Grant delay puts Old Hastings Mill Museum in bind
Ten thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money in the City of Vancouver’s $2.1-billion budget. But to the Old Hastings Mill Store Museum, it may be the difference between surviving and being forced to close.
The volunteer-run facility runs on an annual budget of only $30,500, and was hoping to get a $10,000 community arts program grant from the City of Vancouver this year for operations.
But after the COVID-19 pandemic, the city pushed back approval of the grant program until the fall. Revenue from donations has also dwindled because the museum has been closed during the health emergency.
“We calculated and we figured within about four months we’d probably have to close permanently, unless we got some source of funding,” said the museum’s Lisa Smith.
So last weekend the museum set up a GoFundMe page to help keep it going. In four days, the page has raised over $6,500.
The goal is to raise $40,000, which would refill a “rainyday fund” the museum had to dip into after renovations to bring its fire escape, balcony, gutters and chimney up to code went over budget.
“The renos came out to about $130,000 at the end of the day,” said Anita Lee, chief factor of the museum.
Most of the funds for the repairs came from the provincial and city governments, but the museum had to ante up $15,000 of its cash reserve to finish them.
Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry heard about the museum’s plight and asked city staff if there is any emergency “bridge funding” that can help the museum.
“I think at the very least we can make sure that heat’s being kept on and all these fragile artifacts aren’t succumbing to mildew and dampness,” said Fry.
The Old Hastings Mill Store Museum is in Vancouver’s oldest building, an 1865 general store that was originally situated at the foot of Dunlevy Avenue in Japantown.
Hastings Mill was the first commercial business to operate in what became Vancouver. When it closed in 1930, a pioneer group called the Native Daughters of B.C. saved it and had it barged from Japantown to the foot of Alma Street and Point Grey Road in Kitsilano.
In 1932, the Daughters opened it as a museum, stocking it with their personal collections. It isn’t like a regular museum, which is part of its charm.
There is a wide range of artifacts in its collection, from First Nations masks and baskets to tiny “war woolie” dolls from the First World War and a “human hair picture” from 1883. It was made by Emily Adams, who lopped off some of her long brunette locks, fashioned them into a floral design and framed them. It’s on the wall by the staircase, near a tapestry of a young Queen Victoria that may date to the 1840s or ’50s.
There is also a horse-drawn Hansom cab, sans horses.
“It was donated by a man who gave it to the Daughters to use as an attention-getter to raise funds when they were trying to have the store relocated to Point Grey,” said Smith, an acclaimed author who just finished a book on Hastings Mill and the store/ museum.
The Native Daughters of B.C. was founded in 1919. To join, you have to be born in the province. At its height the group had several posts around B.C., but Vancouver is the last one standing, and has only 13 active members, down from 200 in 1930.