New Q House Plans Unveiled

When you walk past the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Foote Street, a sign will remind you that a new Q House is on the way.

City officials Monday afternoon unveiled new signs at the site of the future rebuilt Q House that depict what neighbors will start seeing the beginning of next spring.

Curlena McDonald, who has served as the Q House building committee co-chair, could not be more excited. She said there was a lot of discouragement along the way of the community pushing for a replacement for the stories community center, but finally things are happening.

“We did all that we needed to do to make sure that this corner, this area is reclaimed for the community,” she said. ​“I’m just excited.”

Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison, committee co-chair, reminded those gathered at the intersection of Dixwell Avenue and Foote Street Monday that the original Q House was built in the early 1920s as a one-stop shop to help African-American migrating from the South get acclimated to the city.

The new Q House, which will feature a full gym, workout space, a senior center, a recording studio, a new home for the Stetson Library branch, and a new location for Cornell-Scott Hill Health Center, will also be a one-stop for the Dixwell neighborhood and the entire city.

“The concerned citizens and other groups have worked tirelessly since the days the doors closed of the former Q House building,” Morrison said. ​“And although we were really sad, it’s kind of a blessing in disguise. We knocked down a 20,000-square foot building and now we’re going to build a 54,000 square foot building, so it worked in our favor.”

“I don’t think we’re going to need a fourth Q House,” she added.

The empty second Q House was torn down in January. Construction of the new ! was delayed partly because of the death of architect Regina Winters. Winters had done the drawings for the new Q House — and those drawings had to go through Probate Court before they could be used. With that resolved, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said, Kenneth Boroson Architects have taken over the final stages of design. The project is slated to be bid for construction this fall, with construction slated to begin in the spring of 2018.

Bill MacMullen, of the city’s engineering department, said that some of the old Q Houses will come back to the new Q House as part of a museum on the second floor.

“We have a lot of artifacts that were here from the other two buildings,” he said. ​“They have been stored off site for the last 11 years. We also have all the old plaques and the cornerstone.”

MacMullen pointed out that for years people doubted not just the rebuilding of the Q House but the hopes of a new Stetson Library too. The library, which celebrated 100 years in July, will move to its fourth location when the new Q house is built.

“We had a huge dream and now we’re seeing our dream come true,” Stetson Librarian Diane Brown said.

City Librarian Martha Brogan said that a campaign to raise $2 million to outfit the new library with furniture and new technology is more than halfway to its goal. She reminded attendees to the unveiling Monday that any gift from $50 to $10,000 would be matched by the Seedlings Foundation.

Mayor Toni Harp, who was State Sen. Harp when she sponsored the bill that eventually secured the funding for the new Q House, said that the vacant site had been the focal point for a lot of ​“wishful thinking and eager anticipation for the past 12 years or more.” The state is providing $15.5 in state bond money for the new Q House.

“Today, we are gathered here to start making new memories,” she said. ​“it is important to remember that every year since the former Q House was closed many different community groups have been working to reopen it. Today we’re gathered in testament to those non-stop efforts.”