Local men buy former Nelson Museum building

Nelson’s old museum at 402 Anderson Street has two new owners with a unique vision for the building.

Glenn Sutherland and Joey St. Onge teamed up for the purchase and gained possession of the building this summer.

The duo is turning the property into a sports therapy and performance clinic, relocating and combining Saint Performance and Fitness and the Nelson Sports Lab in one building. 

Renovations are well underway. St. Onge says they’ve been busy “bringing the building back to life” since they took possession in August. 

The new business doesn’t have a name yet, but St. Onge says renovations should be wrapping up next month. 

The basement is being transformed into a gym, where local athletes can train with hired professionals. The top floor is being converted to accommodate athletic therapy services.   

The performance gym will be open first and is expected to be operating next month, with the rest of the business on track to be fully operational by the new year. 

The building was home to the Nelson Museum until 2006 when they relocated to 502 Vernon Street. The city stored its artifact collection at the old property until 2019. 

For the 30 years it was home to the museum, the building was a monument in the community, partially because of the large mural painted on the side. 

Alex Ford, a local muralist, hand-painted the mural in 1987 as a tribute to the community for Nelson’s 90th birthday. It’s been on the building since, even after the museum moved … until now.   

When the building was purchased this summer, a condition of the sale was that the art be painted over. 

The Nelson Museum Archives and Gallery requested the condition to avoid confusion about their location.  

“The mural spoke to the museum, to what it was at one point on 402 Anderson, and was very much about showcasing what the museum is, who the museum is, representing the history of the region,” said NMAG executive director Astrid Heyerdahl.  

“If that’s no longer the museum space, having that mural there, which had the sign as well, would be confusing. We want to make sure that people know where the museum space is and know that they’re coming to 502 Vernon Street.” 

Heyerdahl reassures the community that the iconic art piece is memorialized in their new location and St. Onge says they also plan to pay tribute to it. 

“We tried to have it removed so we could keep the whole mural, or add a little bit of flair to it, but they wanted it covered over. So we ended up keeping a portion of it, the downtown scene of Baker Street.”  

He said Ford even offered to paint a new mural, although no plans have been set in stone.