Big changes are in store for a community gathering place on South Whidbey.

This week, a total of 33 solar panels were affixed to the roof of Clinton Community Hall. The grid-tiered solar system will provide 100% of the building’s annual electric usage with clean energy. Workers also installed a battery backup system that will keep the lights on in the event of a power outage.

This, and several other recent updates, are all part of the Energize the Hall campaign, which aims to move away from traditional propane sources that previously powered the hall. This weekend marks the official community fundraising kickoff, with a celebration from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 at the hall. Purchase tickets at clintoncommunityhall.org.

Mike Gerhardt, the hall’s president, explained that the hall’s leadership has been successful in securing grants for improvements that were made within the last year.

“Traditionally, pretty much anything that happened on the hall was a community fundraising effort,” he said, pointing to a new septic system in 2019 and a new roof in 2021.

However, the cost of a heat pump system, installed in January, was completely covered by money from Whidbey-based Kicking Gas and Sustainable Connections in Bellingham through a state grant.

The new solar system put in this week costs around $55,000, 70% of which is covered by grant funding from Whidbey Climate Action’s Whidbey Climate Fund (in partnership with Whidbey Community Foundation), Seattle’s Norcliffe Foundation and the Solar Moonshot Program out of California. The hall paid the remaining balance for the project.

The hall also installed an induction electric cooking stove last fall, and is currently in the process of replacing a propane hot water heater with an electric heat pump water heater.

“A lot of the systems that were here were getting old anyway, and so we were able to upgrade these things in a way that made sense for the longevity of the hall,” Gerhardt said.

To further its energy efficiency, the community’s support is needed to install insulation and replace 28 single-pane windows and doors that have been leaking air. Two of them are jalousie windows, which tilt open. Each window costs about $1,000. They will likely be replaced in phases when enough funding becomes available. Fundraising will likely continue through the summer.

In 2024, the hall was used for more than 160 rentals and events, with 85% of those being nonprofit organizations and groups under the hall’s Civic Use program, which provides low, subsidized rates. Clinton Community Hall has been the site of blood drives, candidate forums, library events, craft markets and more. With the addition of the new heat pump, which provides air conditioning, indoor temperatures will be a lot more comfortable in the summertime, Gerhardt noted.

Clinton Community Hall has a long history on South Whidbey, spanning two different buildings over more than a century. In 1907, the Progressive Association of Clinton formed and began discussing the possibility of building a community gathering place. The first hall was constructed in one month and the club had a treasury balance of $1.27, according to “South Whidbey and Its People, Volume 2” by Lorna Cherry.

Today’s hall was completed on May 18, 1965, and the old one, which was deemed structurally insufficient, was burned to the ground by community members in 1967. An old South Whidbey Record article noted that the hall was the site of a fistfight between two competitive ferry operators in the days before Washington State Ferries served the island.

Clinton Community Hall has about 300 members who chip in financial support, starting at $10. For more information, visit the hall’s website.

An earlier version of this story stated that Kicking Gas helped fund the hall’s solar project. It has since been updated with the correct information.

The exterior of the newly built Clinton Community Hall in 1965.

Clinton Community Hall President Mike Gerhardt poses near an old nurse log that members of the South Whidbey Garden Club dragged uphill in the late 1960s. (Photo by David Welton)