A History of Mahon Hall, Salt Spring Island
by
Chris Arnett
For over 100
years the building known as Mahon Memorial Hall in Ganges has served Salt
Spring Islanders according to the needs of the community. The use of the building
over the past century has always reflected changes in the social and economic
fabric of the island and will continue to do so over the next century.
The building occupies an historic
location overlooking an ancient aboriginal canoe portage that once linked
Ganges Harbour to the head of Booth Canal. In 1859 the site was included in one
of the original lots of the Ganges Harbour Settlement and was occupied by
WIlliam Issac, a black settler from the United States. The land changed hands
and by the late 1890's it was; owned by Frank Scott, one of several brothers recently
immigrated from England.
The Mahon
Memorial Hall was first conceived as an “Agricultural Hall" for the sole purpose
of promotion and display of small scale agriculture and orchard produce from
all of the Southern Gulf Islands. The idea of a hall was initially conceived at
a July 2, 1898 meeting of the Islands Agricultural and Fruit Growers
Association (IAFGA) where “the question of building an Agricultural Hall at
Ganges Harbour was first brought up”. Ganges Harbour was a natural choice as it
was easily accessible by boat to those members of the IAFGA who lived on the islands of Mayne, Galiano, Prevost, Pender,
Saturna, Moresby, Read, Thetis and Kuper. A committee was struck to look into the possibility.
In 1900,
following a very successful Show Fair held outdoors at Joe Nightingales'
farm in the Burgoyne Valley, the fifth annual general meeting of the
Association decided "that the time had come to build a Hall of its
own." Much discussion followed regarding the Site for the proposed hall
until Frank Scott, a member of the original planning committee, offered "a
piece of ground 35 yards by 70 yards for $40" at the base of a rocky knoll
on his Ganges Harbour farm. The directors of the IAFGA were "empowered to
go ahead with the building, acquire the site offered by Mr. Scott ...open a
subscription list and to do whatever was necessary to build the Hall."
Work on the hall may have begun as early as November 1900.
There were
delays in construction and by the fall of 1901 the building remained unfinished
with a balance of $112.00 owed to the contractor Reid Bittancourt and Victoria
lumber magnate J.A. Sayward. At the October 26, 1901 meeting of the I.A.F.G.
Association, held in the Public Hall at Central, it was learned that in
addition to this debt, a further $144.25 was required for siding, eight large
windows and a double front door. Old time settler John Booth expressed concern that
if the building was not finished "it will blow down this winter." Bittancourt
guaranteed the building "to stand as it is for 12 months." Henry
Caldwell donated his secretary's salary of $50 and other directors who had not
paid their subscriptions came forward. Two weeks later, on November 6,1901, the
Board of directors held their first meeting in the new, albeit still
unfinished, Agricultural Hall overlooking Ganges Harbour.
At this historic meeting the 1901
building committee was "discharged from further responsibility" and
another committee created "to raise the money necessary to purchase the
land and finish the hall.” They were authorized to raise $1,000 and
"instructed to buy the land and spend the money to run the hall to the
best of their ability and judgement." Ross Mahon, a recently arrived
immigrant, and the bachelor son of a wealthy Irish family, agreed to give a
$1,000 mortgage at 6 % interest to the Islands Agricultural and Fruit Growers
Association.
The Agricultural Hall was finished with
fir dropped-siding and painted red- the traditional colour of European- American
barn buildings and an appropriate choice for an Agricultural Hall. "Barn
Red", in addition to being the cheapest available paint of the day,
symbolized agricultural prosperity. The colour red is also attributed to the
use of ferrous oxide rnixed with linseed oid for its preservative qualities.
The
Agricultural Hall was ready for its grand opening at the 1902 Show Fair of the
Island Agricultural and Fruit Growers Association. A large Union Jack was
raised over the entrance and outside the building a make-shift flag-bedecked
stage was erected for the well-known Kuper Island Band, a brass ensemble of uniformed
native students from the Roman Catholic Residential School on Kuper Island, who
were invited to help celebrate the grand opening.
On June 9, 1903, Ross Mahon drowned while
swimming in Long Harbour in front of his property at what is now Maracaibo. The
mortgage on the hall was turned over to his estate which sent a bill 15 months
later requesting a $75 payment on interest due. The Association could only
afford to send $25.In October 1904 the IAFGA received a letter from the
executors of Mahon’s estate informing them that the brothers and sisters of
Ross Mahon had given them the authority “to make a present of the mortgage on
the hall and grounds.” There was only one condition: “…that a brass plate
bearing the words “Mahon Memorial Hall” be placed on the building.” A letter
was drafted “to thank, the heirs of Ross Mahon , for their generous gift...saying
also we will gladly, agree to put up some brass tablet.” On January 11 1905, a special meeting was
called to pass on Design for the Mahon' The plaque cost $40 and was affixed to
the building where it remains to this day after being carefully restored some
years ago by Laurie Neish. Thus the hall was officially open and debt free in
1904.
Membership in the IAFGA grew. Mostly on
Salt Spring Island and by 1912 the organization numbered 192 members
representing the male heads of most of the family farms on the Gulf Islands.
Outbuildings, including a poultry display building adjacent to the Hall, and a
long series of sheep and cattle sheds along Rainbow road were built. Under the
guidance of the IAFGA Board of Directors the hall was regularly used by a
variety of local and visiting theatre and musical groups as well as other
groups and individuals for a wide range of activities ranging from private
parties to political meetings. The Show Fair enjoyed great success in the years
prior to the Great War drawing up to a thousand visitors from all over the Gulf
Islands and beyond.
The First
World War changed everything as the younger immigrant men of British Columbia
left the repetitive pattern of mixed farming for the centre of adventure
abroad. Many never returned. By 1918 the Islands Agricultural and Fruit Growers
Association amalgamated with the Farmers' Institute.
In recognition of the growing interest in
the Mahon Memorial Hall as a venue for the performing arts, a major addition
was added to the Hall in the early 1920's with the construction of an elevated
stage on the west side of the building.
In 1926, in response to the need for a
high school in the Gulf islands, the Association permitted the School Board of
the day to use the poultry display building (better known as the "chicken
house") as a high school. For the next 13 years Mahon Memorial Hall served
as the high school gymnasium, theatre for school productions and washroom.
Other community activities continued when school was not in session. Former
students, Ivan Mouat, Mary Inglin and Mary Mollet, recall fondly the many fine
drama and musical productions of their high school years at the" chicken
house" school.
School activities continued but the
Depression years witnessed the end of the annual Show Fair as many island farms
moved from commercial mixed farming to subsistence farming. Farmers focused
their activities on milk production. As Ivan Mouat puts it, "The big money
was in the Creamery. " The need for an annual display and promotion of
local produce declined except for the occasional "Sheep Show" recalls
Mary Mollet.
The desire for
an exhibition ground for local farmers gave way to the needs of a growing
school population and led to the acquisition of a major portion of what was now
the Islands Farmers' Institute grounds for the purpose of building a new
Consolidated School (now Salt Spring Elementary) to amalgamate five out of the
seven schools on Salt Spring Island. The "chicken house" was
demolished to make way for the new building which was completed in 1940 and
housed grades 1 through 12. The construction of the school was a community
project with half of the cost provided through volunteer labour not to mention
the valuable gift of the land itself.
Shortly after the school opened, a
special meeting was held on April 25, 1940 to discuss the sale of the Mahon
Memorial Hall to the United School Board. Details of the deal are sketchy but a
motion at a later meeting to sell the Hall for $700 was defeated. Given the
over-riding importance of education to the populace of the day perhaps the
majority felt that the Hall would best be managed under the jurisdiction of the
school district. As if to proclaim its new status the familiar brick red of the
building was re-painted a cream colour with brown trim to match the
Consolidated School.
In 1968, with
the influx of urban refugee newcomers, Mahon Memorial Hall took on a new lease
in life as a venue to showcase the arts and crafts of talented islanders. The
annual sale lasted only a month initially but with increasing numbers of people
moving to the island, the venue expanded over the years to become a four month
exhibition by over two hundred artists from all over the Gulf Islands.
Commissions from the sale of island arts and crafts not only contributed to various
arts organizations, including the provision of significant seed money for
ArtSpring, but assisted in the preservation of the hall with renovations and
maintenance carried out by the tireless dedication of a handful of volunteers
led for many years by Laurie Neish.
The Community
Arts Council and its later incarnation the Gulf Islands Community Arts Council
has the distinction of holding the second longest tenure of any organization in
maintaining the historic Mahon Hall allowing it to be used by other groups
throughout the bulk of the year. The annual ArtCraft sale established Salt
Spring Island as an artists' mecca long before the better- known Saturday
Market came into existence and per- mitted hundreds of individuals and young
families to eke out a living as artists.
Thus Mahon Memorial Hall serves its
original role to showcase the talents and products of the people of the Gulf
Islands while continuing to serve the Salt Spring community through Tai Chi
classes, square-dancing. Seedy Saturdays, concerts, comedy nights and
you-name-it just as it has done for the past 103 years and hopefully for many
years to follow.
Chris Arnett