 Hi, welcome to CCTV channel 17 live 525 preservation Burlington show Preservation Burlington is a non-profit 501c3 organization And our mission is to preserve and protect the historic architecture and livability of Burlington through education and advocacy I would like to and we're gonna do that. We're gonna talk about that tonight I'd like to thank John Antrim who's president and board member longtime board member of the Champlain Club Which was formerly the German Club, which was really called the Gerta Lodge Gerta Lodge I have spelled it looks like ghost, right? Yes Gerta Lodge on Rowley Street. Yep. Yep. We've been there for a bunch of things and there's a couple of streets short streets like that with that start With C like Calarco Court. I always get them confused, you know, yep But I'd like to thank you for being here tonight. Absolutely my pleasure. I know that like I said Preservation Burlington's been peripherally paying attention and been a little bit involved in things at the at the club for a while and It's just a cool building it sure is really neat history sure is I want to start by asking you to just explain a little bit of Your involvement how you got involved because we were talking on the phone the other day and you said that um that Used to be a lonely board, but you've got a little more help now a lot more help now So how long have you been on the board? I have been involved with the club in a Semi-official or official capacity for over 15 years I have been president for most of that time Tom Carr asked me to step up and help the club. I was one of the younger crew coming in at that time and We have been working there working away since Tom did a great deal for the community and lots of people finally remember him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's really neat And so so now you say you've got a little bit more help. So when did when did that's when did when did you feel some momentum? Probably about three years ago four years ago. I guess if we're counting pandemic time as actual time It was super interesting to Get projects going in the community have a bunch of people step up show interest and Really a lot of it comes from our love of dance and for though our love of the space I'm primary. I got involved in the club as being a dancer and when we're able to be there every week And enjoy the floor and then re-finish the floor during the pandemic time. It's been really lovely neat and doing lots of Improvements and feels really really nice real wood floor. Yes actual ballroom wood floor now That's the second basic the second floor ballroom area, right? There's a stage and everything up. Yep. There's a small stage We can fit about five Band members on it and if they bring you know lots of gear then we've got to spill them down onto the floor Which still works very well. We just have to light them so the dancers avoid them. Yep I'm dancing to a live band. There is so very very special. Oh, that's cool. So you've been doing that for a while Yes, yeah, so what what organizations are you I want to get to the history of the building in a minute And yes, of course, we're gonna talk about preservation Burlington and your guys board and the future of the building But so how many people use use the our members and or use the club for so we've got around 60 members currently about Now half dozen to a dozen groups use the building regularly We have Jankulu for African drum from West Africa. They're there are Thursday nights and Saturday mornings So if you're walking through the neighborhood, that's what that is. That's what you hear Wednesday is West Coast swing with the 802 Westi collective. I think that's right Tuesday is Vermont swings, which is the group. I'm primarily involved with there's also Sal Selina tango salsa rather and Queen City tango are former members and now they are back in Shelburne. So oh, I miss them. Yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah, I guess they were made Filling in some time with you guys. Yes. There was a whole big project going on in Shelburne. Yep. Yeah, so They're lost It is There are challenges, but it sounds like a lot of people love the building and obviously use the building That's the key right to any preservation project. Yeah, so your board members now. How many how many people on the board? there are four executives and four members at large and so I think we're eight or nine maybe and we work all together different people with different strengths different organizing skills and Do a fair amount together. It's really I always call that a working board You know preservation Burlington's like that, too We you know you hope for as many people as you can get and then you utilize everybody's skills Absolutely, and it's good because it takes a lot of the pressure off I mean as you as you mentioned I can imagine when it was you trying to drive the thing and trying to get members You know you're doing everything. Yep, right. So it's a little better now Yes, lots of lots of enthusiasm and we've got the the neighbors are supportive of our events And we get along very well with them and great Always in touch. Yeah, that's really important. Yeah, so how old is the building? So the original building footprint dates from 1905 to 1907 different Articles will place it at different times. I do have some of the Burlington land records which show the transfer of the property that the building was built on to the trustees and Then they donated the property to the order When it was German, right? So it's always been a club. It's always been a club It's never been a home the German club and Italian ain't in style Mm-hmm. It's got that kind of square, you know what the commercial feel with yes corn is up top Yeah flat roof There's a pitch roof behind behind. Yeah, so I like the Western towns, right? It's got that very much and commercial kitchen and a Small gathering room downstairs for that we use as a dance room There had been Had been part of the dart league around Burlington for a long time and that was a big kick in the late 80s And I came across a Vermont cynic article that talked about the punk rock showdown at the club So it's been through all kinds of musics and bands and various side for 2006 for a hundred and twenty something years. Yes, mm-hmm. And so Doing what we can make it make it as good as we can make it and hopefully we'll have community in person So we're a little bit so I now I'm being a little disingenuous because I know what's going on But tell me a little about like so preservation Burlington is happy to partner with you guys Yeah, we love the building and stuff So what's the event coming up in that? We're so that is September 17th It is going to start with a walking tour of the neighborhood and the history around the the neighborhood the founders and builders of the club and where they lived and Then there's a slideshow and discussion and then a potluck and a dance after that Going into the evening. Nice. So all day event almost. Yes. Yeah, that'll be fun So the founders so the so it was a German neighborhood. Yes That's neat. So they got the property and then some people go looking together and they built the building. Yes Transfer all that. So how big was that neighborhood? I believe that most of Lakeview Terrace Vols Street Crowley Most of Ward. It's all German And all of the little places when you look around the neighborhood, there are a couple of buildings You look at them and you're like that was commercial at some point That's a commercial storefront that has been converted into apartments and the keys litches had a market like that at the corner of I believe North Ave and Lakeview Terrace and they would Go run their market and then go over to the club in the evening and socialize. Yeah, those communities have I know that historic New England just did a big thing on the local markets around Burlington And how they were related to different ways of immigrants and yes, and I know we've reached also reached out to Charlotte recently But yeah, but there was that's a really neat sort of Dynamic for the communities, you know that there were you know if there wasn't like a Main Street It was a neighborhood, but it was a German neighborhood. So there were several different commercial Operations supporting those people those immigrants exactly and then they had this club, which is pretty cool that it's there and still is still Entertaining people absolutely, you know, so Tell me about the so it's not the pronounced again for me the Gerta large Gerta Gerta Lodge I'm gonna remember that and that goes back with we have a member who is German philosophy professor and he is going to be putting together a program for us probably do it online with the history of Gerta and Faust and all of the German philosophy that goes in with that and a lot of the history articles talk about the club being a refuge from the hard life of Burlington in the early 1900s Where the German immigrants were used to having a garden party? lunches picnics on Saturday Sunday afternoons and it was just a Relaxing joyful time for the families and they replicated it as best they could in the community Yeah, the community center as they got came here. Yes, absolutely. That's pretty neat So when did it become the Champlain Club? So I know that didn't it operate it as a German club for a little while or was that just the nomenclature for so depending on your age and when you came to Burlington the changeover I am not exactly sure when they started using the Champlain Club But a great number of folks that would recreationally sale in Mallet's Bay became members for the winter and so they were like, let's make this the Champlain Club And so there are lots of nautical themes in In storage. Yeah introduced But they are It's really it was always a DBA So the Gerta Lodge is still back there in the background and now we are a nonprofit and we Carry that Gerta tag forward with the Gerta community trust. Yeah carrying the history all the way forward, too Yeah, yeah, so I know the I'm gonna be a little over the place here because I was fine We're just bouncing around a little bit. Yeah looking forward to the seven 17th, right? Yes, September 17th So the back to the first floor. Yeah, there's like If I remember correctly because we held a couple of meetings there. We had an event there and an annual talk There's the community room you mentioned. Yeah, there's a Sliding what's it? There's a 24-foot shuffleboard table table table table. Yep. Yeah, and that is One of the I think there's one other in Burlington at a restaurant and ours is quite a bit bigger But yeah, it is it is not something it will fit anywhere else in the building We've looked at where it could live. Yeah, the room. It's in is where it's gonna. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of neat I mean it does take up that wall in that room, you know the rooms big enough I think and then the adjoining room has a bar in it. It had a bar and we've got it mostly as a Intermediate workspace while we do some renovations do some repairs The commercial kitchen is on the first floor and then there's a front room, which is mostly a sitting and and Casual sitting rather than a formal meeting room but Those spaces the the back space the oak room is available for meetings and where's tables and that's where the board Board game group would meet. Okay. Oh neat. Yeah, so put up all the tables and fill them with little trinkets and cardboard So people are renting the space to use for different uses. Yes in chair. So that's how how do you guys manage that? Who handles? We have an online scheduling tool. Oh, okay prior to that going back a number of years. There was a We had a Google Google calendar doing it on the cheap. Yeah, which worked pretty well And every now and then we would have a conflict Which is part of the you know community life, right? Yeah, right? It's not gonna be perfect But we put the scheduling system in place and that's been really great There are a couple of groups You know you get you get feeling your music you turn up the music and the people are like well I can't do the other thing I wanted to do at the building at the same time Thankfully our neighbors all love the music that we play I don't know if they're just saying that or if they actually like it It doesn't matter. It doesn't complain. That's all it counts, right? right put everybody on the on the happy pages for it and Yeah, we've got a lot of crossover with music and We've had a couple of groups come in Rehearsed plays to put up put on plays in larger spaces, but they come and use your space as a rehearsal. Yes That's pretty neat. Yeah, that's really fun convenient. I mean so I'm gonna I'm gonna start segwaying into the preservation and you mentioned projects You know in that the temporary work room. So does Any of this activity generate funds for you guys to keep going? Oh, yeah, we have Rental fees and we collect membership fees for folks We've recently put in a bunch of things for the audio video environment upstairs and Try and present bands in better Better light. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah And that's going well there You know, I look at the space and I I have my dream of what it can be and Build consensus with everybody and and chase those dreams down. What's that dream? Well, the upstairs ballroom is just it's such a fantastic place The feeling of it is Very cozy. I find very Very at peace for for me and I met my wife on that dance floor And there's a lot of special wonderful memories. I had our reception there And as I talked to people in the community People pop up and say, oh, yeah, my mom had her wedding anniversary or wedding reception there and You know 50th birthday party. Yeah All those sorts of things all those members was all the place You know, it was the place that all of it happened for a huge part portion of that neighborhood And so We'll keep it and improve it as best we can. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah So along the lines of improvements, what what sort of projects are you guys working on or and now I'm assuming We'll get into I think there's some grant moneys available and stuff and we're we're we're going to communicate about Facade improvements, but what what's going on inside? What are some current projects that the board's working on? we have reinstalled Some things that were removed in the in the past. We shortened An upstairs bar space So that there's more dance floor We sanded and sealed the dance floor three two two and a half years ago. I think yeah mid pandemic. He said yes That was really great. We painted the entire upstairs All volunteer labor and had a bunch of equipment loaned to us and that was really super again the neighborhood coming together and Yeah, there's a bunch of uh Bunch of things for downstairs. I would like to improve the kitchen a bit the the club community used to put on brunches every sunday and it was Way more food than you or I could possibly imagine Yeah, um, and It was very inexpensive and that was really just a community building exercise Yeah, and people got together because they love to cook and they love to visit sounds like a really good idea Yes, you'd like to see that come back. I would love to see that. Yeah, absolutely Sunday mornings. Yeah, we could do that. Yeah Put on some blues upstairs and have lunch or brunch downstairs and then go up and dance for a little while Oh, that'd be amazing. You know as sundays are you know, I personally try to I'm not good at it. I work seven days a week usually But I I try to keep sundays as that like sort of ease out of last week and into the next week And just you know brunch is like the perfect Opportunity to do that. You know that sounds like a pretty good idea. Um So so we're inside so uh, tell me a little bit about the the grant project that's coming up Um, we have a number of grant proposals and we are seeking matching grants for some of those um and donations And raising money from our communities So that we can insulate the upstairs. We can insulate the outside a huge number of clabbards need to be replaced Windows are not original and the upstairs. Um, and as Grant money becomes available Depending on the limitations. We'll use it for replacing those windows with period correct or Improving the security of the downstairs because the downstairs Has all kinds of expanded metal over the windows. Oh, yeah Yeah, because it's close to the grade level, of course, especially in the back Doesn't the driveway come up a little bit or something? Yeah, um, all of the first floor is actually four feet below grade. Okay Yeah, I thought so. Yep. It is a little bit of a challenge to have windows that are safe Yeah, yeah, that is a challenge. I know I've been on a project up in enusburg and uh, they have a similar situation in their opera house Right, um, and we restored windows for them and then we created. I mean quarter inch Plexiglass storm windows, you know, they're functioning more as protective Secure windows. Yeah To the other windows because a rocks from lawn mowers and more people just trying to get in Have you guys had any Any experience with people trying to get in recently or no not in the not in the recent past? The 1973 fire was actually a molotov cocktail arson and That arsonist also burned several churches in the early 70s, so Um, amazingly some one of the neighbors who happened to be a member was looking out their window and saw it happen Oh, wow and called the fire department right away um, but unfortunately a great deal of History was lost at that point. There were You know ceremonial things documents handwritten documents in longhand german, which I couldn't read anyway We don't have them to even do that research log out call fire. Yeah So a lot of smoke damage On other challenges of you know, a very old building. So yeah, yeah We'll pull up the website in a minute because so for scheduling events and stuff like that You can all do that through the website. Yep. Yeah, and you can Donate to help with matching grants and stuff. Yep on the website and there's a A Some email contacts to reach the board about becoming a member as well. Oh, great. That's pretty neat So with the grant stuff is that through the state or is it through like preservation trust? What's the there are grants underway with preservation trust? um state of vermont Historic preservation and I am not unfortunately the the grant person I have very luckily got a wonderful board member Charlene who was taking on most of the grant writing and most of the Interaction and the conditional understandings on all of the grants Is nothing is Nothing is just here. Have some money. Just go do what you want. It's never simple Shelbur museum that you know constantly doing that and of course They're a big organization. They have a team of people that are trying to to pull a lot of that A lot of that falls to one of my co co-workers and colleagues and but it is yeah, it's not something It's like a rabbit hole. Once once you discover that there's things there you have more and more to learn Yeah, and I know Just to reference the opera house again, you know, there's a scope of work that the grant covers Yes, you make sure that you meet those, you know, and I get it. That's that's public money coming to you So everybody wants to make sure it's spent in the way it's supposed to be spent But in the case up there, we we run into Just like in a project at home. You run into a laundry list of other things that are Associated with it, right, but you've also got a timeline, right? So you sort of ignore those other things and make a list and go, okay Let's get these grant projects out of the way Absolutely circle back at the end and then try to to tackle some of the other stuff that comes up So what what's this what's the scope of work that the grants are hoping to accomplish windows? You said windows the front facade is very very worn Being a south facing We got a lot of structure it's clabbered right yep clabbered and That has been weathered and It's in really tough shape. It is not very attractive We look back on the early pictures of the club with the hundreds of people and Certainly a different sort of thing so So they have uh, oh this need there's a couple of flyers for events going on Yep, it's from 1939. I think yep, and then once I can't I have to put my Cheating glasses on but yeah 29 or 39. I can't see but we'll zoom in on it. So people at home can see 1929 see if we can zoom in on that for a minute. I'll try not to move it too much. Yeah, but um So, uh repairs to the to the facade. Yeah clabbered. Yeah And then I'm trying to think what so what's Well, what we have what we have done recently. Yeah, uh new furnace from with help from efficiency vermont and vermont gas. Yeah And then an on-demand water heater so that we're not heating For no reason, no reason, especially if it's not occupied all the time, you know, yeah with our relatively low occupancy rate It is important that and we don't Spend energy where we don't have to yeah, you know You're raising money for important things and then spending money on energy that you're not going to utilize That makes a lot of sense. Those are all those projects that nobody sees Those are really hard ones to fund too, you know getting people to chip in for something Nobody's ever going to notice the hot water tank. Yeah, or or so we've uh, You know automated as much as we can we drive temperatures in the building on schedules We collect data on temperature in the building outside the building and around the building So that we know like yeah, it makes sense to open the windows right now So that we can bring in cooler air does that monitoring. I do you do. Okay. I was gonna ask and it's remote You can do it on the computer at home and you can see what's going on Yeah, most of the buildings in the museum are like that and you know, I know there's two people that Go home and like keep an eye on that. Yes Yeah, that's really convenient though and that's super, you know, that's cutting edge. It is good In a previous employment situation, I was managing a very automated building and I had 30 or 40 temperature points in the building that I could remote view and act You know create logic to produce the best result to do whatever needed to be done Now I'm doing that on a much smaller scale. Okay. So it's nothing for you. It feels a little familiar. Yes Good. I'm sure Charlene is happy. You're doing that. Yeah, and she's doing the heavy lifting with the grants You know, yes, it's very so what's so front facade. How's the roof on the building the roof is good It is a rubber membrane roof We were up earlier this year repairing a Ventilator which had been blocked off for a couple of years And that has come on and worked all summer which has been great Um The front of the building where the um pitch roof and the stepped facade Meat has some issues. Um, there's a little bit of water pooling there flashing details And we're gonna got to get up and have someone take a look at the Chimney for the uh for the building because that is not in use anymore. So we're gonna cap that off Yeah, um And then insulating in into the basement At one point there was a large project to curtain all of the stone foundation with cement And so that's all It's great in that it's not moving. It's not great in which there's water challenges from that A lot of those solutions were sort of you know, I mean a lot of people do things not realizing what the end result Some other different result is going to occur, you know, yep So you guys are finding so it's like a whole bunch of friends owning a house together. Yes very much Try to itemize the the immediate needs seal the envelope and then work on aesthetic improvements All the while scheduling different events And you know, you have a whole community of people that want to utilize the building So that's a big plus right and we have to schedule around our work around their needs So that they Continue to hang with us and keep on our cash flow and cash flow Yeah, and energy and we do volunteer work days and so twice a year we do an inside and twice a year We do an outside spring and fall. We do an outside. We renovate as much as we can And uh chase down new things or uh other things that are not right We just did the gravel driveway this summer and that's been really great The neighbors the first time I drove in I was like that feels really loud And I asked the neighbors and they were like no, it's fine. It's fine. They share the driveway with us. Oh, okay Yeah, yeah, they'll take the noise. Yeah, not getting stuck in the mud. Oh for sure. That's right. It was a dirt driveway before Yeah, yeah, yeah Well, let's I mean this all sounds like a lot of pretty good news. Yes I know it's a lot of work a lot of effort. Um, I'm really excited about our uh partnership on this event And looking forward to any of anything else we can team together on because it's a really neat building You guys will keep it. I'm sure you'll keep it for another 120 something years I hope I'm not still on call in a hundred and seven years. You'll step back a little bit by then Maybe I'll retire. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming on and sharing your experiences. Absolutely. Thank you so much Yeah, um and again everybody could go to the preservation burlington website also And we've we've posted the the event on the 17th and the walking tours and stuff. It's going to be a really good time I think we've put together a whole bunch of really fun things and absolutely a whole full day. Um Thanks, john. Absolutely. Thank you on yep. It was a pleasure. I'd like to thank everybody for tuning I'm reading the cue card. I'd like to thank everybody for tuning in to cctv live at 5 25 The preservation burlington show For more information on burlington history our tours and events like the one at the champlain club or to get a marker for your house go to www which I don't have to say anymore preservation burlington dot org and we'll see you next month. Thanks for watching