Five Towns Community Center celebrates 105 years

The Five Towns Community Center marked its 105th anniversary with a party at the Lawrence building on

April 6.

In 1907, the property on Lawrence Avenue originally housed a trade school that was known to community members as a settlement house that was one of the many projects funded by Five Towns resident Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, the sole executrix of the famous millionaire Russell Sage’s estate after he died in 1906.

Years later the building was known as the Inwood Community Center, which then morphed into the Five Towns Community Center in the 1970s.

The Center was home to an array of services before county cuts reduced programs offering last year. However, the Center played a vital role as a place for residents to find shelter and needed items after Hurricane Sandy.