The project is the brainchild of Dillmanstown resident Bev Loader (nee Acker), who is well known for her entrepreneurial flair and appreciation of history.
Returning to her hometown a few years ago, she transformed an overgrown site at Dillmanstown alongside State Highway 73 into a large museum-like building complete with a lighthouse and chapel, which she christened "Gethsemane".
While Gethsemane is blessed with religious history and decorated internally with a wide range of interesting West Coast artefacts and church memorabilia, it is the memory of music and dance on the West Coast, especially with her family band, the Acker Band, that inspired the hall project.
"It will be called Melody Hall in memory of those days of bands and all the wonderful dances we had in the old hall, down by Wattie Haybittle’s Kumara Junction Railway Hotel. My parents had a farm along the south side of the Taramakau Bridge. I attended the Kumara Junction School as a girl and we would have school concerts in the old hall," she said.
"Most of the halls back then were the typical country halls which were much like large sheds.
"Mum and Dad’s band used to play in the hall and all the other halls around the West Coast.
"My late husband Ken and I were both members of the band. My father Jack Acker was on violin, Mum played the drums, Ernie Cook was on piano, Ken played the saxophone and I also played the piano. Bert Seebeck occasionally joined in playing the bones.
"It’s all about retaining the memories of those early days when the West Coast halls were alive with music and dance."
Once completed, Melody Hall will feature a stage, kitchen, bar area and lots of room for dancing.
— Paul McBride, Greymouth Star
