Beams from Cathedral Parish Hall to get new life in farming education project

The beeping of a truck backing up indicates the delivery of more material.

A group of young adults springs into action, looseningthe ratchet straps and lifting one beam after another off the cargo bed.

The beams, now neatly stacked up, were moved from Cathedral Parish Halll across St. John's to their new home on the O'Brien Farm property, between Mount ScioRoad and Oxen Pond Road.

"We looked at these beautiful beams in the floor system. We said, 'They got to be reused,'" said Rick Pardy, CEO of Parish Lane Development, which will transform the old buildingon Queen's Road into townhouses.

To preserve the beams, Parish Lane Development donated them to the O'Brien Farm, which will integrate them into its new learning centre. Young adults employed by Impact Construction removed the beams from the parish hall, with the cost of labour split between the farm and the developer.

Aaron Rodgers, manager of O'Brien Farm, says repurposing the beams aligns with the farm's philosophy. Something the O'Briens are known for, he said, is reusing and salvaging materials as much as possible.

"Being able to access building material much like the way the O'Briens were able to access building material from all these different places and different structures," he said,"to me really hearkens back to the spirit of the O'Brien family and what they were doing for the last 200 years."

The beams will be used for a pavilion that is "nestled over" one of the centre's two buildings.

"It's a really neat design and it allows us to invite as many people up here as possible and still kind of be in an outdoor setting," said Rodgers.

The centre will have information about Irish-Newfoundland heritage with a focus on the O'Briens, as well as farming and food culture. The preservation of history was one of the motivations for the project.

"It's much better than the landfill. It gets reused, it's a history. Those beams have been used for 125 years, so hopefully they'll be used for another 250 years," said Pardy.

Brian Hanley of Impact Construction said a commitment to the community was the other motivation.

"We've had roughly 19 young people work on this project from start to finish. We've done about 3,700 hours of employment for young people on this project. Soit's been huge for us and young people in the community," he said.

One of the 19 young people involved in the project is Kirklyn Hobbs. While this wasn't his first job with Impact Construction, it left a lasting impression on him.

"It's about the history," he said. "I'm a proud Newfoundlander and there's a lot of respect to be had for the construction workers back in the day that built the Parish Hall and managed to notch out all those big ol' heavy beams with hand tools and lay 'em up there. It must have been some really strong fellas."

The construction of the learning centre is expected to begin this summer. Rodgers hopes the doors will open in spring 2022.

While using the beams certainly saved the farm some money especially considering current lumber prices Rodgers says it's far more than that.

"What we're able to do now is tell a story with a piece of wood. And that's something that's really hard to put a price tag on."

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