Romanesque Revival

Former Richmond School // 1907

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This handsome brick building is located in the historic downtown of Richmond, Vermont, and was built at a time of rapid growth of the small community. Pupils in the town of Richmond originally went to school in small, one-room rural schoolhouses, with the Richmond Academy serving the main village. The old academy building was constructed in 1868 and taught classes from elementary through high school. The building was outgrown as the town grew in the first decade of the 20th century, necessitating a new, larger schoolhouse for the main village. This new school was constructed in 1907, apparently just as the right side and tower, which was expanded with the left half four years later in 1911. Blending Craftsman and Romanesque styles, plans for the school were drawn up by Vermont architect, Frank Lyman Austin. Another rear addition in the 1950s was constructed to meet increased demand until the 1980s when a new elementary school was built in town. Since 1989, the former Richmond School has been home to Richmond town offices. The building, while altered, is an important landmark of the town, showcasing a blending of architectural styles popular in the early 20th century.

Bancroft Memorial Library // 1898

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The Bancroft Memorial Library on Hopedale Street in Hopedale, Massachusetts, was built in 1898 and is one of the finest examples of a Romanesque Revival style library in New England. The library’s benefactor, Joseph Burbier Bancroft (1821-1909), moved to Hopedale and joined the Hopedale Community in 1846, where he became connected with the Hopedale Machine Company founded by the Draper Family. Shortly afterward Mr. Bancroft entered into a partnership with Ebenezer and George Draper, and was put in charge of the cotton machinery department of the Draper Corporation. Joseph married Sylvia W. Thwing, sister of the wives of Ebenezer and George Draper. As he rose through the ranks of the Draper Company, he decided to fund a library as a gift to the company town. Designed by architect, C. Howard Walker of the Boston architectural firm Walker & Kimball, the library is constructed of granite and features arched entry at the facade with carved stone panel above. Before the building was completed, Sylvia died, and the library became a memorial in her memory by Joseph Bancroft.

Harrison Block // 1889

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One of the few historic commercial buildings in Hopedale Village is this Romanesque Revival style example on Hopedale Street which, like so many other buildings in the village, was largely funded by members of the Draper Family. The commercial block was built in 1889 by Gen. William F. Draper and named in honor of President Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States, as a multi-use building, containing a drug store, a retail, a club house on the second floor, a storage and cobbler at the rear of the building in the basement, and a lodge on the third floor for large meetings. Less ornate than many other buildings in town built for the Draper’s, all decorative features on the Harrison Block are confined to the façade. With original storefronts of wood and glass display windows at the ground floor, tripartite windows at the second floor, and large, round-arched windows at the third floor, evoking the Romanesque style of the Town Hall (also funded by the Draper Family) nearby. 

Warren Manufacturing Company Mill // 1896

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No single company had a greater impact on the town of Warren in the 19″ century than the Warren Manufacturing Company. The company built, expanded and rebuilt major mill buildings, established new streets in town, and provided mill housing for its workers, both native-born residents and immigrants who enlivened the community building new churches and housing. The company was founded in 1847, as whaling and shipping declined in Warren prior to the Civil War. Wealthy manufacturers and investors with ties to the South turned to textile manufacturing. The newly established company built three mills in the 19th century, all of which burned to the ground in a massive fire in 1895. A year later, in 1896, The Warren Manufacturing Company rebuilt this brick mill which features a handsome Romanesque tower with open belfry and brick corbelling, with a repeated pattern of pier-spandrel-and-arch construction running down the elongated facade. After the company closed, the building was occupied by the American Tourister Company, a luggage manufacturer. In 2015, the building was awarded federal and state preservation grants, and restored and adaptively reused as apartments, today known as Tourister Mill.

George Hail Free Library // 1888

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The George Hail Free Library on Main Street in Warren, Rhode Island, is a unique, Victorian-era public library building that has been lovingly preserved by the community. Built in 1888, the building cost just over $16,000 and was designed in a more vertical expression of the Romanesque Revival style by the Providence architectural firm of William Walker and Son and built of rough-faced granite. The library is named after George Hail (1793-1873), a merchant, philanthropist, industrialist, and native son of Warren. His second wife, Martha Hail died in 1882 and left $5,000 and their home to the Warren Public Library provided that the name of the Library be changed to the George Hail Free Library in memory of her husband. The Library Committee agreed and planning began soon after for a new, purpose built library we see today. The exterior is distinguished, but the interior is also well-preserved, with original cherry woodwork grained to resemble mahogany, brass gaslighting fixtures, fireplaces, and leaded glass windows patterned with stained glass, together with some of the original furniture, that preserve a sense of the original setting.

Warren Town Hall // 1890

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Warren, Rhode Island, is one of the lesser-visited coastal communities of the state, but retains one of the best waterfront historic districts in all of New England. With a small population of just over 11,000 residents, the downtown is extremely walkable with a tight network of streets, lined with stellar buildings and homes of nearly every architectural style and period, and are largely preserved showcasing what New England communities were like in centuries past. On bustling Main Street, the Warren Town Hall was designed by the Providence-based firm of William R. Walker & Son, architects, and constructed between 1891-1894. Designed in the Romanesque Revival style, the two-story building with five-story central tower also features Classical detailing like the terra cotta swags and brick pilasters. Before the 1938 Hurricane, the tower was even higher, incorporating an open stage topped by a parapet and a clock face on each of the segments of its still extant dome, which now has a slightly reconfigured mini-cupola topping. Additional detailing includes a terra cotta bust of the sachem/leader Massasoit with leafage, above a fluttering ribbon inscribed “Sowams,” the Wampanoag settlement that preceded Warren. The Warren Town Hall remains well preserved by the local government and a visual landmark on the town’s Main Street.

Faulkner-Hayden House // 1881

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This unique house at 29 Brimmer Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill, was completed in 1881 is architecturally distinctive compared to the early 19th century homes that the neighborhood is known for. The five-story residence has a raised entrance up a flight of steps set within an arched opening. To the side, an arched window frames the facade and has an ornate terracotta panel as a base. More terracotta ornament can be found at the second floor and under the cornice as a thick band frieze with a copper-clad mansard roof above. The single-family residence was built in 1881 for Charles Faulkner (1811-1885), a commission merchant, for his daughter, Ann Ruth Faulkner the year of her marriage to Charles Rowley Hayden. Mr. Hayden was a musician and vocalist. For the new wedding gift, Faulkner hired the esteemed architectural firm of Bradlee & Winslow prepare the designs. The former Faulkner-Hayden House today contains five condominiums.



Baker-Byrd House // 1888

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Located on Brimmer Street in Beacon Hill, this handsome residence is constructed of rough-faced brownstone laid in a random ashlar pattern and is among the most unique in a neighborhood known for brick townhouses. Decorative treatment includes a stone band that is carved with foliate and faces, colonettes that rise along the facade at the bay, and an ornate molded copper entablature and parapet at the roof. The residence dates to 1888 and was built for Seth R. Baker, a Boston real estate developer at the end of the 19th century. It can be inferred that the building was designed by architect, Ernest N. Boyden, as Baker hired Boyden as architect for a half-dozen other apartment buildings between 1888-1890. Antoino Xavier, a Portuguese-born mason is listed as the builder. In the 1910s, the property was purchased by Marie Ames Byrd, wife of polar explorer Richard A. Byrd, who lived a few houses away at 9 Brimmer Street. She rented the four apartments to boarders through the 1930s.


Eliot C. Clarke Townhouse // 1884

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One of the many great townhouses on Brimmer Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood is this residence designed as a unique interpretation of Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles. Original owner, Eliot Channing Clarke (1845-1921), an MIT-educated civil engineer. His uncle, Thomas Curtis Clarke, was a noted civil engineer, a member of the firm of Clarke, Reeves & Co., Bridge Builders in Pennsylvania, and served later as President of the American Society of Civil Engineers. When Thomas Clarke’s firm was designing and building a new bridge over the Mississippi River in Quincy, Illinois, he had his nephew lead in the design. In 1876, Eliot was appointed engineer in charge of a survey for a main drainage system for Boston. The project was adopted and construction began a year later, taking years to complete. In 1885, Clarke published the work that he oversaw, modernizing a rapidly growing Boston water and plumbing system. He became one of the leading sanitary engineers of the United States. In 1884, Clarke hired architect, S. Edwin Tobey, who designed this townhouse with a unique gable containing a ocular window and panel brick parapet as an interpretation of a Flemish gable. A traditional arched entry in brick is a nod to the Romanesque Revival style, which surged in popularity in Boston following the completion of H. H. Richardson’s Trinity Church. In 1969, the Clarke house’s interior was connected with its neighbor as the Advent School, a private K-6 school associated with the Church of the Advent across the street.

Tudor Apartments // 1887

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Frederic Tudor (1783-1864) was a businessman and merchant known as Boston’s “Ice King” having founded the Tudor Ice Company and becoming a pioneer of the international ice trade in the early 19th century. Frederic Tudor lived in a house at the corner of Beacon and Joy streets in Beacon Hill, Boston, and after his death, the property was inherited by his widow, Euphemia Fenno and their children. By 1885, the old Tudor House was demolished and replaced by The Tudor Apartments, which was built between 1885 and 1887 to house twelve upper-class families who sought smaller living space as opposed to the typical townhouses in Beacon Hill. Designed by architect, Samuel J. F. Thayer, the nine-story Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival building features a brownstone base with brick walls above, combining the traditional Boston bowfront with late 19th century flair at the upper floors with the partial mansard roof punctuated with dormers and oriel windows. Thayer designed the Joy Street elevation with cascading bays to provide interiors with views of the Boston Common and ample natural light.