It’s been more than 30 years since the sounds of learning have been heard inside the three-story brick building at 261 West St.
Soon, adults and children will be walking the halls again — and this time, they will call it home.
A ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 29 marked the start of the conversion of the former Carter Junior High School into 39 units of affordable housing.
The building will have 14 one-bedroom apartments, 21 two-bedroom units and four three-bedroom units when work is complete, which is expected to take about a year and cost about $17 million.
There will also be storage for tenants, an exercise room, community space and parking. The building’s exterior and its boiler will be historically restored.
Each unit would be classified as affordable, according to documents from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including 16 units that would be affordable to households earning less than 30 percent of the region’s median income.
The hope, according to a press release from building owner NewVue Communities, is for the building to be certified by Enterprise Green Communities and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in 1904, the former Carter School was named after James Gordon Carter, a Leominster native, teacher and member of the first Massachusetts Board of Education. It served as the city’s high school until 1963; in fact, the building still bears the Leominster High School inscription above the front entrance. Then, from 1964-84, the Carter School was a junior high school.
The City of Leominster sold the Carter School to a private developer in 2000, but attempts to redevelop the building were not successful. NewVue Communities, based in Fitchburg, bought the building in 2016.
“It was such a significant part of Leominster’s rich history, and it broke my heart to see it in such terrible condition,” said NewVue Vice President Bill Brassard, Carter Junior High School Class of 1981. “I am proud to be part of a team that will revitalize this building and create a new use for it.”
NewVue Communities teamed up with city officials, Davis Square Architects, Hutter Construction and Wingate Companies to bring the Carter School project to the phase celebrated last week. Wingate, which will manage the building for NewVue, will start accepting apartment applications in the summer of 2019.
“We are excited to be here today,” Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said. “This building was in such tough shape that we did not know how to redevelop the building. Given NewVue’s track record of taking on the most challenging projects with great success, I was thrilled when they asked us to partner with them to create affordable housing that is such an important part of Leominster’s history.”
The Carter School is NewVue’s second affordable housing project in Leominster. The first was Water Mill Apartments on Water Street.
Project partners and funders for the Carter School renovation include the City of Leominster, the Fitchburg-Leominster HOME Consortium, the state Department of Housing and Community Development, the Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, Avidia Bank, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the National Park Service, NeighborWorks America, the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership and the TD Charitable Foundation.