The St. John Historical Society has a 99-year lease on life, or at least on a location for all the materials and archives it’s been assembling over 40 years.
The Society announced it’s secured a lease from the St. John Community Foundation for 6,000 square feet in Estate Bellevue to construct a permanent home. The cost is $1 a year.
Bellevue is on the east side of Gifft Hill and near the St.John School and a housing project.
“The Society is in immediate need of at least a modest office space and a secure climate-controlled repository for its collections,” said David Knight, president of the Society.
Fund raising will be undertaken to finance construction of the facility.
Knight said he would eventually like to see a library and archive along with a cultural history museum and genealogical resource center.
The Community Foundation received the land from developers of the Bellevue project, Reliance Housing Corp.
There are ruins near the leased land, dating perhaps to the 18th century. The Foundation is hoping an interpretive trail through the ruins will be developed by the Historical Society.
I want to help – I don’t live in SJ, but still want to help somehow!!!!
I would love to help but I’m not on island could you please give me more information on how I could help. Thank you
The website for the Historical Society is http://www.StJohnHistoricalSociety.org
To contact them, email is [email protected]
The site contains tons of interesting information about St. John, and offers merchandise as well as a fascinating book they published about 2 years ago called “St John: Life in Five Quarters.” They are also on Facebook, where they post historical photos, offer photo albums, etc.
You can also become a member of the Historical Society for a modest annual fee, and the (email) newsletter is excellent.
AND, they would gratefully accept any donations — towards their work or toward the building!