GORHAM – While it could be left out in the cold come winter, the Lakes Region Senior Center, returning to Gorham to bolster declining attendance, has found a temporary headquarters closer to home for its members.

The group will meet in the historic White Rock Grange, 33 Wilson Road, beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, June 2. It marks the seniors’ third meeting place in less than a year, and the group can stay only until November, when water pipes into the hall would freeze.

Located just off the Sebago Lake Road, the Grange hall is more than a century old and amid a quaint, rural setting of homes and green fields. It’s near the White Rock Free Baptist Church, White Rock Community Club and a town fire barn.

“This is a good location,” Blanche Alexander, 82, president of the seniors group, said on Tuesday. “It’s country.”

The seniors group is renting space on the first floor. Ann Rust of Gorham, White Rock Grange lecturer and spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that the deal benefits both the Grange and the seniors.

“We’re delighted to have them here,” Rust said.

The seniors group began meeting in 2011 at Little Falls School, which also housed some Gorham Recreation Department programs. Alexander said Cindy Hazelton, Gorham’s recreation director, helped them acquire meeting space in the aging school.

But, the seniors were dislodged last September when Gorham shuttered the building for repairs. Since then, the seniors have met at Sunset Ridge Golf Links in Westbrook.

The seniors are thankful that space was available for them at Sunset Ridge, but the seniors’ leadership said attendance had dwindled. The group, which has members traveling to meetings from Buxton, Gorham, Raymond, Standish and Windham, reached a deal with the Grange, which is more centrally located.

Alexander said it has 62 members now but had 80 when it met at Little Falls.

“We’re so happy to be back in Gorham where we belong,” said Alexander, who hopes the group can return by winter to the Little Falls School.

Gorham voters in November 2012 authorized spending up to $500,000 for repairs at Little Falls School, which opened in the mid-1950s. Last year, the town considered the site for a $6.3 million public safety complex. Voters rejected the proposal in a referendum.

Gorham town councilors earlier this year designated reuse of the Little Falls School as a community center, and the Gorham Town Council in April unanimously approved a $487,800 proposal from Great Falls Construction to renovate the old school.

While the seniors group hopes to re-settle into a renovated Little Falls School by fall, Town Manager David Cole had no news to report about the renovation progress. Jon Smith, president of Great Falls Construction, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday by the American Journal deadline.

So for now, White Rock is the seniors’ home for the summer.

“It’s a temporary situation,” Rust said.

David Alexander, husband of Blanche Alexander, said the group will pay $200 a month rent at the Grange hall, which has amenities that please the seniors. Ann Rust said the hall was built 110 years ago, and she said a kitchen was added 85 years ago.

Today, the Grange hall has a modern kitchen equipped with gas stoves, microwave oven, stainless steel sinks and coffee pots.

The hall has a piano, long tables, and vintage wooden chairs. David Alexander said the group would add a round table to accommodate card players.

In sprucing up for the seniors, Daniel Rust, grandson of Ann and Bill Rust, washed the Grange hall floors. The Gorham High School junior has also volunteered to mow the lawn this summer.

The hall is heated with a new, gas-fired furnace. The building is served by a private well with ample water, but the hall rests on granite slabs and water pipes to the building are not winterized.

“We’re going until the pipes freeze,” Blanche Alexander said. “We’re hoping by then to get to Little Falls.”

White Rock Grange has a paved parking lot and is handicapped accessible.

Ann Rust said the Narragansett No. 1 Foundation in Buxton has provided grants to pay for the furnace, windows and a recently built ramp. The seniors will meet on the first floor, and the ramp will ease access.

Lakes Region Senior Center meets 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday through Thursday. It plans to continue its monthly lunch at its White Rock summer home.

As ever, White Rock Grange will continue to hold its meetings in the hall. The Grange has 36 members, including four new ones. Ann Rust said Grange members gather monthly on the first Friday at 6 p.m. for a supper and a meeting at 7 p.m.

“We’re a determined group,” Rust said, “a very social group.”

Rust described the White Rock area as a nice community and said that the seniors will enhance it.

White Rock Grange hopes to increase hall rentals, including for events such as small wedding parties. The Grange is planning a project to restore its front entry steps.

“We’re determined it’s not going to deteriorate in the neighborhood,” Rust said about the building.

Ann Rust of Gorham, White Rock Grange lecturer, left, shows Blanche Alexander, president of the Lakes Region Senior Center, around the kitchen at the Grange hall. The seniors group is moving to the hall on June 2.