Norwich ― Longtime civic and arts advocate and downtown champion Lottie B. Scott has not moved, but the directions to her house at 85 Church St. have changed.

For decades, Scott lived at “the big green house on Church Street up from City Hall,” her prominent Victorian home overlooking City Hall and within a few feet of the Norwich Arts Center she helped found and still supports.

The house now sports a deep blue color, with sage green window trim and a slate blue around the crown and dental woodwork features beneath the roof.

Scott, 85, said she wanted to use recent house renovations to make a statement. She remains committed to the downtown she fell in love with in the 1970s and still adores.

“I really love having it painted,” Scott said Friday, as one worker was perched atop a tall ladder painting the roof trim. “I love the downtown. I really love it, and there’s still things to do down here.”

Asked to describe the Sherwin Williams brand color officially called “Seaworthy” blue, Scott answered: “I think it’s a very vibrant color.” It’s the message she hopes to convey about downtown.

Scott purchased the house in 1977. She said she told the real estate agent she wanted the cheapest house possible. As she prepared to move in, friends were aghast, exclaiming: “You’re moving downtown? To Church Street?”

The Norwich Arts Center did not yet exist. The rundown Wauregan, minus its decorative window treatments, was a slum. The Terraces apartments on Church Street uphill from Scott’s house were blighted and decaying as well.

But Scott embraced the potential of the historic district.

She had moved to Norwich in 1957 after she grew up on a farm in Longtown, South Carolina. She started working as a typist and later became a neighborhood investigator for the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, working at its City Hall office. She rose to become regional director.

After she moved in, Scott painted the house its signature green color. Still scrimping financially, she decided to rent out rooms to people who needed short-term, affordable places to stay. City Historian Dale Plummer lived there for about two years. Others came and went.

She lives there now with her longtime best friend, Clifford Carter.

Over the decades, Scott has witnessed several downtown transformations. She helped found the Norwich Arts Center in a three-story brick former temperance hall next door to her house, its third-floor Donald Oat Theater’s handicapped entrance a few steps from her own door.

Scott sponsors the theater’s series honoring historic Black singers, called “Miss Lottie’s Café.”

The Terraces on Church Street underwent a total renovation in the 1980s, the Wauregan in the early 2000s. Downtown now has two performing arts theaters and several art galleries.

“I love the vibrancy of downtown,” Scott said. “Some things have gotten better. Having theaters is vibrant. There’s more and more things to do. I am not afraid to bring my friends here.”

Scott’s side yard is a well-trimmed terraced yard rimmed with flowers and bordered with tall lilac trees. Butterflies explored the colorful day lilies on Friday. She has hired local artist Brian DeVantier to tend the gardens.

Scott marveled at the new mural at the former Norwich Savings Society building at the corner of Broadway and Main Street that celebrates the lives of two 19th century Black residents ― James L. Smith and Sarah Harris Fayerweather.

Smith escaped from slavery in 1838 and settled in Norwich to run a business and raise a family, later writing an autobiography of his experiences. Fayerweather was a student at age 20 of Prudence Crandall’s school for African American girls and an adult abolitionist.

Scott’s house is a stop on the Norwich Historical Society’s Freedom Trail tour of significant African American sites in the city. Her 2018 memoir, “Deep South, Deep North, A Family’s Journey,” chronicles her upbringing, struggles with poverty and move North.

“Miss Lottie’s keen perception has been a steady guiding force in Norwich for many decades,” the Freedom Trail brochure stop at her house states.

Determined to remain in her home and not move to senior housing, Scott needed some renovations and upgrades. Historic preservation real estate agent and former chairman of the Norwich Historical Society William Champagne recommended contractor Dava Seidman.

Seidman, who owns Dava’s Home Solutions of Hampton, is project manager for Scott’s renovations. In addition to the paint job, Seidman is coordinating carpentry work and plumbing. Seidman said she researched colors for Victorian homes and presented Scott with a selection. Knowing Scott’s “real affinity” for green, Seidman recommended a soft, sage green, called Cascade Green, for the window trim and doors.

“This is a very special project,” Seidman said.

c.bessette@theday.com