Seekonk’s Old Town Hall Might Become Cultural Center

The Old Town Hall at 624 Taunton Avenue may get a new lease on life as a cultural center. The structure, the former site of the Seekonk Police Department headquarters, has sat unoccupied for several years.

Select Board member Elizabeth Elmasian believes the building could serve as a cultural center and a historical museum, noting a fundraising effort would need to be launched to pay for renovations. “I think that would be a great idea,” Elmasian said at Wednesday’s meeting.

John Alves, the chair of the Community Preservation Committee, also believes the building can serve many uses.

The property, constructed in 1897, had been sold to the Seaconke Wampanoags for $55 in 2014. The tribe had intended to convert the building into a cultural and meeting center. Those plans fell through and now the town owns the building again.

At an October 2022 meeting with the Old Town Hall Building Committee, the Board of Selectmen approved a feasibility study for the building. At the time, Town Administrator Shawn Cadime said the study would present viable options of what could be done with the building and at that point, decide how the Town should move forward with it.

In 2018, Selectmen designated the task of determining the building’s value to members of the town’s Historical commission and the Community Preservation Committee.

Voters at last November’s Town Meeting rejected a warrant article which would have authorized the Select Board to sell the property.