The Hill Street School building in Globe is more than 100 years old, but it stopped serving students in 2005 and sat vacant for about 18 years.
Now, it’s getting a second life as housing for seniors.
Gorman & Company, the project’s developer and general contractor, is nearing completion on turning the 39,000-square-foot concrete building into 64 new housing units.
Sally Schwenn is the Arizona market president for Gorman & Company. She said the new and improved Hill Street structure will pay homage to the building’s history.
“We’re kind of doing a memorabilia cabinet if you will and having residents that went to the school provide some of their old treasures from when they went to school [like] yearbooks or class rings,” Schwenn said.
While they couldn’t preserve all of the building’s murals, they took high quality photos of the artwork and are turning them into prints to be displayed in the building. The school’s old gymnasium will serve as a community multipurpose center.
“So we can use that space now for resident functions, people can rent it out for birthday parties and social events,” Schwenn said. “We’ll have a kitchenette in there so people can have potlucks.”
Of the 64 units, 80% will be reserved for seniors and the rest will be market rate units that anyone can live in. Schwenn said there hasn’t been any new housing developments in Globe for over 15 years.
“This is going to give seniors that live in Globe and the Miami area an opportunity to move into brand new housing and open up their residential houses to move families into town,” Schwenn said.
They expect to move in the first residents next week.
