Renovation allows multiple activities at same time.
By: Jennifer Potash
At any given moment at the Suzanne Patterson Senior Center, one may find an exercise class in the main hall, a book discussion group in the lounge and an art class under way in another room.
This may not seem unusual for a senior-citizen center, but until last month it was impossible at the Patterson facility, said Susan Hoskins, director of the nonprofit organization contracted by Princeton Borough and Princeton Township to run the municipal senior programs.
Ms. Hoskins and over 60 senior-citizen participants, local officials and municipal staff celebrated the successful renovation at a grand reopening party Tuesday afternoon at the center, which now can host a multiplicity of activities at the same time.
Billie Emmerich, president of the Princeton Senior Resource Center board of trustees, compared the three-year process for the renovation project to childbirth.
"The baby (the Suzanne Patterson Center) was born on time, intact and beautiful," she said.
Both Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed and Princeton Township Mayor Phyllis Marchand lauded each other’s community for the joint cooperation that made the project such a success.
Mercer County Freeholder Brian Hughes, a Princeton Township resident, said the county’s Senior 2000 program to build or renovate senior centers in the county "bore fruit" with the Suzanne Patterson Center renovation.
The $595,000 project was funded by both the borough and township with help from a $248,000 Mercer County grant.
The center was originally the gymnasium for Miss Fine’s School and was built in the 1950s. The building has served as a senior center for 18 years.
The old basketball hoops and bleachers are gone, but the original maple floor is intact with some patches and sealed by a protectant to withstand the center’s multiple uses from lectures to exercise classes to folk dancing. Included in the renovation is a new lounge stocked with comfortable couches and chairs.
For the first time, the center will house a space just for youth a small lounge with trendy couches and low-slung bright orange and red plastic chairs. Ms. Hoskins said she anticipated more intergenerational programs with the over-55 and under-18 sets.
With success comes a price, officials have discovered.
Since the center’s rental rates were published in local papers as part of Borough Council discussions, requests to reserve the center have poured in, Ms. Hoskins said. The staff has spent a great deal of time attempting to accommodate all the reservations, she said.

