The short answer? The nuances of construction in an old building and bureaucracy.
As many who follow us know, we’ve been doing major construction since 2018. When we first received a half million dollar grant from the National Parks Service (NPS). To date, we’ve been through three phases of this major construction and have been awarded this NPS grant two more times. Phases one and two were primarily dedicated to ADA compliance: elevator, bathrooms, HVAC, and the like. Phase three, currently the biggest perpetrator of bureaucratic delays, is where we’ve been able to do some actual historic restoration: ceiling tiles, lighting, floors, and plaster. COVID related shutdowns and supply chain issues in this time certainly haven’t helped.
Prior to these grants, restoration was even slower. While the ballroom was made “sound” around 2012, the lack of an elevator and those other necessary ADA compliances meant Dreamland could not host the wide array of public events it was designed to hold. Events that would help raise awareness and funds for the restoration effort. Our one city-sanctioned fundraiser, Dancing into Dreamland, was, and still is, the primary means of fund- and friend-raising for the Friends of Dreamland (FOD).
This event and the additional donations from the Pave the Way program help us pay for routine maintenance, keep our board insured, and pay to keep the ballroom relatively clean; those little things that preserve it on a day-to-day basis. And in a good year, a bathroom could be installed, or lights put in or AC window units set up; those little improvements that made it more hospitable for the times we could use it.
Before the founding of FOD in 2009, Kerry McCoy slowly restored the building herself. From 1990 to 2009, working up from the basement (after putting a roof on it). Restoring each floor for the sake of her growing flag and banner company. Eventually realizing she would never be able to restore the building to its former glory on her own and therefore founding the 501-(c)3 and turning over Dreamland’s revitalization to a board of directors.
So, I guess that’s a version of the long answer. Lack of funds, of manpower, of awareness. Years of seemingly insurmountable compliance issues. A building falling apart, one with a story as beautiful and inspiring as it is sad, painstakingly put back together over 30+ years.
Keep Dreaming, Matthew McCoy