Above: SYFS will move out of the South Union building and into the former historical museum. (photos by Beth Melo)
Southborough Youth & Family Services (SYFS) is moving from one historic, former school building in town, to another even older historic school building. The move is part of a shuffling use for the Town’s historic buildings.
Last week, SYFS announced its planned relocation to “25 Common Street”. The move is scheduled to be completed “late” this summer. I received confirmation that refers to the old Flagg School building. It abuts the parking lot for the Southborough Town House, the “tot lot” playground, and Pilgrim Church.
In spring 2025, Town Meeting approved spending $150K on renovations to make the building suitable for the agency’s use. Based on past public discussion, one of the key benefits for SYFS is providing more privacy for residents who use their counseling services. Recent meeting documents show that the changes include having three dedicated offices.
The location should also give the department enough space to hold some small events or classes.
Shuffling and interlocking municipal & historic building projects
SYFS’ move comes eight years after the Town moved the agency out of Fayville Hall, which was determined to have serious building issues.
The Select Board was seeking to offload Fayville hall and its costs and headaches. Based on public outcry about the important history of the former Fayville community center, the Town issued an RFP for buyers that prioritized historic preservation as one of the criteria. The building was ultimately purchased by Jon Delli Priscoli, who planned to renovate the building and restore and preserve its historic facade, and convert it to an antique shop and office. Instead, he ended up selling the building to the Southborough Historical Society for them to build a new Southborough History and Arts Center.
As a result of that project, the Southborough Historical Society vacated their old digs — the Southborough Historical Museum in the old Flagg School building.
As for SYFS’ current location — they have been housed in the historic South Union building at 21 Highland Street, alongside Southborough Recreation. It’s another Town-owned building that the Select Board has talked about potentially offloading due to its own set of (less severe but still restrictive) building problems. Three years ago, the Select Board’s discussion of options to study prompted public outcry. Neighbors argued for the value of the property to the southside community.
A committee was formed to study the best future use for the building, but didn’t get very far before the Select Board chose to let it expire. The effort was complicated by the unknown fate of current school buildings. That includes not only the potential costs, but the domino impacts of voter decisions.
The planned use of municipal buildings have been intertwined with Town decisions about how to handle the aging Neary School building.
Just over a year ago, if voters had approved the “New Neary” project to build a new four-grade school, it would have resulted in closing Finn School. If that happened, the Select Board would have considered relocating the Recreation Department and other departments to Finn.
But the New Neary project failed to get voter support. When the Town presented choices for alternative school building projects this March, voters chose to not study any of the projects that looked at closing one of the public schools. That means its unlikely that a building will open up for Rec to move to.
However, voters will still be asked to make a decision within the coming year for what investments to make in Neary. (What precisely they’ll be asked to support is still TBD.) If voters reject the Town’s next recommendation(s), that could send officials back to the drawing board. And that could reopen discussion of a potential school closure.
Flagg School Building History
According to information previously published by the Southborough Historical Society(image right), the building is the oldest one owned by the Town, built in 1859 (at the intersection of Flagg and Deerfoot Roads). It was one of five schoolhouses built in the 1800s, and the only surviving one.
The building was relocated to its current location on Common Street in 1894, then converted into a Fire Station in 1906. After a new station was built in 1928, the building housed the Tree Department, then the Water Department.
When the DPW was later formed and relocated, the building was vacated again. In 1998, it was leased to the Southborough Historical Society. They hired Assabet Valley High School to help renovate the building for use as a Historical Museum. It was commissioned as a museum by SHS in 2000. (Click on photos below for details and photo credits.)
Sometime in the 2010s, the building was flooded and was temporarily closed for repairs and to deal with materials in the historical collection. In 2017, SHS revealed a renovated interior.
Four summers ago, the Southborough Historical Society announced it would be taking over ownership and renovations of Fayville Hall where it would relocate the museum as part of a new Southborough History and Arts Center. Part of the motivation given by the Historical Society was its dispute with the Town over its lease and how much of estimated $290K building repair and maintenance costs the non-profit should be responsible for. (You can read more details about that here.)
The old historical museum building, which housed the society’s collection, appeared to have been in limbo for a few years while the society dealt with building problems at their new center. But the project progressed enough to temporarily open the center this past winter. (Right now, the center’s status is again in limbo based on a dispute between the Historical Society board and the Planning Board over its site plan requirements for the parking lot at Fayville Hall. But that shouldn’t impact the Town’s access to the Flagg School building.)
