Just inside the front door of the former Sharon Art Center is an office where Drs. Sara Featherstone and Edward Ellis have opened their naturopathic treatment practice.

They had been in the Strand building in Peterborough before moving into what is now called Sharon Center on March 1.

“I did love my old office, so it was a hard move, a hard decision,” Featherstone said. 

However, Featherstone said their approximately 1,500-square-foot space allows her and Ellis to have their own offices and consultation rooms, plus they have access to the building’s common space, lobby, kitchenette and bathrooms.

“It’s a beautiful building. I love it,” Featherstone said. “I love the space. It’s quiet. It’s peaceful. I could go on and on and on. It’s just great.”

Ellis also noted that other than painting, some plumbing work and cutting a hole in the wall for a reception area, the space was ready for moving in.

“We didn’t have to put any partitions in or anything,” he said. “We’re very happy here, and we hope to provide a wonderful service for the community.”

Featherstone said she and Ellis can provide the same kind of care for all kinds of conditions as other doctors, plus what she called the “naturopathic tool kit,” which includes diet, lifestyle, stress management and botanical medicines and supplements.

“We look more at the person as a whole, not just one primary diagnosis or one primary symptom,” she said. “It’s more choices and more options that we can individualize to each person.”

‘Having fun with it’

Sharon Arts Center was closed in 2019 after New Hampshire Art Institute acquired the property in a merger with New England College in 2012. Anthony Sabatino, of Sabatino Realty Group and Sabatino’s Restaurants, bought the center last summer, and received a variance from the Sharon Zoning Board of Appeals in October allowing office and educational uses in the building.

The whole of Sharon is zoned Rural-Residential, but the building’s previous use as an arts center was grandfathered because it had been more than two years since the property was used for educational purposes. 

During the ZBA discussions, board Chairman Chet Bowles said numerous people told him they wanted the building to be used for an art center and workshops, but Mark Fernald, Sabatino’s attorney, said it was no longer an arts school because it no longer worked as one.

The ZBA approved a variance allowing office uses that include medical offices, holistic health services, counseling and “other types of professional offices” added with Zoning Board approval. Educational uses that include dance and movement classes, art classes, woodworking and craft, pottery and glass-blowing are also allowed.

As of now, Featherstone and Ellis are the only tenants.

“I’d love to have neighbors in this building,” she said.

Andy Peterson of Sotheby’s International Realty is the agent for Sharon Center, and said they have had a lot of interest for potential tenants in health and wellness, medical and potentially mechanical arts, particularly in the downstairs part of the building.

“That’s just a great facility. It’s a beautiful building,” he said. “Honestly, we’re having fun with it, seeing how the pieces fit together.”

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