LEWISTON — Roger Labbe didn’t expect to like playing cards in the Lewiston Memorial Armory.

The Central Avenue building was old and needed work, and Labbe wasn’t certain the city would fix it up for Lewiston’s senior program. When city officials said they wanted to move the seniors out of the Multi-Purpose Center and into the Armory, he wasn’t happy.

That was then.

“I love it; they did a really nice job,” Labbe, president of the senior program, said Wednesday. 

Two weeks after the Armory opened to seniors for bridge games, bingo and meetings, Labbe and others say they like their new home. They like the atmosphere, the appearance, parking and the soon-to-come elevator.

“And the roof doesn’t leak,” Labbe said. “I could go on and on.”

Longley Elementary School and the Lewiston Multi-Purpose Center have shared a Birch Street building since the 1970s. The city’s senior citizen groups often used the Multi-Purpose Center for their programs.

Despite seniors’ vehement protests, Lewiston city councilors voted in January to move programs out of the Multi-Purpose Center and to dedicate the entire building to Longley Elementary School. Officials said the school system is facing a growth spurt, adding 100 students per year for the foreseeable future, and the school needed the space.

Since that vote, the city has been renovating space at the Armory, knocking down walls in one part of the building to make a main meeting room complete with a kitchen, two bathrooms, carpeting, air conditioning and a row of windows that overlook a tree-lined residential street. Workers are creating more on-street parking spots and a parking area in front of the building. Work soon will begin on a new elevator that will drop off seniors just steps from their main meeting room. 

Seniors also have access to other parts of the Armory, including its gym and “drill room,” a larger meeting room across the building from the senior meeting room. On Wednesday, 30 seniors filled the drill room for the first scheduled bingo game since the move.

“I love it,” said Flo Anctil, 92, during a quick break from her 20 bingo cards. “Especially the other room, the senior room. It’s so beautiful. Everybody says so.”

Although many seniors say they like their new location, some still miss the Multi-Purpose Center.

“I haven’t adjusted to it yet,” said Madeleine Beaulieu, 80, treasurer for the senior group. “We were all very much attached to the Multi-Purpose Center. It’s going to take a while (to get used to), let me put it that way.”  

Some things that seniors must get used to: the Armory’s location, its security, the maze-like quality of the building and the lack of a sink in the drill room. Some of those issues are being addressed. The new elevator is scheduled to be finished in November. Recreation Department officials, who are in charge of the Armory, are considering moving bingo out of the drill room and into the main meeting room so seniors will have a sink close by to wash their hands after sticky snacks.

“There have been bumps and bruises along the way, but we’re working on it,” said Recreation Department Director Maggie Chisholm.

The senior group has more than 300 members. With the new location, greater parking and room to expand programs, Chisholm and others hope membership will increase. 

“I can see growth now in these programs,” she said.

As for the Multi-Purpose Center, it is no longer multipurpose.

“I’m very happy about the space we’re gaining,” said Longley Principal Linda St. Andre. “They’ve started the remodeling. We’re planning on using every bit of space in the building.”

Longley will use the extra space for an additional prekindergarten room, an additional second-grade classroom, a computer lab and space for tutoring and other support services. The main office of the school will be moved to the front of the building to make the school more secure.

Longley will still provide gym space to the Lewiston Recreation Department for some sports programs. No recreation programs will be cut, St. Andre said, but “they might be in different locations.”

Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster had initially proposed turning part of the Multi-Purpose Center into a prekindergarten center for the entire city. That plan was abandoned, Webster said, because the School Department didn’t get approval from the city to take over the building in time to open a pre-K center in September. The school system will instead gradually create more pre-K classrooms at individual schools.

Multi-Purpose Center renovations will cost the School Department $700,000. Of that, $500,000 will be spent to convert the heating system from oil to natural gas.

Work on the Armory will cost the city about $460,000. The director of public buildings said the renovations would have cost more, but city employees are doing much of the work.