Heather Wright/The Independent

St. Joseph’s Hospice is hoping to renew its historic building and preserve its history.

The Sarnia organization operates out a home once known as “The Queen of North Christina” which includes an addition for 10 hospice beds.

The historic home is in need of repairs to the roof and the cedar shakes which adorn its second-storey exterior. They’re original to the building.

Steve Cheshire of Cheshire Roofing has been working with hospice on the plans for three years. He says the historic home built by a prominent Sarnia lawyer in 1889 and donated by the Gordon family in 1989 for the hospice, is in great shape.

“This property was built with an exorbitant amount of money…the construction materials, at least that I’ve seen structurally, are above and beyond what you would expect to see for that era.”

The $280,000 project will include the replacement of the roof and the old cedar shakes.

Cheshire says while they can’t restore the building with the original products because of the costs, they’ll do their best to use products which maintain the look of the Queen Anne building.

But this isn’t just a restoration project – the hospice wants to uncover the history of the building they inhabit.

Executive Director Kelly Chartrand says they know the origin of the home and what happened after the Gordon family purchased it in the 1950s but not much in between.

Hospice is looking for photos or memories of the home.

“As much as we want to preserve the beauty, the beautiful building, we also want to preserve the story… the people who lived here over the years, the memories created here, and the stories that might have otherwise been lost,” she says.

People with memories or photos can contact hospice at info@sjhospice.ca

Aaron Huggett will be in charge of melding those memories into a documentary. The Oil Springs filmmaker is best know for his films on local history, such as the Black Donnellys and Red Ryan. He’s also the man behind the documentary Hope which chronicled the life of a St. Thomas family who “had their feet cut out from under them” and whose community built them a house.

Huggett said he learned a lot from that documentary.

“History happens now, and it’s not just 40 or 100 years in the past,” he says, adding he also learned about building a home.

So, when Cheshire approached him about documenting the project and the home’s history, he said yes.

“It’s not just a documentary about the restoration project, but you look at that happening and peeling back layers of the history of the building itself, and then peeling back layers of the people and their stories over the 127 years, and to me that felt like both needed to be preserved.”

Damon Bennett agrees.

He’s worked with Mike Holmes on HGTV and loved the building the first day he moved to Sarnia.

“We’re just too in a rush these days as society to actually tear down, rebuild, and preserving stuff like this,” said Bennett, who is also part of the renovation project.

“To me, it’s art, and it should be preserved. This is part of our heritage, especially for this community.”