Downtown Westerly along the Pawcatuck River. Photo: Quintin Soloviev via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
The lot where Tower Street Elementary School stood for generations is about to become something Westerly has talked about for years: a single building where residents can see a doctor, train for a job and find help with the basics.
The Tower Street Community Center, at 83 Tower St., holds its ribbon-cutting Monday morning, Oct. 26. U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Gov. Dan McKee were expected to attend, according to the South County Star.
The approximately $7 million project is an 8,000-square-foot building meant to bring health care, education, recreation and community support services under one roof, The Westerly Sun reported.
Classes first, patients later
The first tenant to get going will be the Westerly Education Center. Its free certified nursing assistant program is set to hold its first class at Tower Street on Tuesday, the day after the ribbon-cutting. The building received its certificate of occupancy on Oct. 21.
“That’s a milestone,” Tom Pearce, the education center’s director, told the South County Star. “That’s a good hurdle that was overcome.”
Tri-County Community Action Agency plans to start free GED preparation classes at the center on Nov. 2, open to anyone Monday through Thursday. The education center will also rent space for training, and Pearce said he expects Electric Boat to use the building for leadership training. Medical technician and additional CNA programs are planned for 2027. Pearce credited Reed and Whitehouse with helping secure funding for the free training programs.
The education center will keep its main campus on Friendship Street, which focuses on manufacturing training, and its annex at 116 High St.
Wood River Health, the community health center, will take a little longer. Alison Croke, its president and CEO, said the organization is waiting for Rhode Island Department of Health approval before staff can move in.
“It’s a little more complicated for us,” Croke said. “It’s a few weeks behind where we thought we’d be.”
Wood River expects to begin seeing patients at Tower Street after Thanksgiving, starting with at least one primary care provider and one behavioral health team member, with a goal of adding a second primary care provider later. The Westerly Sun reported that Wood River plans to offer primary care, mental health care and dental care at the site.
Who runs it and who paid for it
The town of Westerly will run out-of-school and after-school youth programs, educational camps and youth mentoring from the building. The center will also offer free public Wi-Fi, and Croke said it plans to hire “navigators” to connect residents with help such as food and heating assistance.
A nonprofit, also named Tower Street Community Center, was created to manage the facility. In February it hired Russell Partridge, the former director of the Westerly WARM Center, as executive director.
“We have an incredibly talented, cohesive group of people who have been able to navigate through some difficulties to get here,” Partridge told the South County Star.
The project grew out of public workshops in 2023, followed by negotiations in 2024 between the town and the Royce Family Fund, a major stakeholder, over a 65-year lease. The old school, judged unsuitable for a modern community building, was demolished, and Phase 1 construction began Oct. 27, 2025. A/Z Corporation of North Stonington and Cherenzia Excavation of Pawcatuck were among the contractors.
Funding came partly from the federal Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund under the American Rescue Plan Act, along with money from HUD, local foundations, financial institutions and community partners. The Westerly Community Credit Union contributed $100,000.
Center officials expect more programs to be added as Wood River Health moves in and the town’s youth programming gets underway.
