CHESTER — Tony-award winning Broadway costume designer William Ivey Long recently transferred ownership to the town of the 1906 Chester Elementary School, according to Selectman Richard Holzman. Ivey Long had owned the building for 15 years and had planned to use it as a museum to house his award-winning collection. Holzman would not disclose the financial details of the transfer.

“I think we have to see it as an opportunity, because it is connected to the vitality and aspirations of the town. It’s a prime piece of property,” Holzman said, acknowledging that the building will need some work to update it and make it acceptable to today’s standards.

“It’s part of the historical walkway. We’re creating a walkway around the town that goes to all the places of historic interest,” Holzman added.

The building is a visible landmark, sitting on a hilltop across from Town Hall and across in the other direction from the old high school, now owned by the Hilltown Community Development Corporation, which is also the home of the Hamilton Memorial Library. Holzman said the historical walkway includes both schools, the Chester Historical Museum and jail house, Carm’s restaurant and the Hilltown Visitor Center.

The trail then crosses the iron bridge to Maple Street and the original factory village houses, and back to Main Street, with the Blue Note, the Riverside Inn, and Pease’s market. Across the tracks is the Railway Station, now a national historic landmark that is “so elevated in stature, it’s among 3 percent of national historic landmarks here in the U.S.,” according to Holzman.

“We’re doing so many exciting things here,” he said, naming the Chester Theatre Co., the Railway Station Museum and the Keystone Arches. “Now, it’s a very distinct possibility that we will have a railroad stop in Chester. I’ve been connected to the town for 50 years. This is the most exciting time ever.”

Holzman said the elementary school building is in decent condition. He said it’s old, but the exterior structure appears to be sound.

David Pierce, who is president of the Chester Railway Museum and the Friends of the Keystone Arches, agreed that the structure of the elementary school building is sound. Pierce was head of plant for the Gateway Regional School District at the time of that the school underwent asbestos removal, window replacements and new boiler in 2000. He said everything was done well.

“It’s not a white elephant,” Pierce said. He also talked about a very innovative heating distribution system original to the building that doesn’t require anything electrical to move the air. Engineers studying the building in 2000 were “blown away” by it, he said.

Holzman said the town is now open to exploring all the possibilities for the 20,000-square-foot, four-story building.

“We could put town activities in it. We have very limited space in town for offices, for the Council on Aging and Police Department,” he said, adding that the town also owns an acre and a half of land that abuts the elementary school.

Asked about the public library, which has been closed since August after it tested positive for mold, Holzman said as far as he is concerned, the library should get top choice of what it needs and wants in the building.

“I think it’s a perfect building, if all things come together. The library should have what they need once and for all, right in that elementary school. They should be an anchor,” he said.

Holzman also said the town has a 99-year lease on the library space in the old high school, which also houses the town’s gem collection.

“I have every intention of insisting that it be maintained,” he said.

He said there is a lot of expertise in town, among the selectmen and the general citizenry, to be able to study uses for the building.

“It’s not like it’s a fait accompli. We want to study it for a while. Perhaps with all the infrastructure money, and the attention on Chester as the hub of the Hilltowns. … Hopefully, [we can get] a combination of grants and private investors to maximize the use of the property.”

“To the extreme, if the building were to be demolished, we’d have to put something there. Hopefully, through grants, we’ll have the opportunity to preserve it. In any case, it’s prime real estate in Chester village. Nobody is going to be reckless. We want to study it, and make it valuable to the town of Chester in all ways possible,” Holzman said.