Recommendation 5.4: Renovation of the Town House
Scheduling: Stage I: 1952
Although the Town House is now almost 100 years old, it is still in good condition and has many more years of useful life; consequently the Town is justified in financing the repairs and reconditioning that will make the building more serviceable for offices. As construction provides new quarters for the Police Department and perhaps the County Court (see Recommendations 5.3 and 5.5), the Town House should be renovated to provide additional office space. These improvements will prolong the usefulness of the present building for the 20 or more years which will probably elapse before new Town offices need be provided.
Recommendation 5.5: Construction of a new Town House on Heywood Street
Scheduling: Stage III
It can be expected that the growth of Concord's population, the gradual enlargement of government activities, and the age of the present Town House will in combination eventually create a need for a new building, for which the most suitable location now appears to be a portion of the Town’s Heywood Street property. The first stage in this project might well be the construction, financed wholly or largely by the County and the Commonwealth, of a new court house, designed to provide the Central District court with more spacious quarters than are at present available in the Town House. The transfer of the court would free about 2,600 square feet and, by providing room for expansion of municipal offices, would provide sufficient additional space in the Town House to meet the needs of many years. At a later period, the court house, perhaps designed as a wing with around 5,000 square feet of floor space, could be flanked by additional construction to house Town offices and to create a handsome building that would become the central feature of the Heywood Street civic center.
In addition to the necessary office space, estimated at 4,500 square feet, the Town building should include generous areas for the storage of supplies and records, a selectmen’s chamber and hearing room of about 800 square feet, a small committee room, a lounge, and if possible a meeting hall to accommodate about 200 persons. The total floor area of the structure, exclusive of the court wing, might thus be in the vicinity of 12,500 square feet.
If the Town felt sufficiently prosperous to make the required outlay, the new Town House might be designed to provide such community facilities as office space and club rooms for semi-public organizations, including, for example, the veterans’ groups and the Red Cross. On the other hand, since the old Town House, even 25 years from now, will in all probability still be serviceable, it would seem preferable to Concord to content itself with a somewhat smaller new building and to make the old Town House available at a nominal rent to interested community organizations. This plan would provide accommodations for the Red Cross and the Visiting Nurse Association offices, now housed in the Old High School building, and would also furnish club rooms and office space for the veterans' organizations when the completion of the new auditorium permits the dismantling of the Veteran's Building.
As an alternative to the construction of the new Town building on Heywood Street, the 1929 High School might be converted into offices should the Town decide at some future point to transfer the high school pupils to a new plant. The building on Stow Street is conveniently located and could be altered to provide a number of efficient offices, while the dismantling of both the Emerson and the Old High School buildings would provide parking space and permit the planting needed to create an attractive and dignified setting.