With an assortment of tax credits, Ingerman rebuilt the Brooks School as an affordable rental complex for seniors, taking care to preserve the exterior of the building, including the stone work and large windows, and interior details, such as millwork, hight ceilings, and door profiles. The result is a solid, imposing building of historic significance, distinguished by bright, new, spacious apartments.
``It's so spacious, and there's so much light. I really like that. I have room for everything,'' said Winonah Greene, pointing to a glass-fronted curio cabinet full of ceramic pieces she has created since retiring from the government's employ as a payroll clerk.
That was a second career for Greene, occupying her for 20 years after she had taught home economics in junior and senior high school. She recently moved from a home on Race Street to the Brooks School to be near her friends and church. ``I love it here,'' she said.
The front lobby of the Brooks School is secured with a telephone/buzzer system. With their original diamond-patterned granite floors, huge windows, and high ceilings, the halls seem to quietly echo the voices of the thousands of children that walked them over the years. Brass door-knockers and heavy, lever-style handles are on the apartments' paneled front doors, which, along with the millwork on the walls, are painted a rich forest green, sea blue, or deep salmon, depending on the floor.
The lever handles and paneled doors are repeated inside each unit, where 8-foot ceilings soar to 12 feet at the wall to accommodate the 6-foot-high windows topped by clerestory windows.
