Longmeadow has had a number of town halls over the years. The building known as the Old Town Hall (pdf), at 417 Longmeadow Street, was built in 1900 and served as the town’s Second District school, then as the Town Office, and then as an American Legion Hall. Today, it is a general multi-purpose use building owned by the town.
The Greek Revival Town Hall of Danvers was built in 1855, the same year South Danvers, now Peabody, broke away to become a separate town. The building, which originally contained the town’s high school as well as town offices, went through major expansions and renovations in the 1880s, 1899, and late 1940s. The the most recent renovation, in 2009-2010, has focused repairing the exterior and replacing mechanical systems. While this work was being done, the roof was damaged by a 3-alarm fire, sparked when wood sheathing was ignited from a contractor’s soldering of copper flashing.
Is this a haunted mansion posted for Halloween? No, it’s the Town Hall of Saugus, built in 1875. An earlier town hall, built in 1837, is now an American Legion hall. Construction of the 1875 building put the town $50,000 in debt and was one of the reasons the neighborhood of East Saugus almost seceded to become a part of Lynn (the residents were unable to get a bill in both houses of the state legislature and the issue was dropped after the town appropriated $5,000 for laying water pipes in East Saugus). The Town Hall, which originally had the high school and library in the rear wing, was designed in the High Victorian Gothic and Stick styles by Lord & Fuller and underwent a $3 million restoration in 1998, when the building was returned to its original multi-colored, earth-toned exterior paint scheme. The Town Hall’s conference room was recently dedicated to the town’s history. There is also an organization called The Friends of Saugus town Hall.
Granville‘s first Congregational meeting house was built in 1747 and replaced by the current Old Meeting House in 1802. The gable-roofed structure, which lost its steeple in a gale in 1840, was remodeled in 1890. The present front columns were most likely added in 1862 or during the 1890 remodeling. The first permanent town hall was built in 1927. In 1937, the First Congregational Church is joined with the Baptist Church to form the Granville Federated Church. Since 1976, the Old Meeting House has been owned by the town and the restored building is rented out for various events. Continue reading “Old Meeting House, Granville (1802)”
Another building constructed in the immediate aftermath of the Natick fire of 1874 is Clark’s Block on Main Street. As described in the History of Middlesex County, Vol. I (1890):
This, which is the largest business block in Natick, or in this part of the Commonwealth, stands partly upon the site of a similar but smaller structure, which was erected in 1872, only to be burned in the great fire of 1874. That block was about 100 feet in length and three stories high, while the present structure is of the same height, but 260 feet long. The latter, as was true of its predecessor, was built and is owned by Mr. Nathaniel Clark, who, after a long and useful business life, is passing the time of old age with the respect and affection of the entire community.
The chief frontage of this block is on Main Street. The lower story, which is devoted to stores, is occupied as follows: Edward Clark, grocer; E.M.Marshall, watch-maker and jeweler; W. L. Doane, boots and shoes; Qardella & Cuneo, fruits; barber; W. F. Cleland & Co., dry-goods; C. H. Whitcomb, hats and furnishing goods; Arthur W. Palmer, readymade clothing and tailor; James H. Frost, apothecary; Charles W. Ambrose, watch-maker and jeweler; W. F. Demeritt, tailor; W. H. Jones, boots and shoes; George L. Bartlett, dry-goods; Miss C. H. Travis, milliner; Daniels & Twitchell, druggists; Harrison L. Whipple, art-store, dealer in pictures and picture-frames—sixteen stores.
In the second story are the rooms of the Natick National Bank and of the Five-Cents Savings Bank (elsewhere described), of O. J. Washburn, dentist, Judge Null’s law-office and Dislrict Court-room; the offices of tax-collector, of the selectmen, of the overseers of the poor, of the assessors, of the town clerk, of the School Committee and of the chief of police ; the law-offices of James McManus, I. W. Parker, C. Q. Tirrell, G. D. Tower and L. H. Wakefield; office of Dr. William Richards; rooms of John F. Dowsley, dentist; of Miss L. M. Hart, dress-maker, Palmer’s sewing-room and four large rooms occupied by the Natick Citizen Printing and Editing Company. In the third story are four halls, the largest of which—Concert Hall—is more than 100 feet long and well furnished for an audience of 1200 or 1400. This the town uses for all town-hall purposes.
The Italianate building has been restored and rehabilitated over the years and continues to have retail space on the ground floor, with offices above.
This week, we’ll look at some buildings in Southborough. The current Southborough Town House was dedicated in 1870 and replaced its predecessor, built in 1840. That wood Greek Revival structure burned in 1869 and there were insinuations at the time that local residents had had a hand in its destruction so it that it could be replaced by a grander building, although no evidence to that effect was ever found. The new brick structure had an upstairs hall that was used for town meetings until 1969. Joseph Burnett, Southborough businessman and philanthropist, made a large donation for the building’s construction and chose Framingham architect Alexander Rice Esty to design it. The town hall building‘s interior was eventually subdivided and is currently used for town offices.
The Colonial Revival-style City Hall of Waltham, designed by Kilham, Hopkins and Greeling, was built in 1926 and opened and dedicated in 1927. It stands on the old site of Rumford Hall, a building constructed a century earlier, in 1827, to house the Rumford Institute. Founded in 1826, the Institute was a lyceum, with lectures and classes in the arts and sciences for the female mill workers at the Boston Manufacturing Company, which built the Hall. An early instructor at the Institute was the Unitarian minister and educator, Bernard Whitman. The institute also established Waltham’s first circulating library. In 1854, the Rumford Building was sold to the Town of Waltham for use as Town Hall, eventually being replaced by the current structure. Waltham City Hall has a limestone facade.
