A vintage elementary school that closed in 2022 will soon undergo a transformation, turning classrooms where children used to learn and play into affordable housing apartments for singles and families.
The Batcheller Elementary School in Winsted, which served students from the late 1950s to four years ago on Pratt Street, will someday house 37 apartments in various sizes.
The project is being overseen by the Winchester Housing Partnership in Winsted, an arm of the Northwest Senior Housing Corporation.
The agency is responsible for Winsted’s Susan M. B. Perry Senior Housing, an apartment complex the group developed and opened in 2008. The 20-apartment building is located on Spencer Street.
“Since the day the Susan M.B. Perry housing opened, we’ve had a waiting list,” said housing corporation member Deirdre Houlihan DiCara, a lifelong Winchester resident. “There’s a tremendous need. We saw that as an opportunity.”
What to do with an old school
Not long after Batcheller closed, it served as a shelter for several hundred cats that were taken from a hoarding situation in a Winsted home. For weeks, volunteers and town staff led by former Town Manager Josh Kelly provided housing for the cats, collected donations and found shelters and adoption agencies to take the many cats and kittens.
Residents also stepped in and adopted some of the animals. More than 200 cats were rescued from the home.
Also in 2022, the Board of Selectmen invited requests for proposals for Batcheller’s future use and were approached by Northwest Housing Corporation members with a plan to use the 53,000-square-foot school for housing.
At that time, Winsted restaurant owner George Noujaim also approached Winsted selectmen with a proposal to use the property as a manufacturing center for his growing food business.
But renovating the old school into apartments, a project that could be supported by state and federal grants, appealed to the idea of providing much-needed housing in Winsted, DiCara said.
Northwest Housing’s bid to purchase and renovate the school was approved during a town meeting in 2023, and plans to convert the building and property were approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2024, she said.
Northwest Housing purchased the building and surrounding property totaling 32 acres, minus 19 acres that will remain under the town’s ownership to be preserved as open space. Northwest Housing applied for and received a $310,000 grant from the federal Department of Housing’s Community Project Funding, she said.
Part of the application, DiCara said, included a visit from the state Department of Housing Commissioner, Selia Mosquera-Bruno.
“In May 2025, she came to Winsted for a tour of the school with the Mayor (Todd Arcelaschi), and we received the grant,” DiCara said. “It was a special visit.”
Local response
Neighbors on Pratt Street, DiCara said, have been supportive of the plans to repurpose the building.
“They had lots of questions, and it makes sense for people to be concerned with something new coming into the neighborhood,” she said.
And finding consultants and housing experts like Jocelyn Ayers and David Berto has made the whole process of finding money and resources easier, DiCara said.
Berto, a housing and development consultant and owner of Housing Enterprises, Inc., in Enfield, and Ayers, who leads the Litchfield County Centers for Housing Opportunity, are critical to the development of the housing plan, DiCara said.
Ayers spent the last several years helping nearly every town in Litchfield County update its Plan of Conservation and Development, which includes an affordable housing plan. She’s worked closely with Winsted already, she said.
“Basically, I help with the day-to-day logistics of a project, the development,” she said. “I work with the volunteers.”
“Jocelyn helped us find pro bono (law) partners to write the housing project’s bylaws, which was extremely helpful,” DiCara said. “What might have taken us years to do, took only about three months.”
Larry Hannafin, the partnership board president, credited Ayers’ and Berto’s expertise for the success of the project so far.
“We wouldn’t have gotten past first base without David,” he said. “He’s such an expert with the financing and finding the resources, because he’s overseeing so many of these and has the experience.
“I see Batcheller as filling a need, because we’ve had a waiting list since we opened Susan M.B. Perry housing 10 years ago,” Hannafin said. “It’s going to help so many people.”
Hannafin said the housing partnership was taking a burden off Winsted’s officials by developing affordable housing and using local resources.
“The town leaders are relieved, I think, and pleased that we’re doing this for Winsted, providing housing. It’s great to see it happen,” Hannafin said.
Ayers and Berto are both involved in various housing projects in Connecticut.
“We are working on 18 different affordable housing projects in 12 different towns,” Ayers said. “This one is unique because of the elementary school building we’re using.
“Sharon and Falls Village have also purchased buildings to repurpose for housing, so it’s an idea that’s shared in Litchfield County,” she said.
“David helped getting (Winsted) to see that this was the best opportunity for the property,” DiCara said.
The next challenge, said DiCara, is finding resources to pay for the actual renovation. Classrooms, which vary in square feet, will be renovated into apartments: studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom spaces, which can be rented by individuals or families. The project architect is David McCarthy of Heritage Homes, she said.
“We’re applying for a combination of state housing department funds, and finding investors for low-income housing; they get 40 percent tax credits for investing,” DiCara said. “To do that, investors want to see shovel-ready plans, so they know it’s ready to go.”
Inside, DiCara said, a collection of murals painted by Batcheller students will be preserved and used in the renovation.
“Our hope is that those funding plans will be done by March or April, and the building and architectural plans can be ready by June or July,” Berto said. “Construction could start by later this year.
“It really is an ideal use for a school like this,” he said. “It’s been laid out nicely and is adaptable for housing.”