Minerva Hall: a grand reopening for a busy community centre
After three years of work, a hall built by the community in 1916 opens its doors again.
Minerva Hall will celebrate the grand opening of its newly renovated and expanded facility on Thursday, June 11, at 6:30 p.m. The improvement project was launched three years ago, and the open house will mark its completion after much hard work.
The original Minerva Hall was built in 1916. Several men of the community helped to raise it, but the main carpenters were Simbi Josephson and Mundi Narfason. Before events, it was Elli Narfason who lit the Coleman lanterns and started a fire in the barrel stoves to ready the hall.
After electric lights were installed in the old hall, it was a teenaged Raymond Sigurdson who lit the fires. For years, Oli Narfason plowed the snow from the driveway and the parking lot, season after season — the quiet, steady work that keeps a community's gathering place alive.
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