MILFORD – The new owner of the Cabinet Press building says her goal is to have a community center in the building.

Cynthia Taylor, president of Housing Initiatives of New England Corp., bought the building at 54 School St. last week from The Telegraph of Nashua.

Housing Initiatives is a nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing for seniors in Maine and New Hampshire and owns two senior developments, Milford Mill and Linsey Landing, across Bridge Street from the Cabinet building.

The Telegraph was given a three-year lease on The Cabinet’s first-floor offices, and the newspaper’s editorial offices and members of its advertising staff will stay there.

Taylor also said she plans to continue maintaining The Cabinet’s printing museum, in the building’s attic.

“Our intention is to maintain the integrity of the historic building and make further investments in the neighborhood and support what’s going on at the Oval,” she said.

A portion of the building’s first floor will eventually be used for additional space for senior citizens, Taylor said.

The Mill was built as senior apartments in the early 1970s and its addition, called Linsey Landing, was built in 2004.

Telegraph Publisher Terry Williams said he is pleased Housing Initiatives purchased the property.

“They already have a presence in Milford, and it’s nice to pass it into caring hands,” he said.

Taylor, he said, was “particularly taken by The Cabinet’s museum,” which is full of old printing equipment and draws school children and Scout troops.

The original portion of the historic brick building at the corner of Middle and School streets was built as a high school in 1853, and the Cabinet moved into it in 1951 after moving from the corner of Elm and Union streets.

According to the town history, the Textron Company operated a sewing factory here for four years, until its lease ran out in 1950.

The Cabinet Press, Inc. built a major addition in 1968.

The Telegraph and its parent company, Independent Publications Inc., purchased the building in 2005 as part of its purchase of The Cabinet Press, which publishes The Cabinet, the Merrimack Journal, the Bedford Journal and the Hollis Brookline Journal.

The Telegraph’s lease of office space, said Williams, allows The Cabinet to maintain a presence in Milford.

Neither Taylor nor Williams would disclose the sale price.

The Maine-based Housing Initiatives owns more than a dozen senior housing developments in New Hampshire and in Maine.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 304, or kcleveland@cabinet.com.