He had permits in hand and heavy equipment all ready to go, but something stopped Terry Gustafson from tearing down Grief Point Sunday School.
The building, located in the 3500 block of Marine Avenue, has been everything from a kindergarten to an ivy trellis in its 65-year history. Artist Don Bowes even gave it a fitting tribute on canvas back in the 1990s before foliage had covered all but the sign. But it was rotted and dilapidated when Gustafson purchased the property several years ago, and he wasn’t quite sure what the building’s fate might be.
“I was pretty close to just demoing it,” he said. “I had the machine there and everything one day and then had second thoughts. I actually went there myself as a kid and there’s a ton of people who went to it as a Sunday School. There’s sure a lot of positive feedback now that we’re actually rebuilding it.”
Much of the school’s original siding has been saved, and passersby will notice the trademark green colour is back on the trim. A bump-out has also been added to the building’s north side to return it to the L-shape it once was. “It was a little bit bigger before, but I just didn’t go as big as it was,” said Gustafson. “I just wanted to keep the same kind of look.”
And then there’s the bell tower. Built and installed by Howard Rowe on October 15, 1950, a replica has recently taken its place on the roof. The brass bell, which Rowe brought over from the Powell River Company on Thanksgiving Sunday that year, has yet to be found, though.
“It was missing when I got the property,” recalled Gustafson. “That’s one of the first things I went looking for, but somewhere along the line over the years it disappeared. I’m going to do a little more research and see if I can find somebody that’s got it stuck away in their basement somewhere. It would be kind of neat to get that.”
Grief Point Sunday School officially opened on May 1, 1949. “The main building was brought over from the mill,” said Gustafson. A second addition was added shortly thereafter and the basement was boarded in during the winter of 1953. A carpenter with the last name of Hargreaves was paid $371 for the job, working for $1.75 per hour.
From 1950 to 1967 the building was used as a church school, initially founded by Patsy McAndrew at the age of 10. It was also home to a kindergarten and preschool from 1955 until School District 47 began offering similar services 10 years later. After that, it was used as a nursery school for three- and four-year-olds and eventually closed permanently in 1977.
Restoration is slated to continue throughout the summer, although Gustafson doesn’t have any specific plans for the building once it is complete, other than storage. “It’s not a building that I’m going to move into or anything like that,” he said. “It’s just a matter of preserving the outside as close to the original look as I can and then preserve the inside and have heat in there so that it won’t deteriorate any more.”
On the list are a few coats of exterior paint, some finishing touches inside, and a new hanging sign to replace the original. “I’m going to actually do some research and find the old pictures of the place and probably some class pictures, that kind of thing, and put them in there and if somebody wants to use it for photo shoots, that’s kind of what the plan is,” he said.
