Members of the Randall-MacVane American Legion Post 142 on Peaks Island have voted to sell their hall amid falling membership and rising maintenance costs.

Fred O’Keefe, the post adjutant, said members on the island met Wednesday night and unanimously voted to sell the building, which dates back to the 1800s and was purchased by the legion in the 1930s.

He said the decision reflects the reality of declining membership, with the Peaks Island post down to 53 members after losing 13 during the past year. He said three of the 13 died and the other 10 just didn’t renew their memberships.

“Almost all veterans’ service organizations at this time are losing members and no one is stepping up,” he said. “We continually look for new young people to come into the legion, but we just don’t have any young people.”

The post on Peaks, he said, has no more World War II veterans, one Korean War vet, one or two from the Gulf War and the rest are Vietnam War veterans, like O’Keefe.

In the case of the Peaks Island legion hall, “it’s become very hard to maintain the property,” he said. “It’s the lack of people and the total expense of the building is overwhelming.”

O’Keefe said there are other places on the island where the legion can hold meetings and it will use part of the proceeds from selling the hall to fund its programs to support veterans and their families. The legion will continue to organize events for Flag Day, he said, and is working to restart the island’s Memorial Day parade, which was shelved the last two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to nonprofits on the island, he said.

Despite the decision to sell the hall, “we are still adamant about continuing with an American Legion post here on Peaks Island,” O’Keefe said.

The legion hall was closed in early 2020 as the pandemic spread, O’Keefe said, and the extent of needed repairs hit members as they considered re-opening.

For most of its history, the hall has operated as a private club, with a bar inside open only to members and guests. At the legion’s urging, Maine’s liquor license laws were amended about four years ago to allow the public to buy drinks at the bar, which provided more funding to operate the hall. But that ended with the pandemic, O’Keefe said.

The post doesn’t have a restaurant license, he said, although members have at times operated a barbecue outside, giving burgers to island residents and asking for a donation in return.

O’Keefe said the post is working with a lawyer to process paperwork needed to put the hall, located just a short walk from the island’s ferry pier, on the market.

He said he doesn’t yet know what the asking price will be, but a local realtor said the property is likely very valuable, especially with Maine’s real estate market booming.

Rhonda Berg of Harborview Property said the building and lot – a little less than an acre – could go for $1 million or more if it can be used for business, but O’Keefe said the site, like most of Peaks, is zoned for residential use.

Berg said a big question is how much work a buyer would have to put in to use the hall as a home. The building would need an entirely new kitchen, she said, and O’Keefe said the structure requires “a laundry list” of repairs and upgrades, even though the roof was replaced recently.

The Peaks Island legion post was started in 1931 and the hall was purchased in 1937. Legendary film director John Ford, a Cape Elizabeth native who bought a house on Peaks Island after finding fame in Hollywood, donated $500 to help pay for the purchase and another $500 for repairs to the building.

Ford was never on active duty in the military, but he was a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II. He made documentaries for the Navy Department and was present at the Battle of Midway and at Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.

Ford was named “honorary commander” of the Peaks Island post after his death in 1973.

The post was originally named for Earle MacNeil Randall, a Peaks Island resident who was killed while training in Quantico, Virginia, in 1922. Later, Arthur L. MacVane was added to the post name in honor of a signalman first class whose submarine, the U.S.S. Trigger, left Guam in March 1945 and was presumed lost.

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