Exciting Project Will Bring New Life to Landmark in Downtown Pawtucket
Blackstone Valley Community Health Care (BVCHC) is planning to transform the former Pawtucket Boys Club Building, located in downtown Pawtucket, into a community partner hub. Prospective partners include the local YMCA and a soup kitchen to help ensure their patients have access to community support, along with regular access to health care. It’s a great example of Adaptive Reuse in action.
Completed in 1902, the former clubhouse is an example of the Georgian Revival style in red brick. The building was commissioned by Col. Lyman Bullock Goff in memory of his late son Lyman Thornton Goff and dedicated to benefiting underprivileged children in Pawtucket’s urban area. The Club (now the Boys and Girls Club) sold the building in 2006, after moving into a new property located off School Street. Despite years of vacancy, the building’s striking architecture attracted BVCHC. According to Danielle Tremblay, an employee of BVCHC, the “beautiful and distinctive exterior architecture and its strong connection to the surrounding community” are compelling reasons for reusing the site.
The adaptive reuse of this building is an important step in the revitalization of Pawtucket’s downtown. Urban renewal and construction of Interstate 95 in the mid-twentieth century destroyed the city’s core and recovery has been slow, at best. Hopefully, initiatives like Grow Smart RI’s Main Street Rhode Island program (in which Pawtucket participated this past year) and projects like BVCHC’s rescue of the Boys Club building are what it takes to reignite the drive to heal Pawtucket’s wounds from misguided urban renewal.
