Colonial Revival School

Joyce Street School // 1903

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Built in 1903, the Joyce Street School in Warren, Rhode Island, is an excellent example of an early 20th century public school building constructed in the Colonial Revival style. To keep up with a growing population town officials hired architect, Albert Humes, to furnish plans for a new primary school on a lot behind the Town Hall. The handsome school is constructed of brick with a stone foundation and trim of marble and granite with a projecting entrance pavilion, and segmental-arch windows at the second floor. In 1940, the Joyce Street School became a grammar school to house grades 5 to 8, and the building was completely renovated in 1950. The Building was decommissioned as a school in the mid-1970s and later went through a $2.5 million renovation with an addition at the rear to house the Central Fire Station and the Police Department in the former school, a use that remains today.

Hall Memorial School, South Willington // 1922

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Located in South Willington, Connecticut, this Colonial Revival style school building was built to serve the mill village pupils, many of whom were first- and second-generation Americans who immigrated to the area to work at the local mill. In his will, William Henry Hall (1867-1922), the son of industrialist Gardiner Hall Jr., who established the business under his name, donated funds to the community to erect a new, suitable school building for the village. Beyond his work at his family’s business, William H. Hall served in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1893–1897 and again in 1905, 1909, and 1911, and he was generous with his money throughout his life and in his will. For the Hall Memorial School, his heirs selected architect, Harry L. Sprague of Springfield, Massachusetts, who designed the one-story school built of brick and limestone trim and a tall, pedimented portico at the entry supported by four tuscan columns. The school has seen additions, but it retains much of its architectural integrity in the over 100 years of use as a public school.

Lancaster Central School // 1904

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Located across the Town Common from the iconic Bulfinch Church in Lancaster, Massachusetts, this handsome 1904 Colonial/Classical Revival style school building was designed in response to its neighbors and Colonial context of the town of Lancaster. At a Town Meeting in 1903, a local building committee determined that “Bulfinch Colonial” would be the best style for the architecture for a new high school that would be built in the town center, with Herbert Dudley Hale, selected as the architect for the planned two-story brick building. The Center School had been used continuously as a public school until 2001, when it outlived its utility as school facility in town, which was vacated for years until grant funding and a restoration of the building, now known as the Prescott Building, for Town Offices, including the Lancaster Historical Commission. The facade is dominated by its seven-bay symmetrical façade featuring brick
corner quoins, double-door entrance, and two-story white-painted brick pilasters framing the entrance and “supporting” the pediment that contains the town crest in high-relief.

Holy Name Science High School // 1925

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The third and final extant building on the former Church of the Holy Name of Jesus complex in Chicopee, Massachusetts, is this former school building, a stunning example of Colonial Revival architecture. Located behind the former church and rectory buildings, this three-story building was built in 1925 as a “Science” building to accompany an existing girl’s high school. Inside, the building had a “Commercial” department, where young girls could learn important skills like banking, stenography, and typing; with the second floor containing traditional science classrooms and labs along with the school library. Springfield-based architect, John W. Donahue, who specialized in ecclesiastical buildings in Western Massachusetts, designed the building in the Colonial Revival style with brick and stone construction, an elaborate entrance and Palladian window on the second floor facade. The school building closed in the late 20th century, and has seemingly sat vacant ever-since. I sincerely hope this important building could be incorporated as much-needed housing for Chicopee residents!

Wadsworth School // 1897

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The former Wadsworth School of Danvers, Massachusetts, was built in 1897 as a district schoolhouse for the growing town and is one of the finest examples of a school building designed in the Colonial Revival style in the state. The large building held four classrooms (two on each floor) for over 200 pupils with stairhalls at either entrance and was designed by local architect, William H. Pearce. The school was in use until the 1970s when the town consolidated many of the schools, selling this building as excess. The property was converted to offices and given a preservation restriction by the town, protecting it as a local landmark for generations to come!

Lyman School – Ashby Town Hall // 1903

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Originally built in 1903 as the central school for the town of Ashby, Massachusetts, the significant Colonial Revival style Lyman Building is one of the most significant and well-preserved buildings in the village. The building was designed by architect Henry M. Francis of Fitchburg and educated pupils in town from grades 1-12. The two-story, hip-roofed building displays a symmetrical facade with a central section displaying five arched upper story windows, flanked by two pediment-topped pavilions atop projecting, flat-roofed arched entrance vestibules with quoined corners. The symmetry of the original design was preserved when the identical side wings constructed in 1922. Ashby public schools merged with Pepperell and Townsend and this building was later converted to the town hall. I love when towns value their historic buildings and retrofit them for new uses!

Unity Village School // 1898

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The town of Unity, Maine, was incorporated in 1804, and for most of the 19th century had small district schools for the education of its children. In 1894, the state enacted legislation that encouraged the consolidation of school districts in order to improve quality and building standards. The town, whose population and student enrollment had been declining, voted in 1898 to build this school, which effectively replaced four of its eight district schools. The Colonial Revival style schoolhouse was built by Joseph Sawyer of Fairfield, Maine. The Village School remained the town’s largest primary school until 1953, when increasing enrollment and school overcrowding prompted the decision to build a new elementary school.

Margaret Fuller Primary School // 1891

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The Margaret Fuller Primary School (now Community Academy) is a public school in Boston that shows how much attention to detail the school department and the city architect paid when designing these structures in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Fuller School was constructed in 1892 to alleviate an overcrowded school district resulting from rapid urbanization. Jamaica Plain was one of Boston’s first streetcar suburbs largely spurred by the growth of the Boston and Providence Company Railroad between 1860 and 1890, when the area saw a shift from large bucolic estates to subdivided urban housing (largely triple-deckers and apartment buildings along major routes). With the surge in population, many new schools were built city-wide, including this primary school which was designed by Edmund March Wheelwright (1854–1912), a prominent Boston-based architect who served as City Architect for Boston from 1891 to 1895. Architecturally, the building is a stunning example of the Colonial Revival style with red and buff brick walls which are laid in a Flemish bond and rusticated at the first story with single recessed courses of buff brick. An arched entrance and Palladian window with iron false balcony sit at the central bay. The school was named after Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1810-1850) an early transcendentalist and writer advocating for women’s rights born in Cambridge.