To the editor:

I congratulate all those fine folks who advocated for a new senior center and have now seen it come to fruition at its location on the property that is the site of the former Anne Hutchinson Elementary School.

I attended that school as a transplant from Florida in 1949 and have always taken great pride in the fact that I attended a school commemorating the life of a woman significant to the history of the Town of Portsmouth. Rarely are buildings named after women, even now.

To be frank, I am deeply offended that the agency building the affordable housing on the property, which is still the site of the Anne Hutchinson school building, chose to name the new building after a woman of less importance to Portsmouth, Ade Bethune. I fear that as time passes and decisions are made concerning the older building, the name Anne Hutchinson will be discarded like we discard our empty plastic containers.

I urge the town council and all relevant agencies involved in decisions concerning the old building to find a way to commemorate Anne Hutchinson with an edifice as tangible and enduring as the new structure named after a woman of far less importance to the history of Portsmouth.

Perhaps the new senior center could be named the Anne Hutchinson Senior Center, Portsmouth, R.I.

Carol Anderheggen

Portsmouth