It hosted ballroom dancing and badminton and children frolicked in the pool - and Gonville's community centre deserves to live again, new owners say.
Bobbi Magdalinos and Ross Mitchell-Anyon have bought the Tawa St complex - the size of at least three suburban sections - with its hall, pool, water bore,
changing sheds, swimming club room and another building.
Elderly Gonville people have many tales about the hall - stories of christenings, twenty-firsts, craft markets, table tennis, funerals.
"We'd like to make it some sort of centre of this community again, with artists living and working in it, and the big hall free for performances and gigs," Mr Mitchell-Anyon said.
The two bought the complex about three months ago for Wanganui District Council's asking price - $150,000 and GST. That was after it was extensively advertised and received just one tender - of $10.
"In other words, the buildings were for demolition," Mr Mitchell-Anyon said.
Before buying the complex they held open days there, with a petition. They wanted to start a trust and get the council to donate the building, but there was not enough enthusiasm.
The hall was built in 1911, and the swimming pool in 1929. Another building, possibly a former fire station, could be even earlier.
Mr Mitchell-Anyon was seeking engineering advice on strengthening the hall's splayed roof, and repairs had begun on the interior.
An arts access group was considering using the smaller wooden building next door. The Green Bikes initiative could move into the pool's former changing sheds and the former club rooms would make an attractive art studio.
As for the pool, closed when water started leaking through the many cracks in its concrete floor, it could be used for rollerskating, skateboarding or have a new skin put over it and be filled with water again.
Closing it was a poor decision, the couple said. It was in the middle of Wanganui's lowest socio-economic area and a convenient and cheap place for children to swim. "Children are drowning at an impressive rate every year because school pools and these sorts of community pools are being closed."
The whole complex has been vandalised and mistreated. But a fence against the footpath now closes it off and the stealing and smashing are slowing down.
"People are getting the idea," Mr Mitchell-Anyon said.
It hosted ballroom dancing and badminton and children frolicked in the pool - and Gonville's community centre deserves to live again, new owners say.
Bobbi Magdalinos and Ross Mitchell-Anyon have bought the Tawa St complex - the size of at least three suburban sections - with its hall, pool, water bore,
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