The Village at Winston Prouty Begins Demolition of Wheeler House
By Chris Mays, Brattleboro Reformer, published: January 22, 2026
BRATTLEBORO — Demolition is making room for the first phase of a campus redevelopment plan at the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development that has been in the works for years.
Construction of the new 28-unit apartment building, for what will be known as The Village at Winston Prouty, is expected to take about 12 months.
“Our current estimate is for construction to start this summer, hopefully July, giving us time to finalize financing, fundraising and the bidding process,” Chloe Learey, executive director of the Prouty center, told the Reformer.
Demolition of The Wheeler House, which was emptied in the summer and previously housed refugees after a women’s sober living program, began on Tuesday. Weather prevented the work from starting on Monday.
In a news release, Learey said the milestone “represents responsible stewardship of our campus and a meaningful investment in the future.”
“The new housing planned for this site will support our mission while addressing community needs,” she said.
A crew from Bellco Excavating demolishes The Wheeler House on the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development campus on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. This is the first step in Phase 1 of a planned campus redevelopment that will include construction of a new 28-unit apartment building on the site.
Demolition work is anticipated to be completed by the end of January. Efforts are being “made to minimize disruption to neighboring residents and ongoing campus operations,” according to the news release.
The center said additional details about the first phase of construction construction and future phases will be shared as plans progress.
“We’re preparing to kick off a capital campaign this spring to keep this important housing project moving forward and welcome community donors and investors to be a part of making the Village come to life,” Learey said.
The center “has embarked on an ambitious project to build housing on its 184-acre campus,” according to village.winstonprouty.org, with the goal of creating “a neighborhood that reflects all the different kinds of people and needs that exist in the community.”
A Brattleboro housing study in 2021 “determined that 500 units of housing were needed to meet local demand,” the site states.
“Years later, the demand is even more urgent, with a 2025 Vermont study showing the need for 7,000 new residences statewide per year,” the site states. “The Village will be part of the solution to the housing crisis our community and state are facing.”
The project is set to include multiple types of housing, including apartments, condos and duplexes.
“The long-term vision includes up to 300 units of mixed-income housing,” Learey wrote in a commentary published in August. “This scale is significant — not just for Brattleboro, but for the entire region. Few other sites in Southern Vermont offer this combination of location, infrastructure potential, and connection to existing community services.”
Public discussion of the project dates back to 2019. Construction for the first phase is anticipated to cost about $9.5 million.
