The final piece of the puzzle

Richard Smith knows a good thing when he sees it.

“I moved here with my wife three weeks ago, and I love the whole place,” said the 74-year-old New Hampshire native, seated in the common space of two renovated pre-Civil War buildings at Harper Acres, a housing facility for elderly and disabled people run by the Keene Housing Authority.

In 2001, the brick buildings, which served as housing for millworkers in the 1800s, were on the brink of demolition to make way for a shopping center. The Keene Housing Authority quickly had to line up financing to move the 350-ton buildings two blocks from their original foundations to Harper Acres, then to rehab them. The Community Loan Fund's Community Housing staff was ready to help.

“Without access to the $150,000 loan from the Community Loan Fund, we would have been unable to make the project happen,” said Curtis Hiebert, the housing authority's chief executive officer. “This was the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle.”

The housing group wanted a comfortable indoor place for residents to go. “A lot of residents live in single rooms and don’t have space to entertain,” said the housing authority's Lola Grab. “Our idea was that it would be an extension of their home, like a living room.”

Today, the once-dilapidated quarters overlook the Ashuelot River and are spacious and bright and complete with laundry facilities. Families and residents have taken note.

“My kids are going to put on a big party right here for my 75th birthday this fall,” said Smith. “I’m lucky. I’m a lucky man.”

This story was published in the Community Loan Fund's 2003 Annual Report.