Augusta Commissioners voted unanimously during the July 19 meeting to approve a request to rezone a single-family home on Ellis Street that borders Heritage Academy’s property.
The two-bedroom home, built in 1934, will be used to develop additional classrooms, especially for tutoring and counseling students as needed.
“We have really personally experienced the impact of COVID on the children we’re seeing applying to us. And they are more behind than ever before,” said Executive Director Linda Tucciarone. “And this space is allowing us to do some intensive tutoring. It’s allowing us to put in a school counselor in that space. And because we couldn’t do it in the main building, we’re just really grateful to have that. “
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Tucciarone said the owner of the home was moving in with family, and they knew it was time to sell. The owner suggested contacting Heritage Academy.
She said there are no plans to change the appearance of the home, although some remodeling, including the addition of safety features, is being done to the interior. There will be no vehicle or foot traffic at the front of the house. All ingress and egress will be done through the back.
The school used to have a yellow cinderblock and stucco fence across the back of the property on Ellis Street. That has been removed and will be replaced with new fencing that will also allow the new property to be incorporated with the rest of the school grounds.
“The idea is we’re putting back the masonry pillars, and then there’ll be some ornamental wrought iron work and shrubbery,” said Tucciarone. “The house will not be behind any kind of fence. We’re not planning to change that look, but we are doing some fencing that will prevent people from getting on the school’s property on either side of the house. Just keeping it safe for children. It will be a different look with a nod to what was there historically.”
This expansion is the latest step in the school’s more than 20-year history.
It began in 2001 with ten children in a kindergarten class in one room in a church on Broad Street near East Boundary. The strategic plan called for the school to add one grade a year up to eighth grade.
In 2006, a capital campaign rose $2.5 million, enough money to purchase the vacant Houghton Elementary School on Greene Street.
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Heritage Academy’s mission to operate a school to reach inner city children aligned with the original mission for the building.
The building began as Houghton Institute, then Houghton Elementary School, in the mid-1800s. Augusta businessman John Houghton had included money in his will to build a school that would be “free for all poor children.”
“There are always going to be children to serve and their families. And there’s always going to be a need because our poverty rates are high in Augusta,” Tucciarone said.
The school was destroyed in the 1916 fire that decimated much of Olde Town. The school was re-built, reopened and Houghton’s remains were placed in a vault inside the school’s entrance.
Tucciarone realizes Heritage Academy, now a K-through-8 school, is carrying on a 200-year-old mission.
“I’ve said to people before, soon as I get to heaven, I want to meet Jesus first, and then the next person I want to meet is John W. Houghton. I want to say, ‘Did we do it? Did we do what you had started?’”
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
