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| (courtesy photo) |
Staff Columnist
SOMERSWORTH –
The vacant Hilltop School in Somersworth is undergoing
renovations to become a community arts, culture, and education center, with the
anticipated opening in the spring of 2013. There is a fundraiser coming up on
June 23 - a concert featuring folk, rock and roll, and jazz bands, with all
proceeds going to the Hilltop School revitalization. The fundraiser is at the
Somersworth High School pavilion at 6:30 p.m. with a raindate of Sunday, June
24.
As it stands now, the Hilltop School is an empty building in
the historic district of town, which has turned the heads of many local
residents in the past several months.
After a vote by the school board to build a new elementary
school in a new location, the Hilltop School ceased operations in 2011. The
people who came together as the Friends of Somersworth group saw the potential
in the building and the historical significance of the structure, knowing that
if left alone, it could be left abandoned or sold for next to nothing.
Realizing that many people in the area were traveling out of
town to engage in arts and culture, the group began the initial phases to support
the development of a creative community in the city - through the use of the
Hilltop School - and to help with downtown redevelopment, the quality of life
of the citizens, and to improve the town’s image. They sought to restore the
building and bring it back to the community as a center for education and
culture.
Starting with just a few residents living by the hill, the
Friends of Somersworth group became a state-recognized organization in July
2011. The group includes residents of all ages and now has more than 100 active
community members from town including Somersworth, Dover, and the Berwicks in
Maine.
From those members, an official board was established
earlier this year with thirteen members, and it meets once a week to hash out
any new or persisting issues with the plan for the school.
The group began its extensive outreach in September 2011,
delivering a business plan and petitioning the city to establish a
public-private partnership with the group.
The 21-page business plan proposed a dreamlike vision of a
community center, complete with blooming landscaping, an outdoor amphitheater,
the sounds of music lessons and someone learning Chinese, the smell of paint
from an artist’s studio and coffee from a communal kitchen. The plan states
that the center will be “the start of something amazing; the start of a
partnership; the extension and connection of a community; the establishment of
creative placemaking in the city; the first words in the story that tells
future generations that Somersworth is something more today than it was in
2011.”
Knowing that the plan will change and adapt as they
encounter obstacles and opportunities, the Friends of Somersworth group was
thrilled when the Somersworth City Council unanimously approved the initial
proposal in February 2012. The group is now working with the city to secure
grant money to begin the redevelopment of the school. As Emmett Soldati, the
board’s chair, explains, “Arts and culture are alive and well in the Seacoast
region.”
Fundraising for the project is in progress, both for
short-term needs and then for long-term, but the Friends of Somersworth group
knows they are not in this alone. “That’s where it’s going to become a
community project,” says Soldati. The plans are in place to draft an artistic map
of downtown Somersworth, with proceeds from ad space to help fund the school,
in the hopes of branding Somersworth as a destination.
The biggest challenge the group has faced since gaining
approval by the city is keeping track of all of the ideas. “It almost seems
like we’re constantly in the brainstorming stage,” says Soldati. “At the end of
the day, no building renovations have been made. Until that time, it is very
open and last minute changes can be made. The big challenge were working with
right now is taking what we have and just running with it.”
In addition to the planning, there’s much to be done -
fixing the heating, installing fire doors, and wading through the many
inspections - but the work is underway. “It’s been a pretty exciting project for
us,” says Soldati.
The hope is to phase the building into progress in stages,
as each section or floor of the building becomes ready for use. If the cards
fall right, residents of Somersworth and towns nearby will be visiting the
space for music lessons or a group meeting or a painting class by next spring.
