Oliver Museum Receives Heritage Infrastructure Grant
The 1924 building housing the Oliver & District Museum will be repainted and a collapsing artifact shelter will be repaired, thanks to an infusion of funding from the Province’s Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program (CERIP). The funding, delivered in partnership with Heritage BC, comes in the form of a grant of $23,626 from CERIP’s Unique Heritage Infrastructure stream. The funds will be put toward appropriately cleaning and repainting the museum’s badly weathered 1924 wooden siding, repairing an artifact shelter with a collapsing roof, and changing lighting in the 1896 Fairview Jail to LEDs to reduce fire hazards.
All three projects center around conserving unique heritage structures for Oliver’s present and future generations. Over the decades, sunlight as well as old sprinkler systems have caused the paint on the museum (the town’s first police station) to deteriorate, exposing portions of siding and allowing moisture build-up. While the old sprinklers are gone, the damage remains. Repainting the exterior will preserve and protect the 97 year-old wood for the future.
LEDs will also protect the Fairview Jail, one of the historic ghost town’s last survivors, from heat damage and fire risk. It will also improve energy-efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The artifact shelter’s restoration will protect numerous industrial artifacts housed beneath it, allowing visitors to continue to enjoy them for decades to come.
These tasks will be ongoing over 2021 and will provide work for a number of contractors. “We are so grateful that these projects have received funding,” said Julianna Weisgarber, Executive Director for the Oliver & District Heritage Society which manages the museum. “They ensure the continued preservation of the artifacts, the Fairview Jail, and the museum, a unique heritage building and one of the oldest public buildings in our community, for all to enjoy.”
More information from Heritage BC and the BC government about CERIP’s Unique Heritage Infrastructure funding results can be found HERE.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
