Classical Revival

Former Somerville District Courthouse // 1925

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The former Somerville District Courthouse at 19 Walnut Street in Union Square, is a two-story masonry building constructed in 1925. While much smaller and less ornate than other courthouses, the small building is significant as the first courthouse built in the young city and an architecturally significant example of a Classical Revival style civic building designed by architect Charles R. Greco. The building served as the Somerville District Courthouse until the late 1960s, when the legislature authorized a new district courthouse. The City of Somerville purchased the old courthouse in 1969, and the building has housed offices for the City’s Recreation Commission since that time. Interestingly, the building was used for the filming of a courthouse scene in the 1980’s “Spencer for Hire” TV detective show.

Somerville National Bank // 1908

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This altered, yet significant building on Bow Street in Somerville’s Union Square commercial district, was built in 1908 as the Somerville National Bank. The Somerville National Bank was chartered in 1892 and was the city’s first and only local bank until the 1930s. After nearly two decades of renting space in another building, the bank hired the architectural firm of Gay & Proctor, to furnish plans for this handsome suburban bank building. Constructed of brick with stone trim, the building originally featured a large, arched window at the facade, which was replaced by a more contemporary opening. Classical Revival details remain, from the monumental gable pediment with dentils, to the parapet with classical moldings. The bank has been repurposed into mixed use space, with a cafe on the ground floor and yoga and wellness studio above.

Rockland Memorial Library // 1903

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The Rockland Memorial Library in Rockland, Massachusetts is one of the most architecturally and historically significant buildings in the town. The Classical Revival style library was built in 1903 and is the Town of Rockland’s first purpose-built library structure. When Rockland separated from adjacent Abington in 1874, much of the collection became housed in a commercial building, which was consumed by fire in 1890, taking much of the collections with it. Although funds were raised soon after the fire for a permanent home for the library, its construction was made possible by a grant of $12,500 from Andrew Carnegie in 1902, as part of his nationwide gift to cities and towns for libraries. The handsome structure is constructed of brick, granite, and terra cotta, and was designed by the Boston-based architectural firm of McLean & Wright. The most interesting features of the building include the rooftop dome containing skylights and capped by a finial and the projecting entrance with pediment, quoins, and engaged Ionic columns.

Old Rockland High School // 1908

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Rockland, Massachusetts, was incorporated in 1874 as the result of a dispute over the construction of an expensive school building in Abington Center in 1871 and the belief that East Abington could develop into a more successful industrial community if separate from Abington. By the turn of the 20th century, there were approximately 900 children in Rockland between the ages of 5 and 15 who were being educated in the local school system, largely comprised of first- and second-generation immigrants, arriving to the area to work in shoe manufacturing. Many smaller, schools dotted the landscape until a larger, consolidated school was built 1892. Decades later, prosperity and a growing population necessitated a new school, and the architectural firm of Cooper & Bailey, designed the town’s first brick school building. Classical Revival in style, the building features a prominent pediment supported by two, two-story Ionic columns and dentilated cornice. The building is now a community center – housing a day care, pre-school and meeting spaces for Girl Scouts. The building also housed Rockland’s senior center prior to the construction of a new senior center elsewhere in town. It suffers from deferred maintenance and is in need of some attention.

New England Fireproof Construction Co. Apartments // 1917

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One of the most unique and architecturally pleasing buildings in Brookline has to be these apartments on Egmont and St. Paul streets that break the mold of traditional brick or wood-frame apartment houses. Built in 1917 by the New England Fireproof Construction Company as an example of how cheaper cement material can be used effectively and beautifully to design and construct high-quality housing. The company hired architect G. Bertram Washburn to design the buildings which utilize concrete block and cast concrete details with the facades embellished with pilasters capped with Corinthian capitals, engaged balusters, and modillioned and corniced entrances decorated with a lion’s head over each doorway. Additionally, a special touch is the recessed wells in the facade which not only break up the massing of the building, but provide additional light and air into the apartments inside. 

Central Falls Police Station and Courthouse // 1914

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Built jointly by the city of Central Falls and the state of Rhode Island, this Classical Revival style building originally contained both the local police station and a district court house. The symmetrical building was designed by William R. Walker and Son, a Providence design firm, who specialized in large, civic and commercial buildings. The gray brick building is trimmed with limestone and stands three-stories under a hipped tile roof capped by decorative cresting. In the 1970s, the courthouse moved out and the entire building came into the ownership of the City of Central Falls and is today owned by the Central Falls Redevelopment Agency, which frankly worries me about the future of this important building. Does anyone know about plans for the building? 

Adams Memorial Library, Central Falls // 1910

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When Stephen L. Adams, a public-spirited citizen and a member of the school committee in Central Falls, Rhode Island, passed away in 1900, he left a bequest to provide for the erection and maintenance of a library building for his community. It would take years until a site in the center of town was acquired and contracts were written for designing and building the city’s first purpose-built library. Architect, William H. McLean of the firm McLean & Wright were hired to furnish plans, which is supposed to have been modified from a number of prototypes for small-town libraries supplied to set standards by the Carnegie Corporation in conjunction with its endowment of such facilities in cities and towns throughout the United States. While this is not a Carnegie Library, it does mimic many design elements found in similar libraries by the corporation. The Adams Library in Central Falls is Classical Revival in style and built of light brick with limestone trim with a symmetrical facade dominated by a columned, pedimented portico.

Temple Court Apartments // 1912

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Constructed in 1912, Temple Court at 15 Lynde Street was erected on the site of two earlier buildings during a period of great population growth in Salem. The parcels here were acquired by Aroline C. Gove (1857-1939), a prominent local property-owner and developer between 1908 and 1911. Ms. Gove was a prominent Salem citizen and daughter of notable inventor and businesswoman Lydia Pinkham. With a business-oriented mindset like her mother, Aroline hired architect Harry Prescott Graves of Lowell to furnish plans for an apartment building on this site. Completed in 1912, the apartment building, known as Temple Court, included 36 units with two-, three-, and four-room suites with a live-in janitor. The building is unique for Salem as a courtyard style building, more common in Boston and Brookline. The building’s large mass is broken up by its setback with the U-shaped form and central landscaped courtyard, series of projecting octagonal bays, and multiple entrances. Temple Court was converted to condominiums in the 1980s.

Colonial Theater Building // 1899

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One of my favorite buildings on Boylston Street in Boston is the ten-story Colonial Theater Building, a landmark Classical Revival style structure of stone. Built in 1899, the Colonial Theater replaced the original Boston Public Library building (1855) which was demolished by 1898, and relocated to Copley Square. The Colonial Theater was designed by famed theater architect, Clarence Blackall and is said to be the oldest, intact theater in Boston. The theatre first opened its doors for a performance of Ben-Hur on December 20, 1900 with a sold out show. Ben-Hur operated with a cast and crew of 350 people and featured eight live horses on stage in full gallop during the chariot race scene, with the play being so mechanically and technically extraordinary it was featured on the cover of Scientific American. While cheekily named the Colonial Theater, the interior theater spaces were anything but. The spaces originally contained murals and Baroque style finishes, many of which remain today. Beyond the 1,700-seat theater, the building contained between 250-300 professional offices. The building is owned by Emerson College, who underwent a massive restoration project of the building with Elkus Manfredi architects. Allowing the oldest Boston theater to shine again!

Polish National Home of Chicopee // 1914

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The Polish National Home in Chicopee, Massachusetts, was organized in 1910 as a fraternal service organization catering to the needs of the local Polish immigrant and Polish-American communities. The organization was founded at a time where Polish immigrants were settling in Chicopee, finding work at local factories. The Polish population of Chicopee surged in the late 19th into the early 20th centuries from just 200 residents in 1885 to over 9,000 in 1914, the year this building was completed. One of the other goals for the Polish National Home was to provide class space for new immigrants to take classes in the english language and learn to read and write, to become eligible for U.S. citizenship. The club eventually would build this five-story structure on Cabot Street, architecturally rivaling any other building in town. The building was designed by architect Bruno Wozny, a German-born architect who settled in Springfield and ran his own practice. Spaces inside the building included retail stores, a meeting hall, small meeting rooms, and apartments for some recently arrived immigrants and their families. The adjacent building was designed by local architect George Dion, as a bowling alley and billiard hall. After WWII, the building was converted almost entirely to residential use, which remains today.