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By KEVIN HOFFMAN khoffman@leader.net
Sunday, February 06, 2000 Page: 3
HAZLETON – They may not have been born of royal blood, but at least 22
senior citizens hope they will someday get the chance to live in “the
Castle,” according to the Housing Development Corp. of Northeastern Pa.
The Housing Development Corp. and Regis Group are taking applications from
people who want to live in the former high school, which is slated to be
turned into a 40-apartment complex for low- and middle-income senior citizens.
“We’re trying to gauge some interest,” said Michael Krentzman, a project
developer at Regis. “It will strengthen the project if we get a lot of
interested people because it will show a much stronger demand.”
The Regis Group purchased the building – nicknamed the “Castle on the
Hill” for its limestone parapets – from the Hazleton Area School District for
$100,000. The plan was to convert it into a senior living community.
But that might be just the beginning, said Jake Ripa, a former city
councilman who serves as the local liaison for the project. Ripa envisions a
multiuse project that would benefit the young and old alike.
The Greater Hazleton Health Alliance expressed an interest in using the
high school’s swimming pool for arthritis sufferers, who have been making
weekly trips to Wilkes-Barre to get the aquatic therapy they need, Ripa said.
Another treasure housed in “the Castle” is the auditorium, Ripa said.
With a little polishing, it could rival the Kirby Center, seating 1,600 and
drawing a similar caliber of performers to the southern end of Luzerne County.
Other possible uses for the old high school include letting the Police
Athletic League use the gymnasium for basketball or teaching adult education
programs in the classrooms, Ripa said.
“That could be a community center beyond what anybody could ever
imagine,” Ripa said. “You’re only limited in scope, on that project, by your
imagination.”
The building was built in 1926 at a cost of about $1 million and seemed
doomed to a date with the wrecking ball when the Hazleton Area School District
announced in 1998 that “the Castle” would be demolished.
But a groundswell of community outrage, powered primarily by nostalgia,
landed the facility a prime piece of real estate on renowned TV building
renovator Bob Villa’s Web site, which took up the plea to save the historic
structure.
The district ultimately put the building up for sale, and the Regis Group
stepped in with an offer to buy the building and protect the familiar facade,
which was patterned in the Gothic architectural style.
The renovation project is still in its early stages, but Ripa sees a
definite future for the former school. “There’s just so much that can be done
with that structure,” he said. “But everything has to be done one step at a
time.”
Call Hoffman at 829-7139.