Vermont Housing Conservation Board 2005 - Vermont Housing and ...

the 1906-vintage edifice stands out today
like a polished antique. Once home
to the Tuttle Printing and Engraving
Company, the building now houses 13
affordable apartments, along with the
offices of RCCLT.
The most noticeable tenant, with its
showroom at street level, is Center Street
Artisans, a new business whose shareholders
are craft artists. Big picture windows
showcase elegantly handcrafted
home furnishings, and passersby often
pause to window-shop.
Since the wraps came off the Tuttle
Building’s renovation this fall, local
responses have been very warm.
“The building really has jumpstarted
enthusiasm in the community,”
says Elisabeth Kulas, RCCLT’s executive
director. “I get comments all the time
about how beautiful it looks.”
Good looks, in this case, go deeper
than the façade. Led by RCCLT in a limited
partnership with Housing Vermont
and Key Bank, the Tuttle Building’s
renovation proved that a downtown
restoration project with a return on investment
that would be insufficient for
a private developer can, with patience
and determination, be accomplished as
a private-public-nonprofit collaboration
— and the community as a whole
can benefit.
The completed Tuttle building, supported
by a VHCB grant along with
federal HOME Program funds awarded
through VHCB, affordable housing
tax credits, and HUD special purpose
funding — has provided downtown affordable
housing in a city whose commercial
center had almost none.
Standing across from the earlierrestored
Paramount Theater, the Tuttle
Building and its artisans’ showroom
has helped encourage local interest in
the role of the arts and creativity in
downtown revitalization. The Board of
Aldermen has supported a broad-based
local effort by community leaders,
artists, business owners and cultural
organizations to explore how a “creative
economy” can continue sparking
Rutland’s renewal, much as similar efforts
have in Bellows Falls, Brattleboro,
and Brandon.
Then there are the city residents who
have moved into the Tuttle apartments.
They’re people like Mac Janney and
Martha Crilly.
Janney, who was born with a form
of macular degeneration and is legally
blind, coordinates development at Vermont
Adaptive Ski and Sports, based at
the nearby Pico resort. The nonprofit
organization provides sports and recreation
for people with disabilities. Janney
was living in an apartment up a steep hill
from the city center. When he toured the
Tuttle Building last summer, he says, “I
just fell in love with the place.”
Living now in a first-floor apartment,
Janney says, “I can walk anywhere I
need to go. It’s easy for me to go grocery
shopping. Just having all these neat little
shops around is pretty cool.”
Martha Crilly, who has been confined
to a wheelchair by rheumatoid
arthritis and fibromyalgia, was renting
an apartment in a building that had been
sold; she was close to homelessness,
unable to find an accessible, affordable
rental, when she learned of RCCLT and
this building. She moved into a spacious,
accessible apartment in August.
“God bless the person who designed
this, because I love it,” Crilly says. “It’s
so open, and so easy, and there’s a sense
of security in this building. It’s just
beautiful.”
9
Governor Douglas joined Mrs.
Tuttle, representatives of funding,
community development agencies,
congressional delegation and Rutland
County Community Land Trust staff
and board members at the ribbon
cutting last summer.