At 10 a.m. on June 15, the Town of Clinton finalized the sale of the Academy Building at 61 East Main Street. The building was sold to the First Church of Christ Congregational for the sum of $1, marking the second time the Academy property has changed hands between the town and the church.

Forty years ago, First Church of Christ struck a deal with the town: In exchange for clear title to the property on which the church stood, the church gave the Town of Clinton title to a quarter acre of land surrounding the Academy Building. (The church had been established in Clinton for more than 300 years by that time, but never had clear title to the property it occupied.)

In the swap of quit-claim deeds in 1976 was an important covenant: If the town ever wanted to sell the Academy property, including the building and land, it would have to give First Church of Christ right of first refusal to purchase it for $1.

By 2015, the growing cost to maintain the 215-year-old structure prompted a decision by the town to relinquish its ownership of the Academy. First Church congregants voted to buy the building for $1, and in a special town meeting on Feb. 3, Clinton voters approved the sale.

The Reverend Dr. Chris Horvath, pastor at the First Church of Christ, said the congregation recognizes the Academy’s architectural and historical significance and has every intention of preserving it. Though church members will largely spend the summer preparing for the 63rd annual Clinton Summer Fair, which runs Friday and Saturday, Aug. 12 and 13, Rev. Horvath hopes restoration work can begin in earnest this fall. Plans include scraping and repainting the building’s aging exterior. The exterior color, he said, is likely to change—though no decisions on the color have been made yet.

“I’d like it to be something other than the institutional green it is now,” he said.

The church plans to use the property as a community center for meetings, retreats, the local food pantry, Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops, and 12-step recovery groups such as Al-Anon.