One of the Borough of Northampton’s most recognized iconic structures is the Central School building on Main Street. At its June 14 meeting, Northampton Borough Planning Commission recommended that a proposal to convert the structure into 12 apartments now go before borough council for its review.

Borough Manager LeRoy Brobst said he expects council will vote July 20 on the planners’ recommendation for the project, submitted by Bath developer Tom Kishbaugh of Royal Development Company.

Councilman Anthony Lopsonzski Sr., at the June 15 borough council meeting, expressed disapproval with the project and the planning commission’s recommendation. He disagrees with the proposed flow of traffic - having cars exit the rear parking lot onto Main Street and exiting from one-way 15th Street.

Instead, Lopsonzski, said, the vehicle traffic flow in and out of the lot should be reversed.

Councilman Ed Pany, who said he favors the building reverting to the tax rolls, added a plaque should be affixed to the structure detailing its history.

Councilmen Robert McHale and Kenneth Hall also serve on the planning commission.

Along with traffic flow concerns raised by a couple of residents at the planning commission hearing, Frank Keller, who operates a heating and fuel business on Main Street, across from the Central building, said tenants from the proposed apartments could take up the parking spaces on Main Street that are necessary for his customers.

Kishbaugh, who has already received zoning board approval, has allotted 22 parking spaces for vehicles.

The developer proposes two-bedroom units on each of the first and second floors, with two more on a lower level. Plans also call for new windows, extensive interior remodeling and landscaping.

Built in 1885, the Central building first was Allen Township High School. The borough was a compilation of villages - Stemton, Newport and Siegfried - and became a borough in 1902. There were four students in the first graduating class and one teacher.

For reasons unknown, it was later called the Brooklyn School. And in 1910, the high school moved to Lincoln Avenue. The old building on Main Street housed elementary school children for years.

The property during World War II was a drop-off site for metals, food cans and materials for the war effort.

In the late 1940s and into the 1950s, it was a teenage center.

When the high school on Laubach Avenue underwent renovations in the 1980s, the 10th-grade class attended the Central School building.