Staunton Spectator

THE TOWN HALL.

A press of other matters prevented extended remarks upon this contemplated improvement last week, and we therefore take occasion to bring the matter again before our citizens, and especially to the attention of those corporate bodies upon whose decisions the fate of the enterprise depends. As citizens of the town we feel a deep interest in the issue, and may be permitted to urge a few considerations in favor of the plan indicated in our last number.

All admit that we stand greatly in need of a public building of this kind, and every returning day renders the necessity more palpable and urgent. Suggestions have been often made and plans often proposed only to be abandoned. Men have talked largely and performed the wind work to perfection, but the town is still destitute of this convenience, so important to her interests, and so essential to general comfort and accommodation. The real, and in fact the only difficulty, in the way, has been the want of funds, and this we think is obviated by the proposed plan. Beside the public hall so much needed, the town council find their present accommodations too limited, and both the Masons and Odd Fellows, are anxious to procure rooms for their respective purposes. It is proposed then by conjunction of means to erect such an edifice as will answer these several ends.

It strikes us that neither the Town nor the Orders can so effectually and so economically secure their accommodation as by carrying this plan into effect. As a matter of course the best accommodations at the least cost is the desideratum, and that this is found in community of effort cannot, we think, be disputed. Neither the Masons nor the Odd Fellows can erect on their own account a building of sufficient capacity to answer their purposes, at so trifling a cost as they can by uniting their means. It is presumed too that the members of these Orders feel an interest in the improvement of the town, and are anxious to promote it so far as they can without injury to themselves. Let us then have an edifice of magnificent proportions, and architectural beauty that will be an ornament as well as convenience to the town. Certainly it would comport better with the dignity of these benevolent bodies to hold their sessions in an imposing structure of this kind than in some out-of-the-way quarters over a store-house or counting-room.

We may suggest, then, that this plan be pushed forward with vigor. It is the interest of all parties that the organization should be effected, and useless delay may frustrate the enterprise. As soon as the Union Hall Company is organized, our citizens may have an opportunity to assist in the undertaking. We trust public spirit may be thoroughly aroused, and that the requisite amount of stock may be speedily taken.