Ann St. Martin Stout
Sheets are free
The Newport Recreation Center will be unrecognizable in the next few months. A move several hundred yards south along Meadow Road will bring the many activities and opportunities of nearly six decades into the modern age. The old building will be left behind and a shiny new facility will be unveiled.
As I have been training here for the past few months and knowing that we would soon be in a new facility, I have had the opportunity to look around and see how much of a state of disrepair the current recreation center building really is.
This has been the call of recreation enthusiasts in our community for several years – probably about a decade. The current staff, and especially director and Newport native PJ Lovely, have worked tirelessly to find a plan that fits Newport, mobilize support, and obtain funding for the new location and building.
The same city employees who do everything from collecting registration forms and payments to sweeping the floors to applying band-aids and calming down angry young day campers have done a job that deserves loud applause.
In addition, these people have planned a wide variety of programs, found volunteers and staff to run those programs, and found sponsors to provide money for t-shirts, uniforms, and general program expenses.
Going through old copies of the Argus Champion (online at richards.advantage-preservation.com/), I found interesting details about the building’s history. When the armory was auctioned off in the mid-1960s, there was only one bidder. The city then leased it from the buyer (for $100 a year). Various uses were suggested for the city’s needs, but the November 2, 1967 Argus reported, “The armory is now the headquarters for recreational activities.”
The same issue of the Argus Champion reported: “The Newport Teen Council, a Newport High School advisory group for the Newport Community Center, held its first event, a free dance at the Armory, Tuesday night. The dance featured the Electric Circus, a Battle of the Bands winner from Concord.”
My own memories are of roller skating on the spacious grounds when the National Guard Armory on Belknap Ave. first became the Newport Recreation Center. I enjoyed baton-handling classes with the Newport High School majorettes. Later, I watched my kids play basketball (I played there one year in sixth grade), and now I participate in the adult training group a few mornings a week.
As a teenager, looking at the building, I wondered why there were doors that resembled garage doors, allowing trucks, trailers and National Guard vehicles to easily enter the building at ground level. When the building was completed in 1936, it was praised in the July 1, 1937 Argus as a state-of-the-art building, the finest of the state’s 40 armory buildings.
The insignia on the south facing front reads: Second Battalion, 197th Coast Artillery, NHNG.
Over the years, I have watched the eight directors since 1967 put everything in order. Most of the eight have served five years or less. The current director, PJ Lovely, is now in his 30th year. Director Larry Flint, who is highly respected and has really given Newport a lot of credit, served for ten years and continues to be involved.
But during these few months of practice, I’ve noticed other things the staff has done to make the current situation more workable and fun – cubbies as lockers, a climbing wall, and yellow emoji circles painted on the walkways with expressions and reactions. I’m sure there are many other things I haven’t seen.
I am confident that the goodwill of the staff who want the best for the community will carry over to the new location. Particularly the deep-rooted concern that these leisure centre staff have for the welfare of the children. It is a big world out there and if people know how to treat each other, they are always welcome.
