Newtown’s Landmark Town Hall Awaits Reuse

Kendra Bobowick

“It’s a great old building,” said Edmond Town Hall Building Manager Tom Mahoney. His jingling key ring echoed alongside his voice, bouncing between vaulted ceilings and stone corridors.

Considering the town employees who once arrived at the building for work each day, he said, “I miss them all.” A sign on the front door directs residents with municipal business to the Fairfield Hills campus where town offices are now located in the Newtown Municipal Center. “It’s very quiet,” he said. “Not to my liking…”

Every week someone stops to purchase a dog license, pay taxes, look up land records. “It doesn’t stop,” Mr Mahoney explained, despite the office relocations last fall. Offices including the town clerk, tax assessor, tax collector, judge of probate, first selectman, finance department, the IT department, registrars, human resources, all relocated from the Edmond Town Hall to Fairfield Hills. Among departments moving from the Kendro building on Peck’s Lane to the new municipal building is the Land Use Agency, Board of Education, and heath department.

Ready to tour the empty or partially renovated suites of which just a few await new occupants, Mr Mahoney stood outside the current manager’s office on the second floor of the four-floor building and asked, “Where should we start?”

He rounded the corner and moved toward a meeting room next door to the vacated registrars office now used for storage. Into the meeting room — once a bowling alley — he stepped past folding chairs and a chalkboard as if a meeting recently broke up. Using a rear entrance he passed through a brief corridor that opened onto a long room with a recently finished hardwood floor. This space, which also saw new paint, is under renovation for the Lathrop School of Dance. Toward the end of this room is a freshly carpeted area that will be used as a waiting room.

Just down the hall in the finance director’s former office is the Newtown Chamber of Commerce’s new home. Once housed in the rooms behind the Alexandria Room stage, and then relocated to a Main Street address near the flagpole, the Chamber of Commerce will again be in the Edmond Town Hall. The room has already been prepared.

“This makes a nice office for them,” Mr Mahoney said as he pulled the door shut to lock it.

A floor below is the gymnasium, he said, which will continue to serve as the venue for craft fairs, dog training, basketball, and other annual or regular activities that now take place.

Up two flights is the building’s main level and the theater, still in full use for movies and performances. “The theater won’t change,” he said. Crossing the building’s main lobby, he approached a wing once occupied by the first selectman, human resources, and assistants. Reaching again for the right key, he opened a door to the area’s waiting room. “This is where we’ll be,” Mr Mahoney said. The airy rooms had fresh paint and new carpeting.

Off the lobby is the Mary Hawley Room, which is still designated meeting space. Across the lobby is a space familiar to many resident who would march up the broad marble front steps, push open the tall fronts doors, and turn left into the town clerk’s office.

Unlocking that door, Mr Mahoney stepped into the first half of what had been used for the clerk’s office and staff. The Board of Burgesses will use the front portion, while town historian Dan Cruson is expected to use the back room nearer to the vault.

Looking at the tall windows, master clock on the clerk’s wall, and the heavy metal vault door facing a wall of tall windows overlooking historic Main Street homes, Mr Mahoney said, “This is a great old building.” Edmond Town Hall was given to the town in the early 1930s by Newtown’s benefactress, Mary Hawley.

Entering the vault he pointed to the far wall where he revealed a secret long-hidden by sturdy floor-to-ceiling shelves: “We never realized until we took everything out that the clerk’s and probate vault were connected,” he said.

Through a doorway of thick plastered walls was another vault that had been used by the judge of probate’s office, which is located down the corridor from the clerk’s suite. The probate, tax assessor, and tax collector’s now-empty spaces are currently undesignated.

A floor above them is the Alexandria Room and kitchen, which are ideal for banquets. The stage also makes the space a good location for small performances. A future project will include improvements to the bathrooms in the changing room space behind the stage to make the facilities handicap compliant. The balcony overlooking the main floor theater is accessible from across the hall to the Alexandria Room. Future plans include replastering the space.

Noting the emptied rooms with just a few prospects for reusing some of the space, Mr Mahoney said, “It’s a start.”

The Board of Managers is currently working to refill the building’s rentable space within the constraints of permissible uses per borough regulations and uses stipulated in Mary Hawley’s will.