St. Sebastian School Building Purchase

The Middletown Press reported today on the Public Works Commission discussion about a City purchase of the St. Sebastian School Building. In a motion by Councilman David Bauer and a second by Councilman Ron Klattenberg, the Public Works Commission voted to negotiate the purchase in order to provide space for the senior center.

This makes the second time that the City has discussed this purchase. The first discussion was at the April 30th, 2009 meeting of the Finance and Government Operations Committee, chaired by Ron Klattenberg.

I thought it might be of interest to dig back in the archives of The Eye for coverage of this discussion. The following photographs and text are from two articles by me, one on the monthly meeting of F&G, and a second on the history of the building (the second article corrected mistakes of history I made in the first, I have incorporated the corrections into the two extracts below).

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From April 30, 2009:

City turns down opportunity to purchase St. Sebastian School Building

The Finance and Government Operations Committee discussed the purchase of a historic school building at their meeting on Wednesday evening.

Eckersley Hall
St. Sebastian School will close at the end of this school year, a decision of the Norwich Diocese,previously reported in the Middetown Press. St. Sebastian School was founded in 1944, and occupies a building which was built in 1872 as Eckersley Hall, part of the Middletown public school system. It is on Durant Terrace, just behind Illiano's Pizza on S. Main Street. When St. Sebastian bought Eckersley Hall, the sales agreement stipulated that if the building ceased being used for education, the city would have the right of first refusal to purchase the building from St. Sebastian. Councilman Gerald Daley speculated that the city had sold the school to St. Sebastian for $1 [see correction below].

With the closing of the school, St. Sebastian has offered the building to the city for a price of $1.3 million. Planning Director Bill Warner said that all departments had contemplated possible uses for the school building, but none foresaw a benefit to the city. Councilmen Daley and Ron Klattenberg pressed Warner, but it seemed apparent that the building is too small, not handicap accessible, and in an inconvenient location for use as a senior center, city school, administration building, or any of the other possible city uses. The F&G Committee voted unanimously against purchasing the school.
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From May 1, 2009:

The St. Sebastian School Building

Eckersley Hall was built as an elementary school in 1870, to serve the children of the Durant neighborhood, which was the concentration of houses around what is now South Main Street. St. Sebastian school moved into the Eckersley Hall building in the 1980s. The Eckersley Hall School Building, which is on the Middletown Historic Properties List, was what the F&G declined to purchase (for $1.3 million) at their meeting on Wednesday evening.

Also in my article on the F&G meeting, I reported the speculation by Councilman Daley that St. Sebastian had bought their current building from the city for $1. Mayor Giuliano addressed this speculation, as well as the history of St. Sebastian School in a comment on a March 27th article in the Middletown Press about the closing of St. Sebastian. Here is all of his comment related to the school building:

No, it is not true that the City sold St. Sebastian School to the Parish for $1.00. St. Sebastian bought the former Johnson School on Green Street in the 1950s for $25,000 (back when this amount of money was actually worth something). In the 1980s, when it became obvious that the Green Street/Ferry Street neighborhood where I attended school during the 1950s and 1960s was declining, the Parish made a trade with the City. We gave them the Green Street property in exchange for the former Eckersley Hall School on Durant Terrace. Since then, the parish has made extensive improvements to the physical plant, including adding a computer lab, air conditioning, a separate annex to house the middle school, playground equipment and audio-visual amenities, among other things. This is value put into the property via the contributions of St. Sebastian's parishioners, not to mention the staggering subsidies they have contributed annually to sustain the school's operations. As I stated, once this year is over, if there is not going to be a combined regional school, the property should be marketed and the sale proceeds put in St. Sebastian's treasury. This way, the parish can repay its debts to the cemetery trust fund (from which it borrowed heavily to sustain the school) and to the Diocese, which underwrote the school's insurance obligations.

St. Sebastian Festival Begins Tomorrow

St. Sebastian Church is, essentially, in my back yard. As such, I get a 24/7 perspective on the annual St. Sebastian Festival which begins Friday.

For my five year olds, the festival is a bit of magic coming to the neighborhood.

I like the festival because traffic is closed down for a few days on my block of Pearl Street, and I always enjoy the run of the Nuri. And it's a real honest-to-god (no pun intended), unique regional festival.

The festival revolves around a devotional to St. Sebastian, a 4th century Christian martyr and a Roman legionnaire who turned his back on the emperor Diocletian. Diocletian ordered Sebastian bound and staked in a field where he became the target of Roman archers. His body was filled with so many arrows that he resembled a pincushion. But he survived, only to cure a girl of her blindness, and to harangue Diocletian as he passed by. The emperor ordered Sebastian beaten to death and his body disposed of in a privy. Hence, Sebastian is known as a saint who was martyred twice.

While Sebastian's official saint day is in December, the traditional celebration of his sainthood is celebrated in Melilli, Italy in Nay, as it is here in Middletown. The original Italian celebration is a bit more elaborate with significant fireworks, dedicated supplicants bearing a likeness of Sebastian through the streets, and parents offering their naked babies to the likeness to prevent illness (Sebastian's spirit was thought to have the power to ward off the plague). And a nighttime barefoot run through the streets. And even the Sicilian celebration is toned down from the original.

In the original, a miraculous simulacrum of Sebastian was approached by naked (nuri) supplicants who modeled themselves after the images of the martyred Sebastian, who was often depicted naked or nearly naked. As the years went by, the nakedness was covered by red sashes (symbolizing Sebastian's blood), over white outfits for men and women.

Here in Middletown, there's a modest, three-day carnival with rides, game of chance booths and lots of locally-produced Italian food. The carnival is standard fare, but the live and recorded Italian music, and the quantities of Italian food, make it special.

On Sunday, the "nuri run", in which men, women and children dressed in white with red sashes, march barefoot (or with white sox) down Main Street, and then run up the Washington Street hill to the church, flowers in hand, shouting "Primu diu ee Samastianu." While the nuri draws a crowd, one can only imagine the mob that would assemble if the run still occured naked.

The nuri then enter the church, still shouting, and offering their bouquets to the icon. Then with an assist from an Italian brass band, and a few firecrackers, the icon is carried down the steps and through the streets.

Only then, does the ferris wheel begin to spin again, and does Dean Martin replace sacred prayers over the PA.

The rides and booths were dropped off Tuesday, and assembled Wednesday (this year there's a pirate theme going on with a swinging boat ride and a pirate funhouse, along with one centrigual ride, and three kiddie spinners). This morning I noticed city public works trucks dropping off picnic tables and bleachers to be set up next to the portable stage which will block the end of my street.

The festival carnival begins at 5 PM Friday, and the run of the nuri is scheduled for around noon on Sunday.

Correction on St. Sebastian School Building

In my article on the Finance and Government Committee meeting of Wednesday evening, I reported that the city had decided against purchasing the St. Sebastian School building. I gave a little bit of the history of the building, which I based on a history of Middletown available at the Planning and Zoning website, written by B.A. Cleary in 1979. Unfortunately, I got the history of the building wrong, and reported an inaccurate comment about how St. Sebastian acquired the school building.

The Cleary history of Middletown is extremely informative and I highly recommend it for an overview of our city's past, but in this case the information was out of date. Another outstanding history of Middletown was written by Elizabeth Warner (A Pictorial History of Middletown, published by Great Middletown Preservation in 1990). Liz clarified for me the history of the school building on Durant Terrace, which is now occupied by St. Sebastian. The Johnson School, which I said was the Durant Terrace building, is actually on Green Street (where it now houses the eponymous Arts Center), and was an earlier home to St. Sebastian.

Eckersley Hall was built as an elementary school in 1870, to serve the children of the Durant neighborhood, which was the concentration of houses around what is now South Main Street. St. Sebastian school moved into the Eckersley Hall building in the 1980s. Thus, it is the Eckersley Hall School Building, which is on the Middletown Historic Properties List, that the F&G declined to purchase (for $1.3 million) at their meeting on Wednesday evening.

Also in my article on the F&G meeting, I reported the speculation by Councilman Daley that St. Sebastian had bought their current building from the city for $1. Mayor Giuliano addressed this speculation, as well as the history of St. Sebastian School in a comment on a March 27th article in the Middletown Press about the closing of St. Sebastian. Here is all of his comment related to the school building:

No, it is not true that the City sold St. Sebastian School to the Parish for $1.00. St. Sebastian bought the former Johnson School on Green Street in the 1950s for $25,000 (back when this amount of money was actually worth something). In the 1980s, when it became obvious that the Green Street/Ferry Street neighborhood where I attended school during the 1950s and 1960s was declining, the Parish made a trade with the City. We gave them the Green Street property in exchange for the former Eckersley Hall School on Durant Terrace. Since then, the parish has made extensive improvements to the physical plant, including adding a computer lab, air conditioning, a separate annex to house the middle school, playground equipment and audio-visual amenities, among other things. This is value put into the property via the contributions of St. Sebastian's parishioners, not to mention the staggering subsidies they have contributed annually to sustain the school's operations. As I stated, once this year is over, if there is not going to be a combined regional school, the property should be marketed and the sale proceeds put in St. Sebastian's treasury. This way, the parish can repay its debts to the cemetery trust fund (from which it borrowed heavily to sustain the school) and to the Diocese, which underwrote the school's insurance obligations.

City turns down opportunity to purchase St. Sebastian School Building

The Finance and Government Operations Committee discussed the purchase of a historic school building at their meeting on Wednesday evening. They also discussed the Swine Flu situation and its possible impact on city finances. Through unanimous and routine votes, they supported expenditures by a variety of city departments. Final approval of the expenditures rests with the full Common Council.

The Johnson School (see correction below)
St. Sebastian School will close at the end of this school year, a decision of the Norwich Diocese, previously reported in the Middetown Press. St. Sebastian School was founded in 1944, and occupies a building which was built in 1872 as The Johnson School, part of the Middletown public school system. It is on Durant Terrace, just behind Illiano's Pizza on S. Main Street. When St. Sebastian bought the Johnson School building, the sales agreement stipulated that if the building ceased being used for education, the city would have the right of first refusal to purchase the building from St. Sebastian. Councilman Gerald Daley speculated that the city had sold the school to St. Sebastian for $1.

With the closing of the school, St. Sebastian has offered the building to the city for a price of $1.3 million. Planning Director Bill Warner said that all departments had contemplated possible uses for the school building, but none foresaw a benefit to the city. Councilmen Daley and Ron Klattenberg pressed Warner, but it seemed apparent that the building is too small, not handicap accessible, and in an inconvenient location for use as a senior center, city school, administration building, or any of the other possible city uses. The F&G Committee voted unanimously against purchasing the school.

Note added: I have posted a correction of several mistakes in the above information. The most important to note is that the school building was the home of Eckersley Hall, built in 1870. The Johnson School (1872) was on Green Street. Both schools are on the list of Middletown Historic Properties.

Swine Flu
George Dunn, Director of Emergency Management, was at the F&G meeting to gain approval for a grant and for waiving a bid requirement. After those were approved, he took the occasion to discuss Middletown's response to the Swine Flu pandemic. He said that he has assembled a crisis management team which includes representatives from the Health Department, emergency responders, the hospital, and the school system. Dunn said that all parties are working well together, and that Middletown was working closely with 7 regional towns.

Dunn said that the situation was evolving quickly and unpredictably, "By tomorrow it might be completely over or ten times worse." Daley cautioned that there is a "need to create a balance between too much panic and burying our heads in the sand." Dunn said that it was approaching the time for emergency responders to wear protective equipment (masks), and that the F&G committee would possibly be receiving a request to purchase additional equipment if the situation becomes worse.

Riverview Parking Garage and other requests
The committee approved the request by Public Works for $35,000 from the General Fund to be used for structural repairs and improvements to the Riverview Parking Garage, to be paid back upon receipt of state funding through the Local Capital Improvement Program (LOCIP). The committee also approved $40,000 to be disbursed to Public Works to cover a shortfall in the budgeted funding for sand and salt.