That quaint, barn-like building on the hillock above Fairfax Town Hall has a long history, and it’s still making it. For 90 years and counting, it’s been well-loved and well-used.

Built by the Fairfax Volunteer Fire Department in 1921 for the town’s residents, the Pavilion has hosted countless basketball games, concerts, festivals and more, and it’s showing its wear like a child’s favorite stuffed animal. Fortunately it’s undergoing major improvements, though at a pace that could take most of the remaining decade before its 100th birthday.

“It’s always been a vital part of Fairfax, but until recently the building hadn’t been maintained for many years,” said Karen Arnold, who heads the Fairfax Pavilion Restoration Committee. She has spearheaded the effort to “save” the Pavilion and much has already been accomplished, even though it’s a piecemeal approach, with several pieces already in place.

It started with a fundraising effort about a decade ago to improve the Pavilion’s basketball court by Don Briggs, a Sleepy Hollow resident who’s a longtime supporter of youth basketball leagues. Arnold, a Fairfax Parks and Recreation Commission member at the time, began to think bigger. She convinced Briggs, and then they convinced the town council, to support renovations that would make the Pavilion a bona fide multi-use building.

“I felt we needed to expand the focus from basketball to serving the entire community,” she explains. A pro-bono architect designed a plan, funds were raised, grants awarded and improvements made, one step at a time.

Energy-efficient lighting was installed, the roof was replaced and rooftop solar panels were added, which now provide all of the energy used by the Pavilion and the adjacent Town Hall, Police Department and Fire Department. This was all done with a combination of county, state and federal grants and other funding sources.

The next major improvement will be a seismic retrofit, funded by a $425,000 federal grant that matched $125,000 from the Pavilion Restoration Fund. “It should start this spring,” says Michael Rock, Fairfax’s Town Manager. “FEMA approved the funding more than a year ago, but the funds are just now being released and we’ll put it out to bid.”

Coming soon are a new floor and new trails connecting the Pavilion with Peri Park and the ballfield below. Eventually the plan is to add two second-floor rooms that can be used for art classes and meetings; a full kitchen where the rear patio is now; and interior renovations that will make it a viable stage theatre.

For now, besides youth basketball practice and games, the Pavilion is used extensively by Fairfax Open Circle Arts and Sports for low-cost programs and classes that include a toddlers play group, and family and youth art, music, writing and dance classes.

That’s not all. The Pavilion’s 700-person capacity (400 seated) also makes it a favorite venue for events like concerts, wedding receptions and birthday parties. The town rents it out to Fairfax residents for $185/hour ($75/hour for nonprofit groups), with higher fees for non-locals, plus a $58 maintenance fee and a refundable cleaning/damage deposit.

When the Pavilion gets jam-packed during Fairfax Festival weekends, there are echoes of its glorious past as a popular concert and dance hall. Fairfax historian Bill Sagar reports in his book, Fairfax, that Nelson Eddy even performed in the Pavilion in 1934, when he was the world’s highest-paid singer.

The Pavilion is so well hidden in the trees on the hill behind the town parks, ballfield and Town Hall that it’s easy to forget it’s there. But with some TLC from the ongoing restoration efforts, it’s a civic treasure that should serve the community well into its second century.