LEWISTON — Pettingill Elementary is nearly all torn down, but the Lewiston school will not be forgotten.

“For 87 years, Pettingill has been the anchor of this neighborhood,” said Bill Maroldo, who lives a stone’s throw from it.

Maroldo and Ted Walworth have gathered former students, parents and neighbors to form Friends of Pettingill, a group dedicated to creating a community park on the two-acre parcel at the corner of College and Little streets.

Maroldo and Walworth have more in common than just the park. They both raised two daughters and all four girls went to Pettingill from kindergarten through the sixth grade.

“I found it to be a great neighborhood school,” Maroldo said.

“We enjoyed the benefits of our kids going there,” Walworth said. 

The school opened in 1926 and closed in 2008. The building sat empty for five years before construction crews started knocking the building down in November. The playground remains. 

Initially, the playground was coming down but neighborhood parents had their say, and City Hall kept it for children to use. Parents held fundraisers for playground improvements when the school was open and that type of community involvement is what Friends of Pettingill are trying to capture.

“We are kind of doing a continuation of that neighborhood spirit,” Maroldo said. 

The School Department recommended the school site become a park when they transferred the property to the city in 2009.

Discussions at City Hall since then have focused on whether the land should be made into a park or be used to build five single-family homes. House lots would put the land back on the property-tax rolls and save the city from maintaining a park.

Friends of Pettingill have raised more than $4,000 from a block party in May and a Pickin’ for Pettingill concert in June. Local musicians Denny Breau and Nick Knowlton have been involved in fundraising. 

“We almost have to (raise money) because the city does not have the resources,” Maroldo said. 

“We look at $4,000 as being enough to help finance phase one, which would be a couple of benches, refurbishing the playground equipment and maybe planting a few saplings around the perimeter,” Walworth said. “Basically what we want is a grassy area for kids to run around. We want some shade and some benches.”

“Phase two would be more formal paths, more benches, maybe a little area for senior citizens with chess boards, things like that,” Walworth said.

Phase three and beyond would come with more money raised, Walworth said. Ideas that come to his mind are raised-bed gardens, a concert gazebo and more trees. 

Former Pettingill student Kaitlyn Burns turned the proposed park into a final project for college. She graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology in August with a degree in architecture, and her four park perspectives have been posted on the Friends of Pettingill’s Facebook page. Her sketches representing the three stages of the proposed park have been given to the group’s steering committee and will be revealed soon. 

Maroldo and Walworth are optimistic.

“I think we have a lot of momentum right now,” Maroldo said. “We have not detected any opposition at all.”

Maroldo watched people walk by his home-based office; he knew exactly where they were headed.

“This playground is busy,” Maroldo said. “The school and the playground, in combination, have brought people together for all types of purposes, not just education.”

“The whole concept of an anchor incubator for relationships between kids, between mothers, between all generations can be forged here,” Walworth said.

“We would love to see this a park,” said neighbor Angela McKeen, the mother of two boys, Sean, 7, and Chase, 9. “The boys bike down there all the time.”

The incoming City Council will consider whether to turn the property into a park or build homes. Friends of Pettingill expect the park proposal to go to the council for a vote in 2014.  

“Our main mission is making sure we have 2.2 acres of community park area,” Maroldo said. “Pettingill is the anchor of our neighborhood, and we just don’t want to lose it.”