Andover Community Space (ACS), the organization that now owns the Old Town Hall, at 157 Main Street in Andover, has begun a series of meetings to engage local groups and individuals interested in making the building’s 5,000 plus square feet of interior space available for use by the local community.
According to Deb Brower, one of the ACS planners, “During these meetings we share drawings of the interior to give people a sense of the current layout of the building, and also photos of a few nearby community centers. We have a summary of the ideas we’ve heard so far, and we invite everyone to share their own thoughts about its future use.”
To assist in the outreach effort, ACS has been aided by local draftsman Mark Cowdrey, who has used a computer based space planning tool to create a variety of three dimensional drawings showing detailed plans of the building’s different levels, four in all. The drawings, when shown on a computer screen, can be manipulated to show different floor levels, interior wall configurations, structural components like posts and beams, and more. Alternative configurations can then be created on the screen to help viewers visualize how the spaces would look in real life.
Paper copies of the floor plan will be available at the meetings, as will a variety of newspaper articles and photographs, a collection of more than 200 suggestions for building use submitted by students of the Andover Elementary and Middle School, and a questionnaire for gathering additional input from attendees.
As of March 1, outreach sessions have been held with the Andover Fish & Game Club, Friends of the Northern Rail Trail, Andover Community Cable, Andover Planning Commission, Proctor Academy, and Andover Elementary Middle School. Sessions in March and April will be held with the Andover Energy Group, Andover Community Association, Andover Recreation Committee, and other organizations.
Additional Andover based groups interested in contributing their ideas for use of the building may contact ACS at andovercommunityspace@nullgmail.com to schedule a presentation. Organizations and individuals are also invited to schedule an appointment to take a guided tour of the building via the same e-mail address.
The Old Town Hall, built in 1879, was purchased at foreclosure auction last November by a group of eight local residents, who subsequently formed the organization called Andover Community Space.
Now vacant, the building has most recently housed a medical billing service and several physical-fitness and dance-instruction facilities. Previous occupants of the building have included a furniture-maker, a certified public accountant, and an attorney.
Though the main floor, once a single meeting room that also served as a basketball court, has been converted into ten offices and conference rooms, the original stage and dressing rooms are still in place. A second floor, added at a later date, has been used only for storage.
The building and its half-acre of property were sold by the town to a private purchaser in 1963 after the construction of a public school gym, now part of the Andover Elementary and Middle School, made the 1879 building obsolete.