Colburn School Update

The new and rebuilt is scheduled to open in the fall, though there is no set date.

“Once everything is removed from the existing library, the old library building will be demolished.  It should take about a week to move the Colburn School and spin it to face the new library.  The new library opening to the public is independent of the Colburn move,” Westwood Historical Commission Chair Peter Paravalos said.

“Essentially, when the new library opens, the area to be used in moving the school will be temporarily fenced off.  Once the school is moved, the new library parking with additional parking where the Colburn School currently sits, will be completed.”

The two goals of building a new library and preserving the old school building. Paravalos said that the plan for the Coburn School, as it currently stands, is to build a bank on the first floor then the top two floors will be condominiums. With an unoccupied Coburn School building, the Town was generating no taxes.

The Colburn School will be moved to the site of the current library, rotated 90 degrees to face the new library, and be rehabilitated into retail space on the first floor with a six condominium units on the second and third floors. "The developer has hired a firm that specializes in historic restorations," Paravalos said.

"They are trying to get some historic tax credit and do a proper restoration of the exterior per an agreement between the Board of Selectmen, the Mass Historical Commission, the Westwood Historical commission, Westwood library, board of library commissioners of Massachusetts," Paravalos said. "We are in a 10-step process and we are at step 5 or 6."