RUMFORD – Staff, clients, officials and others gathered Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the transformation of the Tri-County Mental Health Agency at its newly renovated building on Congress Street.

The mental health agency’s executive director, Chris Copeland, dedicated the building, which underwent nearly $2 million in renovations, to all the people who have worked for the agency over the years, and to the people who use the services.

“This building symbolizes our shift in mental health care over the past 20 years. It shows how we have changed our views and values,” he said. “This is a magnificent building, and Platz Associates have designed magnificent renovations.”

The mental health agency, based in Lewiston with about 20 offices scattered throughout Androscoggin, Franklin, Oxford and northern Cumberland counties, has been working for several years for a new site for its Rumford office.

For nearly 20 years, its staff has been cramped in a former residence on Penobscot Street.

The “new” building is actually one of Rumford’s historic structures, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The building was built in 1906 by Charles Hardenburgh, the architect who designed the Copley Plaza in Boston, among other well-known hotels. It served the then-fledgling paper industry as the Rumford Falls Power Co.

Tri-County bought the three-story, beaux-arts downtown building from MeadWestvaco for $100,000. Another $1.7 million – much of that from the USDA Rural Development program – was used for renovations.

Bob Pontbriand, fiscal officer for Tri-County, said the new building provides the space and facilities for the program.

“We have the space needed to do what we have to do,” he said. “Soon, we’ll be totally computerized.”

Rumford facility manager Peggy Newton had said earlier that the move brings the agency back into the community.

With the new building, most of the 29 employees have their own offices, and there’s space for group meetings and a bright, airy waiting room

Susan Rossbach, an outpatient clinician for five years, said the previous site was noisy, with people walking back and forth along the hall outside her door. Now, her office is quieter and more private.

The Rumford Tri-County office serves 600 to 850 people annually.