NORTH PROVIDENCE – Exterior work on the Old Town Hall building in Centredale is wrapping up, and renovations are now moving inside.
Contractors, working under Director of Public Buildings Jim Fuoroli, completed extensive siding restoration, full roof replacement down to the plywood, chimney repointing, soffit and cornice work, and painting.
“It’s looking very nice,” said Mayor Charles Lombardi.
He said it’s taken a long time to get to this point because only so many companies do this type of work.
Workers have completed windows, sashes, and are finishing up trim work, he said, and now the second phase can begin inside.
Much of the money for the work is coming from town dollars, with initial assessment work paid for through a grant.
Lombardi said he plans to encourage Town Council President Dino Autiello to hold at least some of its meetings in the building, similar to how he held one or two meetings per year there when he was council president. He said they want to get more use out of the historic structure in general.
The building, constructed in 1879, is located at 2226 Mineral Spring Ave.
Work on the project has been approved along the way by the Historic District Commission, which also uses the building for meetings.
Fuoroli has said that McKenna Roofing and HCI Construction have been amazing partners on the project.
Exact costs on the entire project are not yet finalized.
Renovations over the years have been few and far between, most done piecemeal and not to the extent of this project. Floors were redone in 2007, more than two decades after a previous update on the building.
During the town’s bicentennial year in 1976, former Mayor Sal Mancini put $3,000 into the building. Done under the oversight of former School Committee member Helen Reall, that 1976 project was a 95 percent renovation.
Town Historian Tom Greene has long held that the most interesting feature of the building its its old English jail found under a trap door in the main foyer. Also known as a bridewell, that was always the most popular part of any tours in the building, according to Greene.
