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A Short History of PahloArt
The front part of the building, built in 1922 was the home of FitzgibbonHospital. In 1954 the back expansion was built. In 1991, the new hospital was built. While the building has had a couple owners since then, the greater part of the hospital has not been touched since the hospital left. When Yoh-Ohanlon purchased the hospital, curtains were still hanging to separate the beds, plastic tubs and trash cans were strategically placed to catch the drips from the leaking roof. Some renovations happened in the oldest part of the building adding central heat and air, and a portion of the basement was renovated to house the Head Start Program which has been a tenant of the building for the last 11 years. A few other offices have been leased here and there, but for the most part, the building has sat empty and lifeless, except for the stories of an occasional ghost or two.
In 2004 the building was purchased by husband and wife team Pat O’Hanlon & Dee Yoh and everything began to change.
The Journey Begins
The winter was spent carving out a place to live and fixing broken pipes, cleaning up from leaks and patching roof leaks.
As spring emerged, the work began to rezone for the project. The rezoning went through without a hitch and volunteers started coming forward offering their time and talents. A steering committee formed and Dave Huck came up with the organization name “CPR for the OldHospital” With CPR standing for Community Project Renaissance. Pat and Dee visited the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia to get ideas for a community visual arts center with working artist studios. The Torpedo Factory has been around for over 30 years now. “Just start. Don’t wait till the building is ready.” That was the advice from the Torpedo Factory founder MaryAnn Landingham. She shared with us how the Torpedo Factory was an old Torpedo Factory in the waterfront district and they started with no air-conditioning, minimal heat for the first seven years. Over time the people came, the artists came, and they grew into the premier center they are today.
Taking their advice, the very first exhibition was planned with two weeks lead time. Occupancy permits were given for one floor of one of the buildings. Volunteer showed up to put up ceilings, scrub and clean and help in a variety of ways. The show was a great success, featuring talented artists from Marshall. Beings it was such a success, the planning for the 2nd show began. Work is being done to expand the area, putting up ceilings, mounting exit lights. By the opening of the 2nd show, there are hopes to occupy the same floor of the other building, more than doubling the exhibition space. In addition, artists are busy painting not just canvass, but walls. Artists who adopt a gallery are fixing up old hospital rooms and turning them into private gallery space. So in addition to doubling the exhibition space, our shows will feature a number of galleries sponsored by a variety of artisans.
The Founders
A little boy was enjoying his summer vacation after 2nd grade when he found himself at the front door of his house facing his teacher. Thoughts ran through his little head of “OH NO! What did I do that I forgot? How can I get in trouble when I’m not even in school!” Knees shaking, heart pounding the scared little boy held his breath awaiting to hear what mischief he was in trouble for. But wait a minute, she wasn’t mad, she was talking about a frog he had made in school; She explained she collected the art of some of her students and she not only wanted to keep my frog, she wanted to BUY it! She offered the tyke $5.00 hard cold cash in exchange for the frog with the red yarn mouth and chocolate brown cardboard beret. In 1964, to a 8 year old boy, that was a fortune. Pat knew right then and there he wanted to be an artist when he grew up.
Fast forward to the summer of 2004. Pat and Dee were in Virginia, making decisions to follow their passions in life. Living outside of Charlottesville, Pat was painting full time and selling his art on the internet. One day it dawned on them they could move anywhere they wanted. Dee had a private practice and led workshops, but she could to that anywhere. Beings Pat was selling on the Internet, it didn’t matter where they lived. They started looking for a large house or a storefront where Pat could have a little gallery, and Dee could have her office and they could live in the same place. They found the perfect place in MartinsvilleVa and were making plans to put a contract on the property. Then Dee got bored and decided to do a nationwide search to just see what else was out there.
The first property to appear on the screen was the old hospital in Marshall Mo. Dee was mesmerized by the beauty of the old building. It haunted her dreams that night. She showed it to Pat and suddenly the dreams began to grow. The possibilities were endless. Pat knew they would never get the thoughts out of their head, always wondering if they did the right thing, so they decided to fly to Missouri to see the building so they could put it behind them once and for all.
Dee shares her experience:
It was love at first site. The years of ruin and dust just didn’t matter. “It was as if the building were calling to us, wanting someone to come, someone to care, someone to bring life back into the hauntingly still halls. We also fell in love with Marshall. Everywhere we went we were greeted with welcoming kindness. We were impressed at the cleanliness of the community and the pride that seemed be instilled in the community. We talked to an arts organization and when we found that they had had a dream very similar to ours for the same building, we just knew this was right. We knew we couldn’t do this alone, but thought if we offered it up to the community, together we could create a community arts center. That was the gamble. But what did we have to lose. If the community didn’t feel like this was what they wanted, then we would just have a really big house. There was no discussion. They both just felt this was the right place to be and bought the building on the spot.
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