Frank S. Stevens School // 1908

The Frank S. Stevens School in Swansea, Massachusetts, was one of a number of civic and institutional buildings donated to the small town by wealthy residents Frank and Elizabeth Stevens. Ten years after the death of her husband, Elizabeth Case Stevens retained her favorite architect, Henry Vaughan, to furnish plans for a new school building for the main village in her beloved town of Swansea, to be built in the memory of her late husband. Mr. Vaughan had already designed the town hall, library, and Episcopal church, and Mrs. Stevens thought it would be fitting for an architecturally appropriate public school to also be built in the quaint New England village. Neo-Classical in style, the one-story brick school building is distinguished for its full-height pedimented portico supported by classical Doric columns and a cupola atop the hipped roof. The school was eventually outgrown and is now the school administration building for the town’s three later public school buildings

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