Norwich City Council agrees to demolish former MLK youth center
City could not find a use for building
Norwich — Alderman Derell Wilson knows that trying to save the building that housed the long-defunct Martin Luther King Jr. youth center would be futile, but before voting to demolish the house, he challenged city leaders to create a new community center, maybe even named for the famed civil rights leader.
The City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday to ask City Manager John Salomone to obtain bid prices to demolish the former youth center at 21 Fairmount St. and bring the cost estimates to the council for a future vote.
The center, which opened in 1967 and offered numerous programs from tutoring to teen dances, movie nights, craft programs and field trips, had a rocky financial history and closed permanently in 2013. The city took the property for back taxes in July 2019 after a foreclosure auction yielded no bidders other than the city's bid for the more than $59,000 in taxes and legal costs owed.
City officials since have tried to find a buyer for the three-story, 3,500-square-foot 1910 house, but its location on a narrow residential street off West Main Street, lack of parking and poor condition proved obstacles impossible to overcome.
Wilson said he was one of many Norwich residents who benefited from the programs and services at the King Center, but he understood the need to tear down the property before it becomes a public safety hazard.
Wilson put out a challenge to the newly formed School Building Committee, which is studying an extensive renovation and consolidation of city schools, to include a community center.
“I implore us to take a chance and provide something for our young people,” Wilson said, “and even naming it the Martin Luther King building or center to go along with it.”
Alderwoman Stacy Gould, a member of the Board of Review of Dangerous Buildings, which reviews properties taken through foreclosures, said the building is “in very poor condition.” She said several city agencies looked at possibly rehabilitating it, but “it’s just too much of a challenge.”
The house is at street level on Fairmount, but the property slopes steeply down to the rear yard at the lower level. The land backs to the Norwich Fire Department, which has expressed interest in expanding its cramped rear parking lot.
Alderman Joseph DeLucia said the former King Center’s value was attributed to the volunteers and staff that ran the center and its programs, not the building itself. Rather than tearing down the house for just a parking lot, DeLucia, chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said he would rather see the property be used as a firefighter training ground, benefiting all six Norwich fire departments and firefighters in surrounding towns’ departments.
Alderman Mark Bettencourt, chairman of the new School Building Committee, which met for the first time in
August, said the group is not discussing a community center specifically but rather the use of schools as community-based centers.
There’s also the possibility of converting a building to be vacated as a school. But if any building is to be reused, the committee would like to have as much of an educational component as possible to maximize state reimbursements for renovation costs, Bettencourt said. For example, if the Samuel Huntington School is vacated as an elementary school, the committee could move adult education into the building, as well as some community center elements.
The building committee meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month, with meetings currently being held remotely by web conference.