Early Ed Center Buys Valley House, Plans Classroom Move

A Valley Street house that once operated as a group home run by Youth Continuum will soon transform into an early education center run by the Friends Center for Children. The Friends Center purchased the two-story, seven-bedroom house at 141 Valley St. as part of the organization’s broader transition toward owning, rather than renting, classroom spaces. According to Friends Center founder and director Allyx Schiavone , the organization will use the building to relocate classrooms that currently operate out of rented space at the Elm City Montessori School down the street at the corner of Valley and Blake. In total, three infant-toddler classrooms and one preschool classroom will move to 141 Valley St., possibly as soon as June 2027, according to Schiavone. The amount of space is “almost an exact match” to the space that the Friends Center currently rents at Elm City Montessori, said Schiavone, adding that there is potential to build more on the property in the future. The Valley Street building is just the latest in a growing array of property owned by the Friends Center, including both teacher housing and classroom space . According to the city tax assessor’s database, Friends Center for Children Inc owns two other properties at 25 Flint (the former Cine-4 movie theater) and 881 Whalley. Meanwhile, the affiliated Friends Center Teacher Housing LLC owns eight additional properties across the city. “The industry that we’re in, it’s very hard to survive ,” said Schiavone. “So we think a lot about the role that infrastructure can play” in financial sustainability. “Owning a space allows us to save a lot on rent.” Schiavone estimated that within a dozen years, the center “will make back what we’re paying in rent.” The 141 Valley St. building was constructed by Youth Continuum in 2013. It housed a group home known as the Forbes House for teen boys in foster care. Youth Continuum officially shuttered in October 2025 due to financial challenges. According to the city’s land records database, Friends Center purchased the building from Youth Continuum for $905,000 on April 9. (According to the tax assessor’s database, the building was last appraised by the city as worth $583,900.) According to Schiavone, the center pays approximately $70,000 a year to rent from Elm City Montessori. “The work of Youth Continuum was so critical and so important. It’s such a loss for our community,” Schiavone said. “We hope we do justice to that legacy.” Schiavone said she sees some continuity between Youth Continuum’s work and the early education provided by the Friends Center. “We’re glad to be working with young people” at “the very beginning of the spectrum,” she said, noting that “early childhood education is connected to everything that happens to us afterwards.” Laura Glesby is a staff reporter at the New Haven Independent. You can get in touch with her directly here. More by Laura Glesby