Nov ’11 (When we thought the building had to move to survive) History of the Station House Society

The beginnings…

Back in the late 1970’s, the Station House was a boarded up, un-used building (except for the waiting room and small ticketmaster office) in a state of disrepair.  A group of people who realized how imperative it was that one of the few historic buildings that Williams Lake had left be saved, formed the Station House Society.  The Society was formally established in 1981, a  lease was negotiated with BCR and the Society got to work fundraising and after much down and dirty labour, business donations, bake sales etc. the building was brought back to its former glory.

It was during this time that the idea/plan to use the building as our community’s Public Art Galery came into focus.  More hard work and fundraising ensued to transform the interior to a working gallery and the name was then changed to the Station House Studio & Gallery Society.

In 1983, the Gallery had its first exhibition (Harvey Overton) and very shortly after that the Gallery Shop was opened to promote and sell local artist’s works.

For the next 20 years the Gallery and building was the thriving focal point of the Arts community and  one of Williams Lake’s premier tourism sites.

In 2004, BCR discontinued its  passenger service and  no longer shared the mainenance costs of the building.  The financial problems began.

In 2009, after 28 years of service to the community the Society, like most BC Arts and Culture organizations, lost its gaming funding which was 1/3 of our annual revenue.

That same year we were approched by the City with a question: What would the Society thiink about moving the building?  After the initial shock, and MUCH discussion, the Society came to the conclusion that it was the best way to honour the history of the building.  Saving the building is honouring it.

And although we have a very loyal and large (500) membership, we need more locals to realize what wonderful things we have to offer.  We are largely invisible to many people – if we had a dollar for every ‘I just forget the Gallery is there’… They don’t see us down here.

We need walk in traffic.

The City applied for a Provincial grant which was turned down but this project is not dead.  Other government funding is being applied for and we remain positive the move will happen.

After two years of asking questions of our members and the community  we know that the consensus is that the Society that saved the building 30 years ago has the best understanding of the buildings stewardship needs.