Lunenburg Academy
nearly ready for new tenants
DAVENE JEFFREY STAFF REPORTER
Published April 16, 2015 - 9:17pm
Lunenburg’s iconic hilltop school building will soon be looking for tenants.
Earlier this week, town council approved a business plan that they believe will help support the building and turn the site into a town cultural hub.
“It’s certainly a draw tourism-wise,” said Lunenburg Academy Development co-ordinator Scott Burke.
The large wood structure has been designated a municipal, provincial and federal heritage site, and until 2012, it had operated steadily as a school since 1895.
The schoolhouse is now in the midst of a $750,000 renovation that includes the addition of several bathrooms, updating electrical and communications wiring, and making the building more accessible, Burke said in an interview Wednesday.
The main floor will contain the Lunenburg branch of South Shore Public Libraries, the South Shore Genealogical Society, the Lunenburg Academy Foundation heritage interpretive classroom and hopefully an art gallery and a cafe-gift shop attached to the library space, Burke said.
The building’s top floor is home to the Lunenburg Academy of Musical Performance.
The second floor will be rental space that the plan sees as a creative enterprise centre renting space to arts, culture, heritage, educational programs and small businesses and creative industries.
A request for expressions of interest will go out in the next few months.
Once the library moves into the school, the town plans to sell the former Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. store that the library now calls home.
Once the building is fully rented, the annual cost to the town of maintaining the building likely will be in the $100,000 range, Burke said.
From the Halifax Herald News