A 40-year-old Head Start program that has provided child care for generations of low-income South Portland families will close its doors on May 23.

Declining enrollment and government cuts are forcing the Mosher Street Head Start Center to move remaining families to similar programs in Portland or to the Redbank Head Start Child Care Center in South Portland.

Center director Jennifer Kirk said the Ferry Village neighborhood, where the center is located, has changed and become gentrified over the years.

Fewer families are eligible for the free and subsidized child care services based on income. The nonprofit program is operated by the Portland-based People’s Regional Opportunity Program, or PROP, and primarily funded by the federal government.

Mosher Street Head Start now has 17 children, ranging in age from 21?2 years to 5. Ten children are about to move on to kindergarten.

At its peak, the center cared for 55 children at a time.

“I will miss the kids and the families the most – and making a difference,” said Kirk, who has worked at the center for 15 years. “We have a lot of history in this neighborhood.”

The center is run from the city-owned Hutchins School, a two-story wood building with large windows and soft pine floors. The old Hutchins School is tucked in a densely settled neighborhood off Pine Street.

Kirk says the old school building, with its spacious rooms, has a comfortable atmosphere that is not found in most modern day-care centers.

Susan Whittemore, who has three children enrolled at Mosher Street Head Start, calls the center a second home. Whittemore, 32, attended the program as a child. Now a college student, she sends her three pre-schoolers there.

“I’ll miss it. It has been a quiet and safe environment – something we relied on,” said Whittemore, whose kids will go to the Redbank center, on the west side of South Portland.

Added Kirk: “The families grow up and in turn have children. Another generation of kids comes here. It’s been quite common.”

The departure of the Head Start center from the former Hutchins School also may mark the end of an era for the 1860s clapboard building.

Although PROP has made about $175,000 worth of improvements to the two-story building, substantial work still needs to be done. The large windows leak and the rooms are drafty.

“We’ve done some major repairs to keep it up, but there is a lot more to do,” Kirk said.

Kirk said her agency at one point considered buying the historic building, but an architectural review revealed the school needs significant structural repairs. PROP could not afford it, she said.

PROP’s improvements to the building include fixing the foundation, painting the outside, updating the electrical wiring, replacing the furnace and renovating the bathroom. The nonprofit made repairs in exchange for the $7,110 yearly rent.

The organization, with the help of the community, also purchased new playground equipment for toddlers and pre-schoolers.

It will now be up to the South Portland City Council to decide whether to sell the building – once known as the Pleasant Street School – or seek another tenant for it.

Tom Blake, at-large city councilor who lives in the Ferry Village neighborhood, said he expects that the city Council will seek to sell the property.

The building and land are appraised by the city at $327,000.

The City Council and City Manager James Gailey will talk with the Ferry Village Neighborhood Association about what it believes should be done with the building and playground. PROP has offered to donate the new play equipment to the community.

Although the neighborhood association has expressed interest in putting the equipment in neighborhood parks, Blake said moving the equipment and re-installing it would be costly for the city.

Blake said he prefers that the city keep the lot that contains the playground and turn it into a small park for the community.

“The playground is there, ready for use and on a quiet street for that age group,” he said.

But Blake said he expects that the City Council will want to sell the old school building. So far, the neighborhood association is not calling for the city to hold on to the building or seek to preserve it.

Kathy DiPhilippo, who directs the South Portland Historical Association, said the old school building is filled with history.

Although the tax assessor’s records show the structure was built in 1900, DiPhilippo said her research shows that the building first opened in the 1860s as the Pleasant Street School.

It was later re-named after Hattie Hutchins, who taught in South Portland schools for more than 50 years and died in 1930.

“She was first a teacher at the Pleasant Street School and later at the Broadway School,” which was renamed Henley School, DiPhilippo said.

DiPhilippo noted that “South Portland has very few historic buildings. Most of our old school buildings are gone…

“Most of the old beautiful homes that once stood on Ocean Street in Knightville were torn down over the years and replaced with small one-story store fronts and gas stations,” she said.

Personally, DiPhilippo said, she hopes that the building will be renovated and preserved – and not torn down for a new home or condo development.

“Virtually any neighborhood that you go in has many clear examples of old beautiful buildings that once stood,” she said, “and for one reason or another, someone decided that they were not worth saving.”