BEVERLY — The lockers are staying. So are the chalkboards. Not to mention the windows and wood floors and the entire auditorium.
The former Briscoe School is nearing the completion of a dramatic makeover into affordable housing and artists studios. But a recent tour of the building revealed there will still be plenty of “old school” left in the old school when it opens in the fall as Beverly Village for Living & the Arts.
“We are really delighted with how the vision is turning into reality,” said Andrew DeFranza, executive director of Harborlight Homes, the Beverly-based affordable housing nonprofit that with Beacon Communities bought the building from the city in 2019. “It’s coming out better than I expected it would.”
The Briscoe building was built in 1923 as the city’s high school. It went on to serve generations of Beverly students as a junior high school and middle school until it closed in 2018 when the city opened a new middle school.
In its new life as Beverly Village, the building will have 85 apartments for low-income people 55 and older, and six live/work studios for artists. About 550 people have applied for the units. A lottery to determine who gets them is scheduled for April 4.
On a tour of the building, Jake Briere, assistant superintendent for general contractor Keith Construction, pointed out how workers are retaining as many historic elements as possible.
The most obvious feature from its school days are the student lockers that line the hallways. The orange and green lockers, which are original to the building and are built into the walls, will remain as a decorative element. They will also remain closed; they have been sealed shut.
Inside the classrooms-turned-apartments, the old chalkboards remain on the walls, many in their original slate form. The windows — 564 of them — are staying, as are the wood floors. The auditorium will stay basically as is, with a plan to use it as a community theater. The stairways will retain their existing tiled walls and handrails.
On the ground floor, the level of the former gym has been raised 16 feet to make it easier for residents to access. The space will be used for amenities including a fitness room, yoga studio, wellness center and community room with a kitchenette. The old locker rooms are being converted into the artist studios.
Jay Leahy, a volunteer for Historic Beverly who was on the tour, said he was pleased to see the efforts to retain as much as the historical character as possible.
“When you walk into that building you’ll know it’s a historic building,” Leahy said. “It will have modern amenities for the residents, but it still has the flavor of its original design and construction.”
DeFranza credited city officials, including Mayor Mike Cahill, for their determination to retain much of the historic character of the building.
The building is important to generations of Beverly residents who attended the school or know someone who did, and because it is so centrally located at the intersection of Colon Street and Sohier Road, DeFranza said.
“If you were going to preserve a building in the city, can you imagine one that was more important than this one in terms of its impact on generations of families?,” he said. “It was a time and a place and a century worth of legacy.
“These kind of chances are rare. They don’t make buildings like this anymore.”
Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.
By Paul Leighton | Staff Writer
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