was right at the top of the list. It is stated in our Centennial history book that this hall was built in 1903 by the Canadian order of the Foresters. They used the upstairs for meetings while the downstairs was used by Mr. Holmes to store flour and feed.”
According to Luke Whidden, “The upstairs room, which frequently echoed the sound of fiddles on Saturday night, also echoed the sound of Presbyterian hymns on Sundays.”
Renovations began with the removal of the old stage. It was kind of sad to see it go. A lot of children stood on that stage, singing their hearts out at Christmas concerts, just as many or more took a turn at running up the stairs and across the stage and taking a flying leap onto the floor. Some would bang on the piano a bit.
The stage was an insurance liability, so it had to go. Bill McLean mentioned to MacDonald that he helped build the stage and the wall that was taken out. He assisted his granddaughter, Kelsey Wieringa. In a wonderful history of the hall, it is on your placemat.
“I would like to thank Ken Hyatt for the initial phase, removing the stage and renovating the west side,” MacDonald said. There were a few surprises, and one necessitated calling an engineer to the site at one point. Ken was also very helpful to council in identifying what needed to be done in the second project.”
Air-conditioning was installed, the bathrooms were gutted, the old T-ceiling and collapsing ceiling that was above it were removed, the cement floor on the south-side was levelled, the bar was rebuilt, copper piping was closed in and all fans and lights were replaced. Then came the painting and new flooring.
“The decision to remove the hardwood flooring was the most difficult for council, MacDonald said. “That was the biggest holdup, unfortunately. The extra-wide rolls had to be from one dye lot and took a long time to arrive. Once that happened. It was promptly completed.”
MacDonald gave out many thanks to people working to see the hall renovations completed, also giving thanks to the organizers and volunteers who helped with the open house.
“Last but not least, I would like to thank Leanne Mose and MPP Greg Rickford for their assistance in securing the two grants from capital NOHFC. The first was $111,701 and the second was $254,784 for a total of $366,485.74. This hall is very much a multi-service facility for our community. The renovations would not have been possible without the funding from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund. It looks pretty good for 123 years old!”
Marlene and Wade Nelson generously donated a clock in memory of June Benjamin, a past recipient of our Senior of the Year award, who passed away in July, symbolic of the many hours June volunteered here and in the community. We also had a new lectern/podium donated in honour of June’s devotion to family and community.
