“We’re having great loose discussions and people are coming up with great and innovative ideas. Everyone understands the historical aspect of the buildings and many want to preserve that,” committee chairman Richard Pastore said.

In late January, Town Manager Michael Embury presented the Town Council with a list of potential actions for both WES and the Beechwood House Senior Center.  

Embury’s recommendations for WES were to leave the building vacant, sell it to private developers, lease it after completing the necessary repairs or repair the school and use it as both a town hall and school administration building.

“Some people who spoke at the meetings still think that the building can be used for a school. The school committee already said they have no use for the building. This isn’t the time to revisit that issue. It’s been acted upon,” Pastore added.

The site where WES now sits was originally home to the Washington Academy, which was one of the nation’s earliest teacher colleges.  In 1848 the town signed a 99-year lease with the Academy’s trustees with the understanding that building would house Wickford school children. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1874 and again in 1906.

In 1907 the current building was erected and in 1948, when the first lease expired, ownership of the school was transferred to the town.

If WES was used as a central location for both the town and school administration, it would free up the annex building, town hall and school administration building.

It’s been suggested that the annex building could be used as a new home for the Wickford Art Association. The town hall could be used for office space or as a start-up business incubator.

“We’ve also discussed bringing the out-of-town special education students back to town and use the school administration building as a special education building. Many people said by bring them back, it could be a savings of around $300,000,” he said.

Pastore said school department Athletic Director Keith Kenyon is looking for space to build additional lacrosse fields and that if the town and school administration merged, the administration building could be demolished and extra fields could be made.

As for the Beechwood House, Embury suggested the town could stabilize the exterior and bring the interior up to code, which would cost and estimated $700,000, or the town could demolish the building which would cost $100,000.

But many feel that demolishing the building isn’t in the cards. One local resident has expressed interest in possibly moving the building to another location near the beach.

From the 1600s through the 1800s, Beechwood House was part of the Updike family farm. It was sold in 1872, it was sold out of the Updike family by Beriah Lawton to Nancy Dyer. Dyer left the home to her son, Elisha, who was governor from 1897 -1900. After being sold to C. Howard Tholl in 1921, the Victorian home became an inn, which is how it remained until the town obtained possession of it in 1968.
The Beechwood House opnend as the town’s senior center in 1974.

“Unfortunately there’s no use for the Beechwood House, due the new building. But it’s still a possibility that the building will be demolished and in that case, the band shell could be moved to that location,” Pastore said.

Committee members said they understand the emotion involved with the buildings and will take every suggestion to heart.

“The clock is ticking. We only have 45 days from our first meeting to formulate our recommendations. We’re going to try to meet every Thursday,” he said.

The the advisory committee meets again tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the school central administration building on Fairway Drive.