Historic Building

Wayside Estate – Easton Town Offices // 1912

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One of the many grand estates built in Easton, Massachusetts, by members of the Ames Family, Wayside is the last constructed as the Gilded Age was coming to an end. Mary Shreve Ames (1867-1955) was the daughter of Frederick Lothrop Ames and the granddaughter of Oliver Ames Jr., President of the Union Pacific Railroad and great-grand-daughter of Oliver Ames Sr. who founded the Ames Shovel Works in Easton in 1803. In 1912, Mary hired Boston architect, Guy Lowell, to design her country estate in her ancestral home of Easton. The grand Georgian Revival style estate has two main elevations, a grand entrance accessed by a circular drive, and the street elevation, which is more restrained. Four years after completing Wayside, in 1916, at the age of forty-nine, Marry married Louis Adams Frothingham, a Harvard graduate who had served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as Speaker of the House before he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1908 and re-elected in 1910. After Mary’s death in 1955, the Wayside Estate was placed on the market as the family sought an owner who could properly care for it. At the time, Easton’s Town Offices were overcrowded, and after discussions with the town officials, the Ames heirs donated Wayside and the surrounding property to the town with the restriction was that no building would be constructed from the front line of the house to Elm Street, obscuring its view. Wayside remains a great example of the Ames Family’s generosity and the impact that the wealthy family had on this small town.

Ames Free Library // 1879

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One of the most architecturally significant library buildings in the United States, the Ames Free Library in the small town of Easton, Massachusetts, is a landmark example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style designed by its namesake, Henry Hobson Richardson. The library in the village of North Easton was funded as part of the will of Oliver Ames Jr., who left $50,000 for the construction of a library for his native town. The request was carried out by Ames’ children, Frederick Lothrop Ames and Helen Angier Ames, who hired Henry Hobson Richardson to design the new structure. Richardson had recently completed the Trinity Church in Boston and was designing a library in Woburn at the time the Ames Family first commissioned him to put Easton on the map. Richardson would later design four other buildings in Easton for members of the Ames Family, including the Oakes Ames Memorial Building next door to the library. The Ames family also contracted architect Stanford White for the fireplace in the reading room and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens for the decorative medallions of the library’s benefactor. Construction started on the library in 1878 and it was completed in 1879, but the library did not open until 1883, possibly due to cost overruns. Essentially rectangular in plan, the Ames Library features three main masses: a longitudinal block; a stair tower with a pyramidal roof; and larger gable entry projection. The library is built of ashlar granite blocks and brownstone trim, which frames the openings. Over fifty years after the library was completed, the 1931 children’s wing was added onto the rear. The gift of Fanny Holt Ames, the addition was designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, who continued Richardson’s architectural firm upon his death in 1886. The addition of brick showcases how materiality and certain design changes can effectively showcase the evolution of a building without detracting from its original design and integrity.

Oakes Ames Memorial Hall // 1881

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Located in the center of North Easton, Massachusetts, the landmark Oakes Ames Memorial Hall is the work of famed architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, and among one of the finest of his buildings. In 1879, the children of Oakes Ames (1804-1873), an extremely wealthy businessman, industrialist and congressman from Easton, commissioned the great American architect to design a Memorial Hall as a tribute to their father. Richardson, the architect of Boston’s beloved Trinity Church in Copley Square, responded with this picturesque masterpiece in his eponymous Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style, with walls of rusticated granite that are articulated with contrasting brownstone at the arches, window and door surrounds, and deep band courses. The Ames Memorial Hall is sited atop a rocky outcropping with the building accessed by a grand brownstone stair and landscaping designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The building is relatively square in form and features a prominent corner tower, an arcaded entry of five massive arches on squat columns, and a steeply peaked roof finished in red terracotta. Often overlooked, the frieze at the top of the tower is lined with ornamental carvings of the signs of the Zodiac in brownstone. The building was provided to the Town of Easton by the Ames Family “for all the ordinary purposes of a town hall”, but it was never used for its intended purpose as the town hall, and has mainly served as a meeting space for groups and events. The Town of Easton does a commendable job preserving these nationally significant Richardson-designed landmarks for all to enjoy.

Mount Wachusett Summit House // 1870-1970

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Third Summit House, courtesy of Princeton Historical Society.

Built as three buildings over a span of one hundred years, Mount Wachusett’s Summit House stood over the town of Princeton, Massachusetts, and epitomized the rise of tourism in the community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In as early as 1866, William Morse began selling candy and cigars to summer tourists at the summit of Mount Wachusett, later building the first Summit House in 1870. The small stone building was a respite for visitors who walked or took horses up the mountain until 1874, when the Wachusett Mountain Company built a road to the top drawing even more visitors from the summer-resort boom in Princeton. As the mountain saw increased visitors, a second hotel, built in 1884 by Phineas A. Beaman, was constructed and nicknamed the “Tip Top,” with lodging in 30 rooms, with water supplied by a windmill on the shore of Summit Pond. Stagecoaches carried guests up from the Princeton train depot, and the season is estimated to have drawn around 30,000 visitors a year at its peak. The third Summit House, built in 1907, is known from postcards as a hotel that treated the summit as a parlor. The building was slated for demolition in 1970 to make way for a new recreational facility, but burned to the ground later in the year. Today the hotels are gone, but the summit still draws visitors by foot, car, or ski gondola, who take in the views of Massachusetts.

Goodnow Memorial Library, Princeton // 1883

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Perched on a hill at the northern boundary of its town common, the Goodnow Memorial Library in Princeton, Massachusetts, is one of the state’s finest and best-preserved libraries. The building was largely funded by wealthy businessman and benefactor, Edward Augustus Goodnow (1810-1905), who deeded the land and building to the town for use as a public library and schoolhouse. The building was constructed in memory of his two of his four wives and only son. The building was completed in 1883 and designed by Worcester architect, Stephen C. Earle (who would also design the Princeton Town Hall/Bagg Hall, funded by Goodnow a year later). The terms of the gift by Goodnow stipulated that the building would serve jointly as library and public school until the library required additional space. The school remained here until the Princeton Center School opened in 1906, since that time, the Goodnow Memorial building has been used exclusively as a public library. The handsome Richardsonian Romanesque style building has walls of of pink Milford granite with rough-faced Longmeadow brownstone trim. The building features a prominent clocktower with its face in polychromatic masonry. The building is one of the finest of its type in New England, and has been lovingly preserved by the community for well over a century.

East Princeton Mechanic’s Hall & Schoolhouse // 1852

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Suffering from neglect, the grand East Princeton Mechanic’s Hall & Schoolhouse stands on Main Street in East Princeton, Massachusetts, as a lasting landmark of the once thriving industrial village. The site was originally home to a one-room schoolhouse built in 1843. Originally a schoolhouse built in 1852 for $600 with timbers from the original schoolhouse that was built in 1843. After about 10 years, the village’s growth necessitated a larger District school. A committee was established to oversee construction and funds for a new schoolhouse, which the committee decided should also include a meeting hall on the top floor, above two classrooms on the ground floor. The Greek Revival style structure is said to have been partially built with timbers salvaged from the earlier building, hence the 1843 date in the pediment. The building operated as a public school until it closed in the 1940s as district schools consolidated. For decades, the meeting hall was used occasionally by the Princeton Farmers and Mechanics Association and later by the East Princeton Village Improvement Society and local American Legion Post until the building was vacated entirely. The building has been left to decay by the town, who own the building, letting this become yet another example of a demolition by neglect.

What would you like to see this building become?

Stuart Barn – J. H. Stuart Chair Factory // c.1850

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The small village of East Princeton, Massachusetts, developed in the mid-19th century due to its location along a fast running stream that could power small industrial buildings and mills. Chair manufacturing in the village began in 1841 in a shop built by Benjamin Stuart on the edge of Keyes Brook. Benjamin Stuart and his son, Joseph, started a factory where they made high-quality wooden chairs, which were sold in markets all over central Massachusetts. The business expanded and John H. Stuart converted this building, a c.1850 barn that he owned, into a factory/warehouse for the company. In 1904, the business was incorporated under the name of Temple Stuart Company, which moved to Baldwinville, Templeton, to an expanded factory. The barn-turned-factory was converted into a private residence in the middle of the 20th century, a use that remains today.

Justin Morrill Homestead // 1851

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Located in the village of Strafford, Vermont, the Justin Smith Morrill Homestead is one of Vermont’s most charming architectural landmarks. Built between 1848 and 1851, the house is a rare and exuberant example of Gothic Revival design, with steeply pitched gables, pointed-arch windows, and intricate decorative trim that give it the look of a storybook cottage. Justin S. Morrill (1810-1898) was a self-taught architectural enthusiast who drew inspiration from the popular pattern books of the day, and he is said to have designed much of the house himself. Morrill also planned the surrounding gardens, studying the romantic landscape movement with its formal yet picturesque plantings. He selected only those plants that would survive the wintry Vermont climate and annually monitored their success again the harsh elements. Justin Morrill was a regular storekeeper in the village who retired early, who went on to serve in Congress for more than four decades and is best remembered as the author of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts. Signed into law in 1862, the first act helped establish public colleges across the country and opened higher education to ordinary Americans, primarily focusing on agricultural and mechanical studies. While Senator Morrill spent much of his time in the nation’s capital, his Strafford home served as his respite during the summer months. Today the homestead is a National Historic Landmark and Vermont state historic site, where visitors can walk through rooms filled with the family’s belongings and see how the ambitions of a small-town statesman shaped both a home and a nation.

Barn

Tilden-Thurber Building // 1895

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The ornately ornamented Tilden-Thurber Building sits on Westminster Street in Downtown Providence, and served as somewhat of a jewel box for its original owners, the Tilden-Thurber Company. Tilden-Thurber was a prominent 19th- and 20th-century luxury goods retailer, jeweler, and silversmith, founded in 1856 by Henry Tilden and William Thurber, retailing fine timepieces, custom silverware, decorative art, and commemorative items. The company had its main store at the corner of Westminster and Mathewson streets built in 1895 from plans by the Boston architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, which resulted in this immaculate, four-story masonry block. Classically inspired, the design features large plate glass storefronts framed by an intricate carved stone surround at the street level and on the upper floors, colossal engaged and rusticated columns. The Tilden-Thurber Company filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and the future of this landmark was uncertain for years until the building sold in 2016 to former mayor and longtime developer Joseph Paolino.

Richmond Building // 1876

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The Victorian Gothic style Richmond Building on Weybosset Street in Downtown Providence, is one of the more interesting late 19th century commercial buildings in the city, as the more you look at it, the more you notice! The Richmond Building was constructed in 1876 seemingly as an investment for Dr. Fenner Harris Peckham, who rented out professional offices and retail space inside the building. The structure gets its name from its proximity to Richmond Street, and stands out architecturally for its polychromatic brick with tile, Gothic-arch niche flanked by colonettes on the facade, and truncated corner with later rounded corner window.

Slade Building // 1881

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The Slade Building on Washington Street in Downtown Providence represents the architectural flourish and blending of architectural styles that typified commercial blocks in major New England cities in the late 19th century. The commercial block was named and built for owner, George H. Slade, who was involved in real estate development along with his role as part-owner of Westcott, Slade and Balcom, a paint manufacturing company. The building was designed by Rhode Island architect, Clifton A. Hall (1826-1913) who primarily worked locally. After George’s death, the property remained in the family, and in 1895, the corner tower, also designed by Hall, was added as a way to modernize and bring in new tenants. The block has been rehabilitated and is one of the finest and best-preserved examples of a late 19th century commercial building in Downtown Providence.

Old Providence Telephone Building // 1893

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Located on the narrow Union Street in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island, this stunning late 19th century building was designed by the most prominent architectural firm in the state, Stone, Carpenter & Willson as the home of the Providence Telephone Company. Telephones were originally introduced in Providence in 1879, and by 1893, the need for a centralized office led to the construction of this building. The structure was originally just three stories, but as demand and the use of the telephone grew, so did this building, which added two floors in 1906. The handsome brick and terracotta facade is extremely ornate and includes a more strong Classical base and foliate terracotta friezes and columns above with projecting bays to bring light into the building. The building was again outgrown and the Providence Telephone Company moved into a new, purpose-built office building nearby in 1917. This structure remained professional offices and today, the upper floors have been converted to apartments with lower levels occupied by live/work loft spaces and two commercial storefronts.

Summerfield Building // 1913

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Built by the wealthy Harkness family as an investment property, this unique building on Weybosset Street in Downtown Providence, Rhode Island, takes its name from the Boston-based Summerfield Furniture Company, which occupied much of the building for many years. The six-story, reinforced concrete structure was designed by architect, Albert Harkness for his family, who gambled on the young designer who was seemingly inspired by the Chicago School of architecture, with its concrete and steel framing, large plate glass windows, ornamental terra cotta, and broad cornice. After Summerfield Furniture closed, the building was occupied in the mid-20th century by various companies until Johnson & Wales purchased the building, and have maintained the architecturally significant landmark ever-since.

Plantations Clubhouse // 1927

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Tucked away behind Abbott Park, a small green in Downtown Providence, the Plantations Club has stood for 100 years as one of the city’s finest examples of Colonial Revival architecture and was long a vital women’s club organization. This Georgian Revival brick building was designed by the firm of Andrews, Jones, Briscoe & Whitmore, of Boston for the Providence Plantation Club, a women’s social organization founded in 1916. The club was a success, starting with about 150 members and it reached more than 1,300 members, just one year after its inception. As the only female architect of the society, Frances E. Henley got involved in promoting the Club in terms of its visuals and interior design of the building, working closely with the architects. Ms. Henley was the first woman to study architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and the first woman to independently practice architecture in Rhode Island. When the club no longer needed such a building, Johnson & Wales University acquired the building in 1962, and since then, it has been known as Wales Hall, housing a variety of offices and services.

Old Stone Studio // c.1820

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One of the most significant buildings in the coastal town of Marion, Massachusetts, is this stone structure, which is said to have had its beginnings as a storage warehouse. Located on Spring Street north of the main village, this building was constructed as early as 1820 as a salt works storage facility, and is an extremely rare surviving storage facility associated with the early 19th century salt industry in town. While many storage facilities we know today are void of architecture and soul, this building looks like it was plucked from the French countryside, thanks to a late 19th century renovation by one of the most prestigious architects in the United States. The salt industry in Massachusetts began on Cape Cod during the Revolution. Salt was a vital necessity for the preservation and curing of fish and meat for sale in this country and overseas. According to local lore, the Old Stone Studio was originally “a place for the conversion of sea water into salt.” Around the Civil War, the building was being used for petroleum processing facility, where kerosene, which had supplanted whale oil as a fuel for home and street lamps, was made and stored. The old stone structure had fallen into disrepair by the 1880s, that was until New York magazine editor, Richard Watson Gilder bought and restored it as a studio for his wife, artist Helena de Kay Gilder. At this point, Marion had become a premier summer colony with large waterfront estates and recreational facilities built for the wealthy in Boston and New York to spend the warmer months. Gilder hired his friend, Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White, to update the warehouse into a studio, adding the multi-light windows, decorative ironwork, and interior details, including the massive stone fireplace with a nine-foot mantle. The fireplace provided a stunning backdrop for guests, including President Grover Cleveland and First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland, who summered in town. Ms. Gilder even painted the First Lady in the studio, and hosted her on occasions. The Old Stone Studio is now a private residence with addition off the rear.