In 1938, volunteers in Lantzville put up a church using materials salvaged from mine buildings in Cassidy, near the Nanaimo Airport. It opened as St. Philips United Church, according to a local heritage walking tour of Lantzville, a month or two before the village's Catholic church. Eighty-eight years later the building still stands at 7244 Lantzville Road beside Huddlestone Park. It has had no regular use since 2023.
Its neighbour, Costin Hall, is booked for a run of dates this fall and winter. The two buildings sit almost side by side in the village core, and the gap between them comes down to renovation work that one received in the 1960s and 1970s and the other never did. Lantzville's newly elected council will be the one to decide what happens to the church, and its first meeting is in the hall next door.
The Hall That Kept Getting Rebuilt
Costin Hall, at the corner of Tweedhope and Lantzville Roads, was not built as a hall. It went up in 1921 as a two-room school, Lantzville's second, because the mining families had already outgrown the first one. The school closed in 1955 and the building became Centennial Hall. A kitchen and washrooms were added in 1967 for Canada's centenary, and the brick section followed in 1971 for BC's centenary.
The name changed as well. The same heritage account says one group used the hall so much that it picked up an informal nickname, and long-time residents who had worked on the hall objected. At a Lantzville Improvement District AGM, they moved to rename it after the Costin family, who were very active in the community and ran the village grocery store from 1948 well into the 1970s.
Today the District of Lantzville owns and operates the hall. Since June 30, 2025, the Regional District of Nanaimo has handled bookings. The RDN's Costin Hall page lists a main hall that holds 200 people and a kitchen that can be booked. The kitchen and washrooms behind this season's markets and meetings date to the 1967 addition.
A Full Calendar From November Into December
These are the hall's dated events for the coming weeks:
| Date | Event at Costin Hall | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, November 4, 6 p.m. | Inaugural Council Meeting | First meeting of the 2026–2030 council |
| Saturday, November 28 | SCS Christmas Market | Hosted by the Seaside Community Society of Lantzville; published hours vary, so check with the Society before you go |
| Saturday, December 5, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. | Island Winter Market, day one | Free entry and free parking |
| Sunday, December 6, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. | Island Winter Market, day two | 20+ local makers, festive food, free children's activities |
The council date comes from the District's October 2026 community update. The Island Winter Market is running for the first time this year at 7232 Lantzville Road. Tourism Nanaimo also lists it for the same weekend. Event listings put the Seaside Community Society's Christmas Market on November 28, but they give different start and end times.
Remembrance Day also passes through the hall. Last year, NanaimoNewsNOW's 2025 Remembrance Day roundup listed a 10:30 a.m. parade from Legion Branch 257 to Huddlestone Park, a 10:50 a.m. service at the cenotaph, and food afterward at Costin Hall and the Legion. That was the 2025 schedule. The Lantzville Legion posts its upcoming events on Facebook and by email, so check there for this year's timing.
The Church That Changed Hands Instead
The church's history runs differently. After the United congregation moved to the Ecumenical Centre on Spartan Road, it sold the building to an Anglican congregation. In the mid-1970s the Anglicans built a new church near the southeast corner of the village, and by 1977 the old building had been sold to the Legion. The District now owns it and has leased it to community groups and other denominations. The Nanaimo News Bulletin reported in 2016 that the Seaside Community Society was leasing and operating both the hall and the church from the District at that time.
The two buildings had the same owner and, for a time, the same operator. Only the hall got the upgrades. District open-house boards describe the church as a two-storey wood-frame building of about 200 square metres. It was used first for worship and later as a daycare, and it closed in 2023 over safety concerns. The first point in the engineering summary on those boards reads:
"The building is in poor condition and is at the end of or has exceeded its life."
The Community Building B open-house boards list what a full renovation would need. That includes a small two-storey addition for new exit stairs and more washrooms, a structural and seismic upgrade, new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, and a hazardous materials survey. Most of that is the same kind of work Costin Hall had done in 1967 and 1971.
What the Numbers Look Like
In May 2025, the Nanaimo News Bulletin reported an estimated cost of about $1.07 million to repair the church. The District's draft 2026–2030 capital plan, dated March 2026, puts that report's figures side by side. Refurbishing would cost about $1.1 million, and rebuilding or demolishing about $250,000. The plan sets aside $50,000 for the building in 2027 and notes that discussions are ongoing.
So keeping the original structure would cost more than four times as much as the cheaper paths. The money budgeted for 2027 is enough to plan the next step, not to carry out any of the options.
Five Options, Presented in June
The District held an open house at Costin Hall on Thursday, June 11, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Nanaimo News Bulletin's preview noted that the church had been empty since 2023. Residents were asked to comment on five options:
- Refurbish and renovate the existing building.
- Remove it entirely for another use, such as parking.
- Replace the building entirely.
- Keep parts of the façade and other heritage elements while rebuilding the site as a new space.
- Demolish the building and replace it with a park or open space.
Four of these options were on the January 21, 2026 Committee of the Whole agenda, and the fifth was added for the open house. In July, a staff report recommended that Council receive the public feedback for information. It did not recommend choosing an option. The report went on the July 22 Council agenda under unfinished business. The District's project page says updates and timelines will be posted as the work moves forward.
The Council That Inherits It
General voting day was Saturday, October 17. According to the District's preliminary results, Mark Swain was elected mayor by acclamation, and Scott Mack, John Westby, Jonathan Lerner and Lee Forsyth won the four council seats for 2026–2030. The next decision about the church will be theirs, and their first meeting is in the converted 1921 schoolhouse next door.
If you want a say, the District Planning Department is the listed contact for the project at 250.933.8093 or [email protected]. Council agendas, livestreams and recordings are posted through the meeting calendar on lantzville.ca.
Changes to the village core along Lantzville Road matter to everyone who lives near it. That includes this pair of buildings and the long-term care home now under construction at 6910 Lantzville Road. If you have questions about how changes along the Lantzville Road corridor might affect a home you own or are thinking about, the Charlie Parker Team follows these decisions closely and is happy to talk them through. Contact Us.