KENNETH BOROSON ARCHITECTS
A rendering of the future Q House.
With the construction of the Q House slated to start in coming months, a campaign has begun to raise $3 million to make sure that it never closes its doors again.
The fund for the new Dixwell Community “Q” House has been established at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to “support the on-going programming and investment in the Q House after the initial construction to ensure its stability as an institution,” according to the foundation’s website.
To that end, members of the community are being asked to buy a $100 engravable brick to help lay the foundation for a successful future Q House and have some “skin in the game,” as Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison likes to say.
Engraved bricks will line the walkway to the main entrance of the Q House.
“The Q House closed down because of fiscal issues,” Morison said. “The goal is to raise $3 million by the time the doors open so that never happens again.”
The project has been a long time coming. The brick campaign is a chance for those like Morrison who grew up coming through the doors of the prior iterations of the Q House to memorialize what it means to them and make sure that it stays open for future generations.
The original Q dates back to 1924, when it operated as a settlement house for African Americans coming up from the South.
The Q House remained a cornerstone of Dixwell’s predominantly African-American neighborhood until it closed in 2003. For years, state and local politicians and community activists lobbied for state support to bring back the Q House. Mayor Toni Harp, who pushed for state funding of the project as the co-chair of the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee, made the rebuilding of the Q House a priority of her mayoral administration when she was first elected in 2013.
In January 2016, the city secured over $15 million from the state to build a new Q House. That package included $1 million to build within the Q House a new home for the Stetson Library branch. The old Q House building was demolished in January 2016; over 300 people came out in November 2017 for the official groundbreaking for the new community center.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said that that construction could start in the coming months, weather and time-consuming paperwork permitting. Some site work and “a few spots of remediation” need to happen before bigger construction can begin. Construction is expected to take 12 to 15 months with the doors slated to open by the end of 2019.
Morrison said she understands that $100 is a lot of money for some people but she doesn’t want that to discourage people from supporting the endowment; she suggested that if need be people can pool their money to buy a brick. She also said there would eventually be a paper process for those who want to buy a brick but don’t have access to a computer.