Bristol County

Card Memorial Chapel // 1898

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Cemetery chapels are fairly uncommon, but always a must-see when exploring a new place. These small charming buildings help bridge the gap between life and death and are often adorned with a permanence not seen in our lifetimes. This is the Card Memorial Chapel in the Spring Brook Cemetery of Mansfield, Massachusetts. The chapel was erected in 1898 as a memorial to 31-year-old Mary Lewis Card, who died in 1896. Mary’s parents, Simon W. Card and Mary J. Card, founded S.W. Card Manufacturing Company in 1874. The Mansfield-based company did very well and manufactured tap and die tools locally, shipping them all over the country. Before her abrupt death, Mary Lewis Card was set to marry architect Charles Eastman, who is credited with designing the memorial to his late-fiance. The chapel borrows from the Romanesque and Victorian Gothic styles, and is constructed of red brick laid with a tinted mortar atop a foundation of Quincy granite. The various roof sections are sheathed in green slate. The building displays a cross plan with a central tower rising forty-two feet from the ground to the apex, topped by a steeply pitched pyramidal roof. The building was restored years ago and still looks great!

Soldier’s Memorial Library of Mansfield // 1901

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Arguably the most beautiful building in Mansfield, Massachusetts is the Soldier’s Memorial Library in the center of town. Constructed in 1901, the Soldiers’ Memorial Library is a well-preserved example of 19th
century High Victorian architecture with Shingle style elements, designed by the prominent Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns. In as early as 1896, the idea of constructing a building as a memorial to the soldiers who died in the Civil War had prominent local members of the community. In 1898, a relatively new resident in town, Mrs. Elizabeth Noble, donated a parcel of land for the building with the stipulation that the first floor was to be used as a library and the second floor as an “audience room”,
banquet room, and kitchen for the use of the G.A.R. The architects created one of their most significant civic buildings with an interesting juxtaposition of Gothic elements with Shingle style details. The Gothic lancet window and door surround blends surprisingly well with the use of rubblestone on the first story with buttresses and shingle siding above which give the building a fortress-like appearance.

Thunder Castle // c.1830

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This charming Federal period dwelling in Mansfield, Massachusetts, was built around 1830 by Solomon Pratt and his brother-in-law, Elkanah Bates as a boarding house for the workers at their nearby cotton mill. The duplex was historically split down the middle with a unit on each side, accessed by the shared center stairhall. Local lore states that the Irish immigrant families who lived in this property reported that there were “supernatural” noises in the house, which frightened the occupants, they would tell friends it was “thundering in the castle”, giving the property the nickname, Thunder Castle.

Wellman-Fisher-Richardson House // c.1745

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The Fisher-Richardson House in Mansfield, Massachusetts is considered to be one of the oldest buildings in the suburban town. The home dates to sometime between 1743 and 1751 and was built for its original owner Ebenezer Wellman (1720-1776). The property was eventually owned by Lemuel Fisher, who in about 1800, doubled the size of the house adding its western half. When Lemuel died in 1820, the property was inherited by his youngest son, Daniel, a farmer and blacksmith who also built a gristmill nearby. The home was later inherited by Daniel’s daughter, Evelina and her husband, Captain Ira Richardson. By 1930, the gambrel-roofed Georgian house was in disrepair, and the owner at the time contacted SPNEA (now Historic New England) who drafted an agreement to acquire and restore the house. However, as local interest in the property increased, the owner deeded the property to the town, and the town took on the costs of restoration. The property is now managed by the Mansfield Historical Society.

Mansfield DAR Lodge // c.1830

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Tucked away on a side street in Mansfield, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon this charming example of a Craftsman bungalow, a style and form not too common in New England. The style, synonymous with the western United States’ population growth in the early 20th century, never took off the same way here as Yankee homeowners and builders often stayed true to the Colonial Revival style (even today). This building is said to date from the early 1800s and was built as a Federal style cape. It was owned by a Margaret Lane in the late 19th century. By the 1930s, the house was significantly altered with a full-length porch supported by tapered shingled columns atop fieldstone bases and new dormers at the roof with flared eaves. The building has been home to a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). What a charmer!

Lowney Chocolate Factory // 1903

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The Lowney Chocolate Factory is a historic industrial complex in Mansfield, Massachusetts and was established there after town officials took advantage of rail access provided by the Boston and Providence Railroad and enticed businesses to establish themselves in Mansfield. The Walter M. Lowney Company was a chocolate and candy business founded in Boston in the early 1880s by Walter M. Lowney, who started his business by manufacturing chocolate bonbons. The company built offices and factories in Boston, Montreal and here in Mansfield, where they would ship out boxed sweets to stores all over the country. The Mansfield factory was designed by the architectural and engineering firm of Dean & Main in 1903. The firm was
comprised of partners Francis W. Dean and Charles T. Main, who had offices in Boston and specialized in mill design and engineering from 1893 to 1907, originally designing Lowney’s Boston factory in the North End. A later fieldstone addition was added in 1910 and housed the company’s office and shipping facilities. After Walter Lowney died in 1921, the Walter M. Lowney Company continued to operate under the ownership of Lowney’s wife. In the 1930s the factory property was wholly purchased by the Rexall Drug Company, who renamed the Lowney company, United Chocolate Refiners. The Mansfield factory was later owned by Nabisco to make chocolate for oreo cookies for a number of years until it again changed hands. The factory had been largely empty since 2010 until it was recently converted to mixed-income housing (the best kind of redevelopment)! Who doesn’t love a happy ending?

Mansfield Orthodox Congregational Church // 1839

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Welcome to Mansfield, Massachusetts! Located in the southeastern part of the state, this very suburban town is often overlooked in terms of architecture, but there are definitely some great buildings to discover. This is the Orthodox Congregational Church of Mansfield, an 1839 edifice at the town’s South Common. The congregation was established in the 1730s and followed strict Congregationalist beliefs, which were at odds with the growing tide of Unitarianism which was becoming a dominant belief in the Commonwealth by the early 1800s. The differences came to a head when the Anti-Slavery Riot of 1836 occured. Factions of local pro- and anti-slavery residents fought when Charles C. Burleigh, Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, was invited, with the consent of the parish committee, to lecture in the meeting-house. This difference of theological taste as well as a difference of opinion on the idea of slavery led, in 1838, to the forming of a new society, the Orthodox Congregational Society, who built this church soon-after. While the split-off congregationalists were “behind the times”, among the separatists were Hermon Hall and Deacon Otis Allen, secretary and president of the Mansfield Anti-Slavery Society. This church was completed in 1839, and was altered and enlarged in the 1850s and 1870s.

Captain Lawton House // c.1850

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Captain Job Lawton (1795-1860) was a sea captain and wharfmaster in Assonet Village, in Freetown, Mass. I could not locate much on him other than a note about his skill on the sea, highlighted in a history of the town of Freetown. “Captain Job Lawton, on one of his many voyages across the ocean, lost his rudder at sea. With commendable ingenuity, he made a temporary one from old ropes, hung and managed it by chains passed over the stern and either side of the ship, and by his cool determination and never tiring perseverance brought his sloop safely into port. For this remarkable feat, he received high public commendation, and a substantial recognition from the insurance companies interested in his vessel and her cargo. Several models of this rudder are now in existence, one being on exhibition at the National Museum in Washington. He married Polly, daughter of Captain Charles Strange.” Lawton, in the later years of his short life, appears to have built this home, which elegantly blends both Gothic and Greek Revival styles.

Peirce-Andros House // 1802

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Possibly my favorite house in Assonet is this Federal style beauty on Elm Street, it is just so well-proportioned and stately. The home was built in 1802 as the home of Reverend David A. Leonard, who actually sold it before it could be completed to Ebenezer Peirce, Leonard moved to Bristol, RI. Ebenezer Peirce built the Congregational Church nearby in Assonet in 1809, so it is likely that with his carpentry skills, he updated this home to his standards when he acquired the property. Its monitor roof, four tall chimneys at the corners, large quoins, splayed lintels, and 12/12 sash on the second floor make it stand out on the busy street. A portico on Doric columns shelters the central door. The home was owned later by Peter Nichols, a blacksmith, then by his son-in-law, Captain Benedict Andros, a sea captain, who routinely brought Irish immigrants over to the United States during the Great Famine in the 1840s.

Hathaway Memorial Library // 1895

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One of the smallest and most charming public library buildings in New England is the Hathaway Memorial Library in Assonet Village, in Freetown, Mass. The building was constructed in 1895 from funds donated to the town by Florence E. Hathaway as a memorial to her late father, Guilford Hathaway. For the early years of the library, there was no hired librarian, so Florence staffed the building on Thursdays, and two others alternated on Saturdays, to serve the community. By the turn of the 20th century, the postmaster’s wife was hired as the librarian, and given an office in the small building. Little town libraries just make me smile, they are so inviting and cozy!