Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 22/05) - A meeting of Yellowknife heritage buffs seems to have saved the city's first stick-built hospital from the wrecking ball.

Sue Glowach, who belongs to three-person committee dedicated to keeping the old Stanton cottage hospital at Con Mine alive, said it appears they've cobbled together enough support and funding to do so.

Brian Robertson stands by a fund board erected last year near Stanton Territorial Hospital, charting efforts to raise $100,000 to save the old cottage hospital at Con Mine. The sign has since been dismantled.

Only a few days ago, the group was thinking of letting the cabin-sized building go and returning several thousand dollars worth of donations collected last year from businesses and families who are eager to see the old building renovated and transported to a new home at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

The group met with the Yellowknife Heritage Committee, Wednesday, to decide there was still time, money and the will to save the building, although it likely won't be easy.

"Quite honestly we will be coming to the community for assistance to take this project further," said Glowach. "It may not be funds, it may be the expertise that we need."

So far, Weatherby Trucking has agreed to move the hospital at little or no cost to the committee.

Faces demolition

The hospital was built in 1937 and was where Dr. Oliver Stanton, Yellowknife's first doctor, and his wife Ruth, delivered the first children born to the city's fledgling mining community.

Efforts to save the building began last year when it and other structures in the mine townsite were slated for demolition following the closure of Con Mine.

Leading the charge was Spirit Yk. Its members, including Glowach, raised donations from several businesses and families, including $25,000 from the mine's owner, Miramar.

The building was to move last summer, but project co-ordinator Kerry Beauchamp left town and the project stalled.

More bad news came with a consultant's report that said moving and renovating the 68-year-old structure would cost up to $350,000, far more than the $100,000 first proposed.

Miramar, seeing no action, and anxious to get on with clearing the property of old buildings, requested its money back.

However, Scott Stringer, general manager of Miramar northern operations, said last week the company is willing to give the hospital proponents more time.

Plan right now is...

Glowach said while it appears the building will be saved, it has yet to be decided when it will be moved.

Much of that will depend on when Weatherby finds the time.

The plan right now calls for it to be taken to a site near Kam Lake where some initial renovation work will be done.

It will be at least another year before the building can be moved to a site near Stanton Territorial Hospital where it would remain as a heritage memorial, much like Yellowknife's first school which now sits beside Mildred Hall.

Weatherby Trucking owner Blair Weatherby expects it will be a difficult move when the time comes, hopefully "before the snow flies."

"There's an addition we're probably going to try and take off of it. We're going to try to get a couple cranes in there, and if not, we'll have to jack it up."

Renovating the building will be another problem.

Many of the outside boards have rotted, and the interior is in rough shape.

Glowach said her group is hopeful the total cost won't approach anywhere near $300,000.

She said it might be a good project for some young carpenters looking for experience.

"Will it end up that high? Perhaps, I don't know how high it's going to end up," said Glowach. "If we have the community come behind us, it won't see that kind of cost."