Enbridge donation boosts Bates Hall restoration fund to $321,500

A $1,500 donation from Richard Smith, representing Enbridge, pushed the Bates Hall restoration fund to $321,500 and moved the 1907 Bates Township Hall another step closer to the physical work supporters have spent years trying to reach. The gift, accepted by new society director Anita Berno, marked the third time Enbridge has backed the Bates Hall Project.

The latest contribution matters because the campaign is no longer only a fundraising push. The Bates Hall Preservation Society expects restoration work to begin in late spring, with help from additional grant funding from USDA Rural Development. That timeline puts the project at a pivotal point for Bates Township, where the hall at 3070 E. U.S. 2 in Iron River stands as the last public building in town and a visible link to the community’s civic past.

Bates Hall was built in 1907 on the corner of U.S. 2 and the Bates Amasa Road, and local history has long treated it as more than a building. Before the hall was constructed, the township reportedly had no office, and election records were carried from board member to board member in a heavy iron safe by horse. The preservation effort began with grassroots organizing in late 2020, and the Bates Hall Preservation Society formed in 2021 with the goal of preserving and reviving the hall as a meeting place for the community.

The fundraising climb has been steady. The society reported topping $200,000 by the end of 2023, later reached $206,000 in an earlier update, then surpassed its $300,000 goal in November 2025. In December 2025, the group said its funding thermometer had reached $312,666 after two anonymous large donations and the approved federal grant. The new total of $321,500 reflects continued support from both local donors and a regional company, giving the project more momentum as it approaches construction.

The work ahead is substantial. BHPS has said the plan includes moving the hall off its crumbling fieldstone foundation onto a new foundation farther back from the road, adding a basement, porch and steps, and building a corridor to township offices. That corridor is expected to include a small museum with rotating local memorabilia displays, while a mural above the trustees’ meeting area will honor the area’s mining, logging and farming history. Society leaders have said the project is meant to restore the hall’s original function as a community gathering place, with Phase II, including Legacy Park in 2027, still to come.