I grew up going to Baldwinville Elementary School, and a few weeks ago I got to walk its halls again — this time as a member of the Princeton Housing Implementation Committee, on a guided tour of a building being converted into apartments. The nostalgia was fascinating to me–they kept the original stairs, the hallways are the same and a lot of the original flooring is being refinished. And the in-progress apartment we toured? Straight up Mr. Macdowell’s classroom — plus some extra space, since it’s going to be a three-bedroom unit.
I told our tour guides things they probably didn’t need to know, as memories came up: that during my time at Baldwinville Elementary if you were going home sick from school, they’d send you to sit on the front steps until your mother came. That the Otter River used to run different colors depending on what the paper mill was dumping that day. That the building across the parking lot — the parking lot that was our playground — was our third grade school, not to be confused with our fourth grade school, which was over in Otter River.
One of the charges on the Princeton Housing Implementation Committee is to learn how other Central Massachusetts towns are creating starter housing — whether for first-time buyers, downsizers, or renters. Princeton has a ways to go since we don’t have any municipal buildings to convert, and municipally owned surplus land is in short supply. But Templeton is doing something impressive here, and it’s worth knowing about, and sharing with someone who might qualify for one of the available apartments.
MBZ Development and Capstone Communities are developing 54 units of housing anchored by the historic Baldwinville School building — which started life as Templeton High School before becoming an elementary school. Fifteen of those units are in the restored school building itself; the rest are in new construction attached to it. The brickwork is so well matched to the original building that people on my tour — none of them Baldwinville Elementary alumni — assumed it was an existing brick base being renovated. It wasn’t. It was replicated from scratch to look exactly the same. The craftsmanship is genuinely impressive.
Of the 54 units, 49 are deed-restricted affordable housing, targeting households at 30–60% of area median income. Seventy percent of those affordable units are reserved for people with a local connection to Templeton. The remaining five units are market rate, and applications for those are available now.
The unit mix includes nine studios/lofts, ten one-bedrooms, twenty-nine two-bedrooms, and six three-bedrooms. Five units are mobility accessible and two are sensory accessible. When complete, the property will be managed by Peabody Properties.
The old cafeteria and gymnasium will become a fitness room for residents. There will be common laundry, a playground, a dog park (dogs are allowed!), and there’s a trail to the Otter River.
A lottery for the deed-restricted units is coming soon. Completion is expected fall 2026. Funding came from a mix of sources, including $1.2 million in Community Preservation Act funding from Templeton — which actually surprised me. They planned ahead and had the CPA funding available.
One more thing: I was poking around the Capstone Communities news page and found a story about a tour that a retired Miss Yackowski took — she was my first grade teacher and my neighbor growing up. Small world.
More information, floor plans, income limits, and the housing lottery application are at baldwinvilleschoolapts.com. There is a lot more information at the Capstone Communities news page (scroll to the Baldwinville School section).
Here are some more helpful links:
Housing Lottery page
