Newburyport - As the Recreation and Youth Services Center at 59 Low St. continues to take shape, it was recently announced that the building’s gymnasium will be named after former Mayor Mary Anne Clancy.
“It's such an important thing for our kids and our grandkids and the legacy that it means for the city,” Clancy said. “So to have my name associated with it is just heartfelt for me. I can't think of anything more special.”
Once completed, the recreation center will house the city’s Recreation and Youth Services Department (RYS), which has been without a permanent home since 2021, when the boiler at its last location, the former Brown School, was deemed unusable.
On May 13, voters approved a $6.5 million debt exclusion to pay for most of the city’s $8.3 million plan to build the center.
The complex will include a gymnasium, lobby, offices for RYS staff, a flexible art/maker space, an early education area, meeting and quiet study space, as well as multipurpose space.
A half-basketball court will also be built outside to go along with a new patio, enclosed play space and an open lawn area.
Harvard-based L.D. Russo Inc. was awarded the contract after submitting the lowest bid, $7.1 million, last March. Ground was broken on the project in September.
Officials confirmed earlier this month that the project remains on pace for completion in November.
The Institution for Savings (IFS) was granted naming rights to the gymnasium as part of five-year, $50,000 per year gift the bank gave toward the project, which the City Council accepted during its meeting Monday night.
The bank's Board of Trustees then voted unanimously to transfer its gymnasium naming rights to recognize Clancy’s career of impact and contributions, particularly focused on supporting kids. The new gymnasium will be known as the Mary Anne Bresnahan Clancy Gymnasium.
“Naming the gymnasium at the new Recreation & Youth Services Center after Mary Anne Clancy is deeply meaningful to all of us at the Bank and the Board of Trustees,” President and CEO Michael Jones said in a statement. “Mary Anne’s career has been defined by her unwavering commitment to others, especially kids.”
Clancy found out about the naming this week at her retirement party. She will retire as the bank's senior vice president of marketing and communications at the end of this month after 20 years of leadership at the bank.
“I was blown away,” Clancy said. “I never, ever would have expected any gift like that. It was just so generous and such a heartfelt gift.”
Clancy is not the only member of her family to have naming rights within the city, as the Francis T. Bresnahan Elementary School is named after her father. She said sharing that in common with him is a “surreal feeling.”
Mayor Sean Reardon was there when Clancy first learned the news, and spoke highly of the long-time city leader.
“Mary Anne Clancy is a giant in this community,” Reardon said in a statement. “Her dedication to making Newburyport a better place is unmatched, and her influence is felt in every corner of our city."
He said she was his “first call when we began planning the Recreation and Youth Services Center.”
“Her guidance, intelligence and remarkable ability to connect with people helped drive this project forward,” Reardon said. “This honor from the Institution for Savings could not be more fitting. Mary Anne has been one of the project’s fiercest supporters and we are incredibly fortunate to have her leadership and her heart behind Newburyport.”
During Clancy’s time as mayor in the early 2000’s, the city faced a series of challenges related to substance abuse and mental health. Under her leadership, the city established its first Task Force on Substance Abuse which later evolved into the Beacon Coalition and the hiring of the city’s first ever and still serving director of Newburyport Youth Services, Andrea Egmont.
“When Mary Anne Clancy was mayor in 2005, she recognized that Newburyport’s most urgent responsibility was supporting young people during a very difficult time,” Egmont said, in a statement. “Rather than focusing on creating a full parks and recreation department, she prioritized youth needs and championed the creation of a youth coordinator position, allowing it to be shaped by the community.”
She said that Clancy’s leadership “laid the foundation for what became Newburyport Youth Services and today’s Recreation & Youth Services.”
“We are proud to honor her vision and lasting commitment to the city and its young people by naming the gymnasium after her,” Egmont said.
The center is set to be a hub for children and adults, offering everything from after-school programs, summer camps, and community activities.
“We look forward to seeing Mary Anne’s grandchildren and generations of Newburyport families spend countless hours in the Mary Anne Bresnahan Clancy Gymnasium,” Jones said.