‘We don’t come with the house’ FCTS students built Erving home with help from GSB Foundation

ERVING – Dozens of Franklin County Technical School students huddled together for a photograph around 10:15 a.m. on Thursday, but it was no ordinary school photo. They stood in front of 26 Central St., a house they built with their own hands.

Greenfield Savings Bank set up the Franklin Technical School Building Society Inc. to finance the project, and students in the school’s various construction-based programs rolled up their sleeves and got to work in December 2016.

The goal is for the bank’s foundation to become self-sufficient, with any additional money from the sale of one of their houses going toward future houses. The next project is slated for up the street, where a foundation has already been laid.

“This house is going to fund that house,” Paul Benjamin, head of marketing for Greenfield Savings Bank, said, pointing up the street. “And that house will fund another house. This is going to be a legacy for this school.”

The bank established Franklin Technical School Building Society Inc. after Ken Vautrin, one of the carpentry instructors at the school, approached President and Chief Executive Officer John Howland.

“We were doing for Habitat for Humanity, but they weren’t getting homes in this area that frequently — every five years or so, and we have a program to try to run,” he explained. “So I asked our administration if I’m allowed to approach certain banks and propose that we do our own. And they gave me the go-ahead.”