Continuing on
Committee that saved Port Hill building received Heritage Award
Port Hill’s King George Hall could’ve been Blair Strongman’s hall.
The Summerside resident, who grew up in Port Hill, was the only bidder when the Port Hill, Arlington and Birch Hill Women’s Institute groups put their hall up for sale three years ago.
But Strongman says he didn’t really want the hall; he just wanted to save it.
“Just because I was brought up there,” Strongman said in describing his interest in the hall. “It was my home for years and years. I just had a spot in my heart for it.”
He remembers the Christmas concerts and other special functions held there.
Even after moving to Summerside, Strongman was back to the hall on many occasions with the Trinity Players. “The Absent Minded Professor” was one of their plays, and he had the title role.
A couple of unique features of the hall are the stage’s rollup curtain and the slanted floor which allows those at the back to see over those up front.
“So, a bunch of us got together and took over as directors of the hall from the Women’s Institutes,” Strongman said.
Not only did the institutes not charge for their building, they provided some funds to help with repairs, Strongman noted. The new six-member committee went to work repairing a hall that’s been a Port Hill social and meeting place since the 1920s. The committee has already taken advantage of two New Horizons grants which have enabled them to repair and reshingle the leaking roof, paint the exterior, install a ramp and put in a wheelchair-accessible washroom. They’ve also had heat pumps installed.
A heritage award in recognition of their work gives the committee a good feeling, Strongman admitted. They’ve been approved for another New Horizons grant this year and plan to replace the hall’s windows and install a new sound system.
They are also hoping to replace the roll-up curtain and are looking for someone to paint a scene on the new sailcloth. They plan to maintain the roll-up mechanism.
Darren Strongman, president of the King George Hall Committee, does not know as much of the history of the hall as his father, Blair, but he’s learning.
Darren has been living next to the hall since moving to Port Hill in 1992. A community corn boil afforded him his first look inside. “I have minutes of meetings (in Port Hill) from the early 1900s that we read out at our meetings now. It’s just so interesting to hear the history and all the different rules,” he said.
“It doesn’t take long to fall in love with the whole story behind it,” he reflected.
Other members of the King George Hall Committee are Susan Newcombe, Jeff McCormack and Richard and Shawn Veale.
Blair said they still hope to get the inside of the hall painted. Repairs to the lean-to out back are also on their wish list.
Now that the hall with the slanted floor is in good repair, though, the committee is focused on finalizing a spring and summer ceilidh schedule.