Weekend storms demolished a 115-year-old building housed at the
San Benito County Historic Park, leaving members of the county
Historical Society disheartened and scrambling to clean up the
mess.
Tres Pinos – Weekend storms demolished a 115-year-old building housed at the San Benito County Historic Park, leaving members of the county Historical Society disheartened and scrambling to clean up the mess.
“I’m sure there’s a silver lining in all this,” said Historical Society board member Bill Martinie. “It’s just that right now all I can see is broken wood and bent nails.”
The Dunneville Dance Hall, part of the Historic Park’s Historic Village exhibit, fell late Sunday afternoon, and was reported to Peter Sonne, chairman of the Society’s board, later that evening.
“When I learned what happened, it ruined the rest of my evening,” he said. “I had been there on Friday and shut the doors myself, and everything was fine. When I saw what had happened, it made me sick to my stomach.”
While the dance hall was almost completely destroyed, surrounding structures suffered only minimal damage, losing a few roofing shingles at worst. Sonne believes the dance hall suffered the brunt of the damage because of its single, open room inside, while other buildings with individual rooms had more support to weather the storm.
And while two pianos, which were more than 100 years old, housed in the dance hall were crushed in the fall, volunteers were able to salvage the majority of historical artifacts on display in the hall. Included were several saddles, antique containers, lanterns, furniture and a collection of antique license plates.
“We’re just going through and salvaging everything we can by hand,” Sonne said. “Hopefully, the weather will hold out so nothing is damaged any further.”
The society is attempting to salvage as much of the original material from the hall as possible to better preserve its historical integrity when they go to rebuild. So far, the building’s foundation, facade and some siding seem to be strong enough to reincorporate into the structure at a later date.
“We’re probably going to get modern materials for the framing of the building so this doesn’t happen again, but we want to use as much of the historical materials as possible,” Sonne said. “We’re going to work with a couple architects and try and use photographs to stay historically accurate.”
Sonne anticipates being able to clean up the site before the end of the month, if the weather allows. As it stands, the Society is unable to determine what the cost of rebuilding might be or how long it might take until they have the time to make a better assessment of how extensive the damage is, how many volunteers they can round up, and how many donations of money and material they will be able to solicit.
The dance hall was built in 1890 and served as a mechanic’s, electrician’s, phone repair and radio repair shop in addition to a community center and dance hall. The building was brought to the historical park in 1992 and restored to serve as part of the exhibit. In recent years, the hall was rented out to school and community groups for functions, such as a Civil War Reenactor’s Christmas Ball, and was incorporated into the Society’s tour for school groups.
“This is really an interesting space that people can use with a great sense of history,” Martinie said. “You should see those kids in there, their eyes get like sponges when you tell them a building is 100 years old. They just suck everything up.”
The Society is actively looking for volunteers willing to help sort through the wreckage, starting Saturday morning at 8:00 am, and also is looking for individuals willing to make tax-deductible donations of goods or money.
“These past few days have been kind of emotional. It’s sort of similar to what they must be feeling in New Orleans,” Martinie said. “But you just have to look at what happened, pay your respects and rebuild.”
To donate or volunteer, call 635-9301 or 277-3836.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
