Regina Branch may be a shadow of its old self, but what a shadow it still casts. The 2,000-square-metre classical moderne-style building was constructed in the heydays after the Second World War, when the branch had more than 2,500 members. Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh attended the official opening in 1951. Boasting an auditorium, cafeteria, lounge, museum, offices and all the storage room the branch would ever need, the place was hopping for decades. Over the years, membership declined, utility costs skyrocketed and in the new millennium, the branch found itself with more building than it could afford. Several schemes for saving it fell through, and eventually the branch was forced to sell to a developer who wanted to put up a parking garage. Still,...