The Cooper Center for Active Living opened its doors on Friday, capping off a journey that brought a bold vision to brick-and-mortar, as Newton looks to revolutionize the concept of aging-in-community.

“Today we are celebrating what all of us can do when we come together and invest in a dedicated, supportive, permanent home for our older Newtonians,” Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said to thunderous applause at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the building’s basketball gym.

Yes, the new senior center has a basketball gym. And up above it, there’s a walkway that wraps around the gym. If you walk around it 16 times, you’ve walked a mile.

Standing proudly at the corner of Walnut Street and Highland Ave. in Newtonville, the new 35,000-square-foot facility serves as the city’s senior center as well as a place for people of all ages to enjoy, play games and meet new friends. It’s a place to help people age with not just dignity, Fuller emphasized, but also joy.

“Today we’re opening the doors certainly to our beautiful new building, but I would say, more importantly, to possibilities,” Fuller continued. “Possibilities to connect, to create, to learn and to dance, to move, to play games, to visit with old friends, to make some new ones, to enjoy music and art, books and lectures, to share a cup of coffee or a meal, and also to find some support and advice from the community.”

A place for all ages

That gym was packed full of attendees Friday morning, there to celebrate the Cooper Center. Fuller promised to make the ribbon-cutting ceremony fun, and she had help from Paula Gannon, the city’s director of cultural development, and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.

Gannon, equipped with her talent and guitar, led the room in song. And Driscoll, who played basketball in college, grabbed a ball and made a free-throw into the basket on the first try.

Opening the center to all ages provides older adults with a gathering space and also enriches their lives with interactions and new friendships with Newtonians of all ages. And the Cooper Center will be staffed with enough employees to keep it open on nights and weekends to accommodate everyone.

“We’re centered on our older adults, but please know everyone can find a place here, because we all know that when younger and older residents share space, everyone’s better off,” Fuller said. “Our youngsters learn from their seniors, and our seniors enjoy the energy and companionship of an all-age-friendly community.”

That was evident throughout the building Friday as Newtonians of all ages mingled in its hallways, and 107-year-old Newtonville resident Yury Feldman played a game of pool with some younger men in one of the game rooms.

Driscoll, who shepherded a similar community center through planning and construction when she was mayor of Salem, said the joy in the room Friday was about more than a building.

“It’s a testament to what happens when a community cares deeply and comes together and then boldly plans for a future,” Driscoll said, adding that the Cooper Center can be a model for the rest of the state when it comes to creating aging-friendly cities.

Newtonville resident Yury Feldman, age 107, plays pool with people half his age at the Cooper Center for Active Living on Dec. 5, 2025. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

A promise kept

Fuller thanked a bunch of people on Friday—Older Adult Services Director Mignonne Murray, former Senior Services Director Jayne Colino, Public Buildings Commissioner Josh Morse, Joan Belle Isle and many more—for helping to bring the new facility from hopeful idea to brick-and-mortar reality.

But those people, and many others at the ceremony, made sure to note that this was Fuller’s day, too. When Fuller ran for mayor in 2017, she ran on a promise to get a new state-of-the-art senior center built. And at every step of the process, the new center has been a priority of her administration.

Morse met with Fuller right after she was elected in 2017 to discuss her vision for buildings in the city from 2018 onward.

“She made it clear from the start that we were going to replace the senior center, and with her support, we got to work in January of 2018. We hit the ground running right away,” Morse said.

Fuller’s commitment never weakened, and after years of meetings, feedback from the community and trips to other cities to check out their community centers for ideas, crews were able to break ground in early 2024.

“We embraced challenges and tackled them head-on,” Morse said. “Eight years later, and after more than 530 public meetings and contributions of thousands of residents, architects, engineers, project managers and contractors, we have created something truly special.”

Drawing from her own experience as mayor, Driscoll praised Fuller’s ability to follow through on that promise she made in 2017.

“Your leadership brought together planning and design and community input and a clear vision that every older adult in Newton deserves a space and to be able to age in place with dignity, connection, and, as you said, joy.” Driscoll said to the mayor.

Former City Councilor Cheryl Lappin (whose brother, Rick Lipof still serves on the Council) was part of the NewCAL committee that ushered the Cooper Center project forward.

“It’s exceeded my expectations,” Lappin said. “Josh Morse has done an amazing job—the details! It’s incredible. I’m just blown away, and it’s going to be a welcoming place for the whole city. It’s really just amazing.”

Especially appreciative is Marc Laredo, who has served on the City Council throughout the planning and construction phases and now gets to enjoy it as Newton’s next mayor.

“This was a long process to get done overall. I’m very happy we ended up with this building in a village center,” Laredo said. “Mayor Fuller had a vision that she carried out, and as Josh Morse said, this is a legacy for her. This building is gorgeous. It’s going to be used for a hundred years or more, and this is exactly what we should be doing in the city of Newton. And I feel fortunate as the next mayor that I inherited this building.”

Public Buildings Commissioner Josh Morse delivers remarks at the opening of the Cooper Center for Active Living on Dec. 5, 2025. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

A legacy enshrined

The Cooper Center for Active Living is named after Audrey Cooper, a longtime employee of Newton Public Schools who focused on helping her neighbors and her community thrive.

“She poured her heart and soul into the Newton community service center that we all know as Family Access,” Fuller said. “She helped establish and start a daycare and teen programs and health initiatives. She gave so much of her time and energy to the Newton Free Library, where she was a volunteer and a trustee. And to our older residents.”

Cooper, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 97, won the Newton Human Rights Award from the city and an Unsung Heroine Award from the state, and she helped get the effort going to create the new senior center that now bears her name.

“I promise you, her memory is not just a blessing, but it’s an inspiration,” Fuller said.

Some of Cooper’s family members were at Friday’s ceremony, and her daughter, Marian Cooper, was thrilled with the new facility.

“I think it’s fabulous, and my mother would think it’s fabulous,” Marion said with a beaming smile, adding that the building captured her mother’s helpful, welcoming spirit. “She always felt Newton should have a state-of-the-art senior center, or center for older adults, and I think the part that she would like the most is that it’s intergenerational friendly.”

City Councilor Julia Malakie and Mayor-elect Marc Laredo attend the opening of the Cooper Center for Active Living on Dec. 5, 2025. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

Age-friendly movement

Removing the word “senior” from a senior center and adding in the words “active living” is part of a broader movement toward embracing aging and filling people’s later years with fun, activity and community.

In Massachusetts, several communities—including Hingham, Tyngsboro, Chatham and Plymouth—have changed the names of their senior centers to incorporate active living and reflect changing attitudes around aging.

The word “senior” often carries a certain stigma, a sense of frailty and decline. And that’s depressing.

Today, older Americans are joining gyms, playing pickleball, learning to cook, learning to sculpt, feasting on the fruits of life instead of watching life wither on the vine.

That’s active living. And with the Cooper Center, Newton is an example of how outdated, negative stereotypes can be torn down and opportunities for joy and fulfillment can grow.

Newton’s population, like much of Massachusetts, is getting older. Young families haven’t been moving into the city at a rate to replace those who’d left, and older people are staying in their homes longer.

This chart in the “Aging in Newton” report shows how the age makeup of Newton residents is expected to change in the coming years. Courtesy of UMass

According to a report published last year, about a quarter of Newton’s residents are aged 60 and over. And that number is expected rise to 30 percent by 2030. The report included a survey in which almost two-thirds of Newtonians age 65 and older want to stay in Newton.

That reality has changed the way the city and state plan things like infrastructure, because more seniors means more need for walkable neighborhoods. And, as Older Adult Services Director Mignonne Murray told The Newton Beacon last year after that report came out, Newton has been ahead of the game with preparing for a thriving older community.

“The city, since several years before my time here, has gone to the age-friendly movement, and a lot of that work has been infrastructure and making sure age is thought of in multiple departments,” Murray said. “My department and the Planning Department work very closely on transportation, not just for Go-Go—which is our transportation system now—but also about Blue Bikes access and how people can get to the Cooper Center and other places.”

And the Newtonville commuter rail station is set to be renovated for improved accessibility, after years of Fuller and state legislators pushing for that project, meaning it will soon be easier for seniors to get into Boston for doctor appointments and entertainment.

VIDEO: Cooper Center for Active Living Grand Opening