Wallblake House

A Restoration in Progress

September, 1997 Progress Report

Interesting discoveries: In the course of our research, we have discovered that Wallblake House was once green! There is a painting that was done of Wallblake, which witnesses to the fact that this was once the colour of the house. We hope to get a photograph of this soon. If anyone has, or knows of, any photographs, paintings, historical documents, letters, or even 'word of mouth' stories, we would love to hear about it.

Website: http://www.wallblake.ai Bob Green has been wonderful, and donated both a lot of time and effort to design and post the webpage. It is, we think, very good. With the use of pictures and text, we tell the story of Wallblake House, where we are now, and what we hope to accomplish. Please, if you have access to the internet, visit the website and tell us what you think. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Insurance: In order for work to commence on the house, we must have insurance (workman's compensation, public liability and "disaster"). Thus far, we have only had one company willing to quote, many companies will no longer insure wooden buildings. We would welcome any other quotations.

Floor Plans: Another generous donor of time and effort has been Ian Smith, who is drawing up the floor plans of the house and environs. When they are complete, we will use them both for the actual restoration, and to post on our webpage. They will also form part of the 'story' of our restoration, to be preserved with the house.

Raffle: We currently have two raffles underway. The first, which is being run in the States with the help of the "Offshore Contingent" (who have been working very hard!), with the prize being a trip for four to Anguilla, is doing extremely well. Richard McCandless, has been tireless in his efforts to sell the tickets, and thus far they have raised almost US$12,000.00, though sale of the tickets.

We also have a local raffle, with the prize being a trip for four to Disneyland, including accommodation and car rental, with an alternate prize of US$ 5,000.00, if the winner doesn't want to take the trip. Thus far we have had mixed reviews, any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Governor's Letter: The Governor of Anguilla, Mr. Robert Harris, has very kindly written an open letter in support of the project, which we will publish next month. We anticipate that this letter will be very useful in our efforts to raise money internationally, as it will give the restoration credibility in the eyes of potential donors who may not know much about Wallblake House or, for that matter, Anguilla.

Joseph Mallozzi: We would like to thank the family of Joseph Mallozzi who have given a very generous donation of US$ 5,000.00 "In Memorium", towards the restoration of Wallblake.

Monthly Meeting: Our next meeting takes place on Wednesday, September 24, 1997 (the last Wednesday of every month), on the grounds of Wallblake. Everyone is invited to attend. We will also be inviting Liz Subin of the Anguilla National Trust to the meeting. If there is anyone else in the community that you think may be interested in assisting with, or hearing about, the project, please go ahead and invite them, or give their names to Marjorie McLean, who will invite them on behalf of the committee. We hope to see you there.

Funds Collected to date: We are doing very well in our fund-raising efforts, we have now collected US$ 37,062.49, through donations, sales of T-shirts and prints, and the 2nd collection on Sundays. We would once again, like to thank everyone for their generous support.

Read the previous progress report.