Update on the Town Hall's Rejuvenation Plans

It’s time for a Rejuvenation update. The most recent post was nine months ago, and though we are still wearing masks and eating—huddled under heaters!—on restaurants’ sidewalks and patios, our Capital Campaign Committee has been meeting monthly, and making progress.

And thanks to your generous and continuing donations to the Town Hall’s Operating Fund, the Trustees have been able to keep up with our regular expenses during this unprecedented time, although the building rentals are still very slow as the pandemic continues. (The TTH relies on two significant rentals per month to meet its Operating Expenses budget.) If you are interested in securing a future rental and/or learning of our current safety practices, please send a message to bookings@tomalestownhall.org, or call 707 878-2006.

In the meantime, while Rejuvenation’s Capital Campaign Committee has chosen not to officially publicize this campaign until the rentals are back to our necessary two-rentals-a-month booking, we are working behind the scenes on fundraising strategy.

We are close to completion of the campaign’s Case Statement—a simple, illustrated summary that briefly recounts the history and ongoing uses of the almost 150-year Hall, and explains what the Rejuvenation project will involve, and why it is increasingly critical. The statement includes archival and current images, along with some of our architect’s plans and renderings. (Thank you to the National Trust’s Hart Family Fund for Small Towns, for the matching grant funding the printing and binding of the Case Statement.)

As I wrote in the blog last March, “The Hall evolves with its constituents, with all of us, as it always has.” And the evolution, though no doubt altered by the pandemic-driven slowdown of rentals, continues. As the Hall’s Trustees work to keep up with the general expenses and promotion of its availability, Rejuvenation’s Capital Campaign Committee is necessarily looking toward the future. (It may even be that this inevitable slowdown—with the opportunity to gain a few more participants with time—will improve the outcome of the overall project.)

Our campaign to raise the capital for the resource’s increasingly important Rejuvenation continues, though the future timetable has become less clear. We will use this downtime to better focus on plans for the project’s promotion and eventual funding, as well as plans for the necessary, long-overdue repairs, accessibility improvements, and structural and functional upgrades necessary to bring the beloved building into the 21st century.

As the previous blog states “…the Hall’s simple, multi-layered architecture reflects its long and practical history and the always-evolving spirit of its community.” If you are reading this, you are probably, in some way, a part of this community—not necessarily defined by a place of residence but—perhaps for many of you—by experiences, memories, and familiarity.

Thank you for your interest in our project. If you’d like to be a part of our Capital Campaign Committee—or of the Rejuvenation project on any other level—please get in touch with me at ginnymac@sonic.net. We would very much appreciate your thoughts and ideas, your energy, and your experience!

This is the Buckeye Lot’s namesake California Buckeye tree—winter-bare but with green grass beneath! (Taken from the Hall’s office window by Alex Marcotte.)