Picnic builds hope to revive Negro Community Centre

The Negro Community Centre of Coursol St. has been boarded up for two years.

Nearly two decades after the doors closed on the Negro Community Centre in Little Burgundy, a group is reuniting in an uphill battle to revive it.

An architectural treasure, the boarded-up building on Coursol St. dates back to the late 1800s, and though it is showing its age, hundreds of people who the Black community who grew up using the centre have been hoping it would be given new life since all programs ceased there in 1993.

“I used to play badminton there when I was 14,” said Florence Westmoreland. “We had all our meetings there, cooking – it was wonderful times. I wished they’d come back.”

To facilitate that, a group met Sunday at Angrignon Park for the second annual reunion picnic.

The brainchild of sisters Muriel and Viola Walton, the picnic helps let former members share memories, but also bring the NCC renovation project to the forefront of thie rminds.

"(It’s) to spark their curiosity about what was the NCC. What was it about this building, the people who worked there, the feeling of belonging," said Muriel Walton.

It’s not just about the four walls of the dilapidated building, said Viola.

"The community that we grew up in doesn't exist anymore and we would like to bring it back," she said.

The city of Montreal has $2 million set aside for a full renovation of the NCC, contingent on an equal share from the two other levels of government, said NCC president Shirley Gyles.

Quebec and Ottawa have not committed to their share of the $6-million project, and the provincial government recently told the group that was not a priority.

The space could serve as a drop-in centre or residence for seniors, a daycare and a banquet hall.

“We’re sort of between a rock and a hard place right now,” said Gyles. “We’re doing all kids of fundraising… we would be able to get some funding perhaps that way to start."