The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Free jail up for grabs in contest
Rennehan looking for ideas to reimagine, repurpose old Yarmouth jail
As a teenager growing up in Yarmouth, Mandy Rennehan passed the old jail on Main Street nearly every day. She was fascinated by its presence.
For someone who had never even received a speeding ticket, she recalls the day, as an adult, when she got to tour the inside of the jail, which was completed in 1865, the same year prisoners started to be housed.
She was mesmerized.
“It was like walking back in time from a movie in Scotland or Ireland with all the painted steel doors and small cells and rounded brick ceiling hollows,” she said.
On that day seven years ago, Rennehan decided a tour wasn’t enough. She wanted — correction, needed — to own the jail. She made an offer then on the building that was listed for about $60,000.
What excited her most was the thought of new possibilities for the empty granite and brick structure.
When the Southwest Nova Scotia Correctional Centre opened in Yarmouth in 2004, the building’s usefulness as a jail had long passed its bestbefore date. Some 10 years after that, Rennehan felt the building still had a lot to offer.
For what, specifically, she wasn’t sure.
She still isn’t, but she is certain someone is.
So, if you’ve got an idea and are interested in an old jail, Rennehan has a steal of a deal for you.
She is giving the jail away for free.
GET INTO JAIL FREE CARD
Rennehan has launched a contest to give the jail to an entrepreneur from North America who has a vision. The contest launched Tuesday and runs to Aug. 14.
Rennehan — considered a rock star entrepreneur and champion of the trades — says entrepreneurship remains the heartbeat of local economies.
Rennehan, CEO and founder of Freshco (not the grocery store), says the individual or company with the best business application will get the original keys to the jail and take over ownership.
She is looking for someone to revitalize, redefine and reimagine the space into something positive and progressive.
Oddly enough, the description of who she is looking for sounds very much like Rennehan herself. So why not just keep the jail and turn it into something?
“Since I bought the jail seven years ago, a lot has shifted since then to (my) proprietary projects like being the Blue-collar CEO and one of the biggest ambassadors of the industry; taking the women in the industry from four to 40 per cent while redefining
the collar blue and changing the answer to ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” she says.
Philanthropy and giving back is at the centre of Rennehan’s soul, but she recognizes her limitations. She calls this the time “to pass the baton to another amazing capable human being of my talent, or even better, to do something spectacular with this property.”
OLD JAIL, NEW LIFE?
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Yarmouth jail was considered “among the bestkept” jails in the province. A 1901 inspection proclaimed it to be the finest jailhouse in Nova Scotia.
The building had quarters for the jailer and their family. It contained 19 cells, each with an iron bedstead affixed to the wall, with a straw mattress, pillow and blanket but no sheets.
A year or so after she bought the jail, Rennehan had the tall fence — which she affectionately referred to as “ole ugly” — removed from the property. She felt the architecture could stand out more.
Rennehan tossed some ideas back and forth. She toyed with turning the jail into a restaurant and performance centre. The ideas, she acknowledged, would have been costly given the renovations that would be required.
More recently, she had talked about turning it into a home base for a master’s program of craftsmanship, but the timing didn’t work out for the community college.
A website — jailforfree.com — has been set up, outlining the criteria for the contest and providing history and information about the jail. Applicants must submit a video proposal with a supporting 250-word essay about their vision.
Finalists will be invited for a walkthrough (virtual or inperson, following health and safety guidelines).
Whoever is handed the keys must be able to start their project within 36 months.
The property is assessed at about $83,000, according to the website. The current zoning of the property allows for a multitude of uses. The taxes run about $2,400.
Personality, ambition and vision are definitely assets Rennehan (who goes by the nickname Bear) hopes this contest will tap into — characteristics she has lived by her entire life.
She founded Freshco, an Ontario-based retail facilities company that looks after maintenance, refresh and construction needs, in 1995.
She is a lead adviser on a federal government national campaign encouraging apprenticeships and promoting the skilled trades as a career.
As her jail website points out, Rennehan continues to challenge the misconception that white-collar jobs are better or more desirable than blue-collar ones.
Society, she says, needs both.
COOL AND SPOOKY
Asked if during a pandemic is the right time for someone to tackle a project of this scope, Rennehan is hopeful that someone is up to the challenge.
“Twelve years ago, I started my transition into the U.S. for Freshco.ca in the middle of the housing crisis and my first three years exceeded our projections, as we found better creative ways for our clients, which was better for the economy,” she says.
“When convenience evaporates in a climate like the one we are in now, people start looking much more deeply at what do they want to be doing for the next 20 years?”
She wants to encourage them to put Yarmouth on their list, with its clean air, great people and a seaside way of life.
Besides, they may not have to do this alone. One of the coolest features of the jail, Rennehan once said in an interview, is it's “freaking spooky.”
There's always been speculation that the jail may be haunted. The most infamous death to take place at the jail was that of Omar Roberts of Kemptville, Yarmouth County, in 1922.
Roberts, 68, was tried and convicted of killing his maid, Flora Gray, 19. He was hanged at the courtyard of the jail.
When Rennehan bought the jail, the rumours excited her.
“The more spirits the better for me. It keeps things interesting,” she said in a 2014 interview.
“The spookiest part, in my opinion, is the third floor of the structure that looks over the harbour has a very unsettling feeling,” she says.
“It was like you could hear voices and see the fog rolling in from the harbour under candlelight back in the mid1800s.”