Now that Ocean Avenue Elementary School in Portland opened last week, the Nathan Clifford Elementary School stands empty and waiting for its next incarnation.
In the coming months, Portland school officials are expected to declare the 1907 structure “surplus” and turn it over to the City Council to decide how it will be used in the future.
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It’s one of several former school buildings in southern Maine that are on the cusp of redevelopment for new public or private uses.
Whatever becomes of the yellow brick building on Falmouth Street, school officials and others hope to preserve the structure’s distinct architectural features and unique public art pieces, including two murals painted during the New Deal era.
“With a grand old building like this, we would want renovations or enhancements to be done in a historically respectful way,” said Douglas Sherwood, facilities director of Portland schools.
Empty schools present communities with opportunities and challenges, both of which can be affected by factors ranging from the state of the economy and real estate market to conflicting public interests.
Falmouth officials are planning a June 14 referendum on a plan to develop a new town library and a community center at the soon-to-be-vacated Lunt and Plummer-Motz elementary schools. The town is building a new elementary school on Woodville Road, between the middle and high schools, which is set to open in September.
The Falmouth Town Council has reached consensus on a referendum proposal that would fund a $5.6 million reuse of the school buildings on Lunt and Middle roads from a variety of sources without raising taxes. Still, some Falmouth residents would like the school buildings and 10 acres, recently appraised at $2 million, to be sold for private development.
“It is a wonderful opportunity,” said Falmouth Town Manager Nathan Poore. “A lot depends on what each community chooses to do with each school building.”
In Buxton, the Buxton-Hollis Historical Society is working to save the former Hanson Elementary School from being torn down. The Bonny Eagle School District offered the building to the Town Council last year, after the new Buxton Center Elementary School opened next door, but the council turned it down.
Now, society members are gathering signatures for a June 14 referendum asking the council to lease the 81-year-old building from the district for $1 for one year while the town considers a plan to develop a community center in the Route 22 landmark, said society President Jan Hill.
Initially, the town would use undesignated surplus funds to cover $68,000 in annual operating costs, but the self-supporting recreation department eventually would take over, Hill said.
“When the threat reared its ugly head that the building would be torn down, we started getting calls at the historical society from people saying, ‘Shouldn’t we save the Hanson School?’ ” Hill said. “We want to make sure the citizens of Buxton get to make an informed decision about this.”
The Sebago Educational Alliance is expected to move in September into the former Jewett Elementary School in Buxton, which also closed when the Buxton Center School opened last fall. The alliance’s move will leave the former Little Falls School in Gorham vacant for a variety of purposes under consideration in that town.
The fate of the Clifford school is on track to be decided by the Portland City Council.
Though not a registered historic landmark, it was designed by John Calvin Stevens, who is widely considered Maine’s premier architect of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The school was named after a 19th-century Maine statesman who served as a congressman, naval secretary, diplomatic envoy to Mexico and U.S. Supreme Court justice.
The building contains two 12-by-13-foot murals, on either side of the auditorium’s stage, that were painted by Ralph Frizzell in 1940 as a public art project sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. One mural depicts fishermen hauling a net into a dory. The other shows farm workers in a potato field.
Both are oil paintings on canvas that will be removed from Clifford’s walls, transferred to wooden frames and displayed in the central stairway of the Ocean Avenue school, Sherwood said.
School officials also want to preserve a colorful chalkboard mural of scenes from “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” which was discovered in a classroom during renovations in the 1970s, Sherwood said. Drawn during the 1930s or 1940s by an unknown artist, the mural has been protected for decades by Plexiglas. Exactly how it will be preserved in the future is undecided.
The council’s community development committee will oversee the disposition of the building, according to its chairwoman, Councilor Cheryl Leeman.
It will be a two-pronged process, Leeman said, with the committee seeking ideas from citizens on how the building should be used and proposals from individuals or groups that would like to buy or lease the property, Leeman said. The committee used a similar process to determine the future of the former Adams Elementary School on Munjoy Hill.
That’s where Avesta Housing plans to build 16 affordable condominiums using $1.7 million in federal economic stimulus money, $250,000 of which will go to the city for the site. Demolition of the school is expected to start later this month, followed by a public hearing on the project in April, said Avesta spokesman Ethan Boxer-Macomber. Construction would start in early summer.
Leeman said her committee probably will seek development proposals for Clifford school that would preserve its unique and historic features, including period oak trim and built-in bookcases. However, renovations will be necessary to address the building’s lack of handicapped access and energy efficiency. The building costs as much as $5,000 per month to heat, Sherwood said.
Judging by other school reuses in the Portland area, Clifford could be converted into housing, used as a community center or incorporated into the nearby campus of the University of Southern Maine.
If the building is sold, Portland’s elementary schools may benefit, said Mark Terison, the school district’s chief operations officer. Overall, the district has about $60 million in school building renovation and replacement needs.
“If any proceeds are realized from the sale of the Clifford school, the district would really like to see the money applied to our elementary building needs,” Terison said.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
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