Among residents of Port Huron’s Southside, the sentiment was that the neighborhood was being neglected by the City. The North End had public beaches, parks, and considerable investment. Conversely, in Southside—with its industrial parks and affordable housing developments —“there was a feeling of, ‘What about us?’” recalls Deputy City Manager Cynthia Broomfield. “There was pressure to make sure we were focusing attention across the city evenly.”

In 2022, the City of Port Huron engaged with a group called Double Haul Solutions that was helping the City reactivate Southside. The process of information gathering took about two years. “They had done engagement sessions to figure out what the community actually wants to see happen here on Southside,” says Broomfield. “And something that always rose to the top was a community center.”

“At the time, it didn’t really click for us that we have one already there.”

The community center in question, on 24th Street, was officially named the Eleger G. Harvey Reinvestment Center. It was built by and is still owned by the Port Huron Housing Commission. The two wings of the building had been occupied by various nonprofits over the years. The Council of Aging had been there. A daycare center. There had been a community laundry unit for a time. The main room, which holds up to 120 people, was available for rentals: birthday parties, graduations.

“But, since Covid, the center slowly started seeing less activity,” says Broomfield. “Within a couple of years, there was almost nothing happening at all. The wings were empty. The Housing Commission was no longer renting the facility to community members. It really was just sitting.”

By chance, Port Huron City Manager James Freed had learned from the Housing Commission’s Executive Director that the Commission was planning to sell the building. “And that’s when James realized, ‘I would hate for you guys to do that. This is the last thing that could act as a community hub for the Southside.’”

“And that’s when we also had this a-ha moment at the same time—why don’t we run it? Why don’t we do something about it?”

“We have the asset right here already. We just need to activate it.”

The revitalized, energetic third space that resulted was called the Harvey Community Center. It is Port Huron’s submission for the 2026 Community Excellence Award.

Since the operations agreement was signed in September 2025, the City has put in nearly $100,000 worth of improvements to the facility. In January of this year, it formed a Harvey Center Advisory Committee, made up of residents and stakeholders from organizations housed in the Center (including the Southside Neighborhood Improvement Authority and the NAACP) to begin the process of turning the space into an active community hub.

“I didn’t want [programming in the Harvey Center] to be City-led,” says Broomfield. “Who are we to prescribe that? The committee is not afraid to tell us when we’re making the wrong step.”

On the suggestion of the Advisory Committee, the City is partnering with the St. Clair County Library System to create a resource lab in the Harvey Center’s north wing. The south wing hosts New Beginnings Theater, which holds drama and line dancing classes, as well as afterschool programming for underserved families and children. Two rentable boardrooms offer meeting space for smaller groups.

The Community Room features variable programming from organizations, including the Port Huron Recreation Department, the community-led support group Women Let’s Talk, the nonprofit St. Clair County Organizing for Regional Equity (SCCORE), and a very popular chair exercise class from Phoenix Fitness.

“What’s amazing about that is it’s not us initiating at all,” says Broomfield. “These were just needs that the community saw.”

Its operational funds are currently coming out of Port Huron’s General Fund. Broomfield and Freed are researching grants that could potentially sustain the facility in the future. “It’s very important for us that these programs remain accessible to everybody,” she says. “We want them to be low cost or free, but at the same time the instructors need to get paid.”

In the future, Broomfield would like to see more programming for older youth at the Harvey Center. “There are so many programs that are for younger children. We’ve got dance classes and theater classes. We really lack space that’s safe for our teens and young adults. I would like to work towards finding that place where they can come—just having programs that they look forward to, driven by their age group.”

Broomfield is deeply proud of the leadership of Port Huron’s Southside community in developing the Harvey Center. “I had no certain vision when the City Manager first came to me and said, ‘Great news, we get to start operating the Center.’”

“But we’ve seen incredible success. And we’re really excited about the momentum.”

Author

Emily Pinsuwan

Emily is the League’s full-time Content Writer, composing emails, articles, blog posts, and press releases. If you need words, she has many. Prior to becoming a word person, she was a restaurant person, handling catering, event management, and marketing; prior still, she was a teaching person, at a private boarding school in Massachusetts. Having earned a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Georgia, Emily is confident that she is the only League employee fluent in Latin. She also enjoys cooking, stand-up comedy, and is an avid gamer, having achieved level 40 on her Steam profile.