The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is proposing the closure of a halfway house in Sharon as a cost-cutting measure.

Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel on Thursday announced a proposal to shut down the Sharon Community Corrections Center on West State Street.

Wetzel says the closing would save the state an estimated $1.2 million.

Under the proposal corrections center employees would be moved to other Department of Corrections facilities in Northwest Pennsylvania.

Residents of the center would be housed elsewhere throughout the community corrections system.

According to the state officials the Sharon Community Corrections Center is located in a park-like six and one half-acre property at the edge of the city of Sharon.

The facility has been maintained and operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections since 1974.

Since that time, the center has taken in thousands of inmates looking to transition from prison life to normal life.

Responding to community concerns that some of the residents may be sex offenders, Director of the Bureau of Community Corrections George Little met with members of the media in 2017.

The large red-brick mansion is on the grounds of what was once the estate of Sharon steel industrialist Simon Perkins.

Built-in 1914, the home contains many of the original architectural elements from that period. The building includes original hardwood floors, wood moldings, doors, and glass from the era.

The facility is surrounded by a Victorian-style wrought iron fence that dates to approximately 1890.

The United Way now owns the estate, and that organization leases the building to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.