Pearl Stephens Elementary School stands out like a cold fortress on Napier Avenue in Macon.

A gray mildew stains its stucco, castlelike facade. Inside, ceiling tiles have fallen, insulation and broken glass litter the classrooms, the floor is caving in, and there is a pervasive musty smell.

But where some may see nothing more than an old, decaying schoolhouse, others see potential.

"You can't help but look at it and say, 'Wow. Somebody ought to do something with that building,' " John Hiscox, executive director of the Macon Housing Authority, said this week.

The authority wants to be that somebody. The authority has purchased the property, built in 1929, and plans to develop it into an affordable senior living facility called Pearl Stephens Village.

"In its current state, it's having a blighting influence on this neighborhood," Hiscox said. "We'd like to make it an asset."

Pearl Stephens has been closed since 1990, when its students transferred to a new school. A church purchased it from the Bibb County Board of Education several years ago, but nothing was ever done because of a split in the congregation.

The authority purchased the school at the end of April for $175,000, said Bruce Gerwig, special programs director for the housing authority and president of In-Fill Housing, a nonprofit subsidiary that is developing the project.

"We're going to keep the look and the appearance of the facade, but we're going to throw away a whole lot more than we can keep," Hiscox said.

The inside will be gutted, the roof will be replaced and a 1949 addition to the building will be demolished, Gerwig said.

Each classroom will become an apartment, and three more buildings will be constructed in the back for a total of 61 units, he said.

There will be a library, auditorium, computer center, fitness area and laundry room, as well as a gazebo and walking trail.

"We're going to do it up nice," Gerwig said.

The entire project will cost about $7.5 million, he said. The vast majority will be funded by the sale of low-income housing tax credits from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, and $550,000 will come from a bank loan.

PRESERVING A NEIGHBORHOOD

Amid the trash, leftover textbooks and lunch plates, the building has promising features.

A rotunda with a domed ceiling sits in the middle of the school. Intricate woodwork adorns the walls and doors.

Gerwig and Hiscox call it "the wow factor."

"It will be beautiful again," Hiscox promised.

Bette-Lou Brown, executive director of Historic Macon, said the project will help preserve the school's architectural history and the neighborhood.

"Historic schools are something that we have not begun to understand are important to our architectural history," she said. "All over the country so many of them are being torn down, and the buildings that are being built in place of them are simply not what we had in the past."

The style of a neighborhood can be determined by the looks of its school, she said.

"Pearl Stephens was charming," she said. "That school has a presence on that street."

Preserving the architecture of the school will help preserve the style of the neighborhood, she said.

The Housing Authority completed a similar project in 2005 at 2009 Vineville Ave. There, homes for seniors were built around a 1834 mansion, located right down the street from Vineville United Methodist Church.

"The Vineville project was sheer genius," Brown said. "It has anchored that part of Vineville Avenue and kept the historic buildings looking like they belong there."

The addition of the Vineville apartments and Baltic Park senior home in 2004 created 186 new apartments for seniors.

But the demand for senior housing is increasing as baby boomers reach retirement age, Hiscox said.

"We're already seeing a huge upswing in demand for housing," he said. "The baby boomers have revolutionized everything they have ever touched, and they're getting ready to revolutionize the need for senior housing.

The last rash of construction was in the late 1960s and early '70s, he said.

Construction on Pearl Stephens Village is scheduled to begin in summer 2007, Gerwig said, adding that interior demolition would start before then.

The village should be ready to open in January 2009, he said.

Gerwig said he hopes to offer this new wave of seniors a high standard of living at an affordable price.

Units are around 800 square feet, and rent for a one-bedroom apartment will be around $450 per month, he said. It will be around $500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, he said.