adaptive reuse

Newport Old Fire Station No.1 // 1885

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Central Newport, Rhode Island is best-known for its Colonial and early 19th century architecture, so when a Victorian-era building is spotted, it always stands out! This ornate building was constructed in 1885 as one of a half-dozen fire stations in Newport. This fire station housed one of the nation’s first organized fire companies known as Old Torrent No. 1. It was home to Newport’s first horse drawn steam engine until the steamers were replaced with motor-driven equipment in 1913. Unfortunately, these early model fire trucks weren’t designed to handle the steep incline of Mill Street. So, after 29 years of service, the station was closed and the horses, steamer, and the building were sold in 1915. The building saw numerous uses and deferred maintenance until 1991, when it was restored by local residents. Today, the one-of-a-kind features include original brass fire pole, private roof deck, and a 65 foot lookout tower with views of the Newport Harbor in the distance. It recently sold in 2022 for over $3 Million and is a residence!

Newport Telephone Building // c.1897

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Before the days of virtual meetings, texting, and calls by cellphone, residents of towns and cities all over New England needed central telephone exchanges to connect them to those who they were trying to reach. Telephone exchange buildings were typically located in downtown areas and were often architectural statement-pieces by telephone companies. This example in Newport, Rhode Island, is located just behind Trinity Church and was designed around 1897 by the firm of Perkins & Betton of Boston. The building is constructed of brick (now painted) with terracotta trim details, which really pop. The oversized Palladian window with arch, pilasters, and cornice are all terracotta installed by the Waldo Brothers, contractors. The building was converted to residential use and was sold for $2.5 Million in 2020.

North Weare Schoolhouse // 1856

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The Town of Weare, New Hampshire was first divided into thirteen school districts in 1805 as a result of a state law to divide each town into school districts to service all students equally. Over the years the number of school districts fluctuated and were periodically redefined based on population distribution and class sizes. The North Weare Schoolhouse was built in 1856 and was operated as a one-room school until 1952 when a consolidated school was built in town. Architecturally, the building blends multiple styles, most notably the Greek Revival and Italianate styles. The property was later occupied as a Grange Hall with a 1960s addition to the rear. It was purchased in 1985 by new owners who had spent years restoring the building as a residence before they sold it more recently. Today, the former schoolhouse has modern additions and windows, but maintains its charm and uniqueness.

Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Building // 1860

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This is your sign to take a different route! When exploring a new town or neighborhood, I love to explore the obscure streets just as much as the iconic Main Streets as hidden treasures can always be found! This building in Dorchester’s Port Norfolk neighborhood was constructed in 1860 as the new home of the Dorchester Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which was incorporated in 1855. The company seemingly hired Dorchester-based architect Luther Briggs, who also laid out the streets for Port Norfolk and the Clam Point neighborhoods and designed many buildings in the area at the time. The high-style Italianate building features bold proportions, quoins, and cornice. While the former round-arched windows have since been enclosed and are traditional double-hung windows, they building still stands out! At the rear, Second Empire style rowhouses were built for private ownership. The building is now all condominiums following a renovation.

Former Middlebury Methodist Church // 1832

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The oldest extant church building in Middlebury, Connecticut is a church that no longer is, the former Middlebury Methodist Church. Built in 1832, this building sits across from the Town Hall and Congregational Church and together, they form the eastern edge of the town green. The building is a more refined example of the Greek Revival style with paired entrances, corner pilasters, and a pediment facing the street with blind fan within. By the early 20th century, the church had a dwindling membership and sold the building in 1923 to the Westover School which opened just over a decade earlier. The building was used as a library for the school for some time and still is under the ownership of the esteemed private institution to this day, who maintain the former church very well.

Frederic Bronson Barn // c.1895

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Not many buildings in Greenfield Hill, Fairfield, Connecticut showcase the neighborhood’s transition from farming community to affluent suburb quite as well as this stone barn turned house on Hillside Road. The stone barn was constructed around c.1895 for Frederic Bronson Jr. (1851-1900) a prominent New York attorney and treasurer of the New York Life and Trust Company which was founded by his grandfather, Isaac Bronson. In about 1892, Frederic demolished his ancestral home and hired architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a new country estate for his family. The house was called Verna and is also located in Fairfield. Today Verna is known best as the Fairfield County Day School. As with many wealthy men of the Gilded Age, Frederic wanted his rural retreat to also work as a gentleman’s farm, where he could have staff farm and tend to livestock on the expansive rolling hills bounded by historic stone walls. He appears to have had this barn built for his livestock shortly after the main house, Verna was completed nearby. Bronson died in 1900 and some of the property was later sold off. This property was acquired by a Charles Stillman in 1941 and it is likely him that converted the barn into a charming residence.

West Acton Citizens Library // c.1845

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Old houses adapted for other uses always deserves a highlight! The West Acton Citizens Library was originally constructed in 1840 as a small, one-story Greek Revival style cape house either for or purchased by Phineas Wetherbee, a farmer and early landowner in the village. The modest house features little detailing besides the recessed entrance composed of wide, flat pilasters and a lintel decorated with square corner blocks and a central keystone. In 1883, Phineas Wetherbee met with thirty-nine others to form the Citizens Library in West Acton. The organization accessioned the collection of the former Farmers Club Library. When Mr. Wetherbee died in 1895, he bequeathed his house to the library, who later moved into the house by 1900. Today, the house remains a library space for the West Acton village.

Woodward Abrahams House // c.1768

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This Georgian-era Colonial home in Marblehead, Massachusetts was built around 1768 by Woodward Abrahams, who was appointed deputy postmaster in Marblehead ten years prior by Benjamin Franklin. Abrahams was one of the seven listed “Tories” mentioned in a town meeting of 1777, which were more loyal to the British crown than the colonies. After the war, he attempted to restore his political favor, which he did over decades, later being renamed a postmaster in 1797. The old Abrahams house was later owned by Thomas Tucker, who ran a dry goods business. In 1881, he converted the first floor to commercial space, giving the house its appearance we see today.

First Baptist Church of Sedgwick // 1837

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Sedgwick, Maine is a coastal town overlooking the Penobscot Bay separating it from the better-known Deer Isle. The town was originally inhabited by the Wabanaki people. In the 18th century, land here was granted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1761 to David Marsh and 359 others, and settlers began arriving and building homes here shortly after. In 1789, the town was incorporated as Sedgwick, named after Major Robert Sedgwick, who in 1654, captured nearby Fort Pentagouet from the French. The land in Sedgwick was very rocky and was thus better suited for grazing than cultivation. Because of the geology, for decades Sedgwick had operating many granite quarries, which shifted southward toward Stonington in later decades. The town then became a hub of seafaring professions, from ship-building to trading, to fishing and clam-digging. The town’s Baptist population established a congregation in 1794 as a Congregationalist organization which underwent a large-scale conversion to Baptistry in 1805. This congregation retained Bangor architect Benjamin S. Deane to design its church, which was built in 1837 in the Greek Revival style. Deane’s design is based on a drawing publisher by Asher Benjamin in his Practice of Architecture. The church had seen a dwindling congregation for decades until it was disbanded in 2008. The church was acquired by the Sedgwick-Brooklin Historical Society, who have begun a restoration of the building.

Former Portsmouth Marine Railway Office // c.1833

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In 1833, a group of prominent Portsmouth merchants organized the Marine Railway Company and installed a set of tracks from the water in Portsmouth’s harbor to this brick machine house. When coupled with two horses, the machinery would, as the owners proclaimed, “draw vessels of 500 tons and upwards, entirely out of the water, placing them in a situation where any part of their hulls can be inspected or repaired with great dispatch.” The Portsmouth Marine Railway Company continued to operate until the mid- 1850’s. Thereafter the wealthy merchant Leonard Cotton bought it and ran it as a private venture. The railway ceased operations somewhere around 1875, though the tracks remained in place well into the 1980s. The brick building has been adaptively reused and is occupied by the Players Ring Theatre, a local non-profit group.