The Dartmouth Heritage Museum Society will have a new home in an old building, Halifax Regional Council decided Tuesday.
Council voted to give the society exclusive rights to the former Dartmouth city hall building next to the ferry terminal as soon as it becomes available.
Dartmouth’s 45,000-artifact collection is currently sitting in a warehouse in Burnside, and Dartmouth Centre Coun. Gloria McCluskey said many of the pieces have already begun to degrade. Other larger pieces have simply been stuffed wherever they fit – a prime example being the old Dartmouth mayor’s desk currently sitting in Coun. Brad Johns’ office.
“We need a permanent home,” McCluskey told council. “It’s tragic the little value that was put on some of these things.”
The building is currently occupied by the Halifax Regional School Board, which has not indicated when it might move out. In the meantime, said McCluskey, the museum society’s 80-some volunteers will have to do some fundraising to pay for renovations and the cost of the move.
