After being in the same building at 19 W. Washington St. in downtown Oswego since 1947, Oswego American Legion Post #675 is looking to move.

“The Legion is looking to rebuild and relocate,” Post Commander Kris Kearns said during the May 26 Oswego Committee of the Whole meeting. “We’ve been at the current facility for 79 years, but the building is over 100 years old and it’s really just not working out any more.”

It has expanded from the original two-story house to include a banquet hall and downstairs bar/dining area. The post is also home to the Ladies Auxiliary Unit and the Sons of the American Legion Squadron.

The post plans to stay in the village, Kearns said. It recently opened up an account for a new building fund.

“We’re going to start working on some fundraising,” Kearns said.

The post’s ultimate goal is to move into a new building that would have a banquet hall with a minimum capacity of 250 people, he said.

“That way we can keep some of the business that we’ve seen going outside of the village in the village,” Kearns said. “And within that, there would be a divider wall so we could also break it down into two rentable units that each would hold 125 people.”

Oswego American Legion Post #675 also is working to update its practices.

“In the next 30 to 60 days, we will start taking credit cards, which still blows my mind that up until this point, we’ve maintained being cash only,” Kearns said."

Kearns is also a lieutenant with the Oswego Fire Protection District. He is a 1989 Oswego High School graduate.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1989 to 1993 as was part of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

American Legion Post 675 is involved in many community activities, including helping put on cruise nights in downtown Oswego as well as holding a fish fry on Friday nights. The post also hosts bingo on Wednesday nights, which has proved to be very popular over the years.