Whitney Hall

The current Whitney Hall was built in 1905 to replace a building destroyed by fire.  The building was constructed to provide school rooms on the first floor and on the second floor, a large hall with a performance platform at one end and a kitchen at the other.  The building served as an elementary school for years but currently houses town offices on the first floor and storage on the second.

The Building Committee undertook a project to examine the viability of this building to serve in one of  two capacities in a cost effective way.  Specifically, the project should consider the potential of this structure to serve for at least 25 years in one of the following configurations:

• As a town administrative office building
• As housing for elderly residents.

The building was built in 1905 and is iconic of the South Royalston village.  As such the Building Committee is giving the highest priority to maintaining the external appearance of the building, independent of the internal use.  The building has had a number of modifications but has not received the kinds of maintenance that it might have been given had it remained an active school.  The only bathrooms are in the basement and were originally designed as bathrooms for an elementary school. 

The structure has been plagued by water in the basement but recent work overseen by the Royalston DPW appear to have relieved this problem, however any plan to use this building more fully must include a careful review of the groundwater situation.

These viability studies, completed in October of 2018, indicated the building could be renovated as housing with 8 units for $3,140,000 or as offices for $3,385,000.  Both options were considered by the Building Committee to be beyond reasonable expectations for local funding and alternatives are being investigated.

Housing:  

After reviewing funding options the Building Committee determined there was little funding available for a municipality to pursue this path and it would be necessary to sell or lease the building to a private company that could do the renovations needed and then operate the facility.  This investigation is still open but as of 2020 all research indicates such companies require a minimum of 14 units to make a project financially viable.  (Review this viability study here).

Town Offices:

The current view of the Building Committee is that this option, while cost prohibitive using municipal funding, is more viable because there does appear to be potential grant funding sources that can be pursued.  As this work was started the South Royalston Village Revitalization (SRVR) group was formed with the mission of reinvigorating the entire area known locally as The South Village.  Having the energy of this committee involved introduces the possibility of using Whitney Hall as a museum or as a cultural center, both uses that have grant funding opportunities.  The Building Committee will continue to work with the SRVR to ensure the future of this key building.  (Review this viability study here).