Historic Building

Elizabeth Taber Library // 1872

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Built in 1872, the Elizabeth Taber Library and Natural History Museum was the first of a number of philanthropic gifts to the town of Marion by Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Taber (1791-1888), a wealthy widow and resident. This stunning Italianate style library and museum was funded following over $20,000 in donations to Marion for the design, construction and furnishing of a new library in town, that would also house a natural history museum for the advancement of education. By the late 1870s, the Taber Library and Natural History Museum had become a key component of the Tabor Academy campus, founded just years later. The structure, like the Tabor Academy building and Tabor Hall, was designed in the Italianate style and features a dentiled pediment on the facade, an octagonal cupola with balustrade at the roof which is adorned by oculus windows, and an ornate portico supported by fluted Corinthian columns. The building remains as Marion’s Public Library with its Natural History Museum on the second floor

Tabor Academy Building – Marion Town Hall // 1876

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This building, one of the most architecturally significant in the town of Marion, Massachusetts, was constructed in 1876 as a new academy building in the community. When built, Marion was not yet a summer resort community and suffered the decline of the shipbuilding and sea-faring trades that saw the region prosper throughout much of the first half of the 19th century. The new academy building was largely funded by Marion resident, Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher Tabor (1791- 1888). Following the death of her wealthy husband, New Bedford clockmaker and whaling vessel shareholder Stephen Taber, Mrs. Taber focused her attention on improving the circumstances of her hometown of Marion by financing and overseeing construction of new buildings in town. In her later years, Elizabeth founded Tabor Academy in Marion, naming it after Mount Tabor in Palestine rather than after herself (but the close spelling was likely intentional). Tabor Academy served as a private school for boys and girls over 12 years of age, and was to remain free for local students. With the rise of public schools in the state, many academies began to struggle with admitting students, especially those that had parents willing to pay additional money for enrollment. The school struggled around the Great Depression and thus, traded buildings with the Town of Marion in the 1930s and this building became the Marion Town Hall, a use it retains to this day. The building itself is a stunning Italianate design, likely constructed from plans by Boston architect and summer resident in Marion, William Gibbons Preston. The Town of Marion has done an exceptional job maintaining and preserving this significant and iconic piece of architecture and local history into the 21st century.

First Universalist Church, Marion – Marion Arts Center // 1833

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I do love a good adaptive reuse story! This historic church building on Main and Pleasant streets in the Wharf Village of Marion, Massachusetts, was constructed in 1833 for the town’s growing and new Universalist congregation. Architect Seth Eaton was hired and furnished plans, likely relying on neighbor, Warren Blankinship, a carpenter and congregant, to construct the building. It blends together the Greek and Gothic Revival styles well, but in a less sophisticated form than some larger churches. By World War II, the church’s membership had dwindled to only a few old Marion families and eventually closed. With the building’s future uncertain, at a time where demolition for surface parking lots was the go-to solution, Marion residents Andrew and Dorothy Patterson, purchased the building and soon after worked with local artists in town to restore the building for use as an art space. The Marion Art Center was founded in 1957, and to this day, serves as a non-profit community cultural organization dedicated to promoting the visual and performing arts.

Marion Masonic Hall // 1911

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Since its founding in 1863, Marion’s Masonic organization, Pythagorean Lodge, has been one of the town’s most important social and charitable organizations. The organization originally met in a historic Greek Revival style building near the harbor, but it was eventually deemed obsolete for the well-connected group of men who were members there. In 1908, discussions began to build a new, purpose-built Masonic Hall in the village. It was intended to have a three-story building with retail space and apartments on the ground floor to supplement the cost of maintenance, reception and member’s rooms on the second floor, and the banquet hall and kitchen on the top floor. Approximately one-third of the cost for the new building was funded by Henry E. Converse, of the Converse Rubber Company (now the iconic shoe brand), who was a member of the local lodge and summer resident of Marion. Opened in 1911, the new building was designed in the Colonial Revival style with fanlight windows, corner pilasters, and columned entrance, but today lacks the original flair with its unfortunate vinyl siding.

Newton Upper Falls Railroad Depot // 1852

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When the short-lived Charles River Railroad opened in 1852, first connecting the Boston and Worcester Railroad in Brookline to Newton’s Upper Falls village, the small community here saw immediate prosperity and turned into a thriving industrial village. In 1847, a petition was filed with the Legislature of Massachusetts to build a rail line linking greater Boston to the Rhode Island border. While a more direct route was easier, Otis Pettee (1795-1853), who owned an iron foundry called Pettee Works where he manufactured cotton machinery, seems to have been the principal promoter for the line to pass through the village of his factory. Pettee died soon-after the line was finished, but his persistence for this track served two additional benefits. Firstly, it opened up development into other Newton villages for early suburban development, and secondly, it served as a major line to bring gravel from Needham to fill the Back Bay, opening that iconic Boston neighborhood to development. The Upper Falls Depot dates to about the time that the initial line opened in 1852 and is a typical, vernacular train depot in New England from this period. The Charles River Railroad merged with the New York and Boston Railroad in 1855 and was later sold to the Boston and Albany Railroad. Following the near death of the railroad system in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century, much of the former Charles River Railroad today has survived despite the abandonment of much of the rest of the former New York and New England Railroad lines. This section is currently a part of the D-Branch of the MBTA’s Green Line. 

St. Andrew’s in the Valley Church // 1927

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The St. Andrew’s in the Valley Episcopal Church in Tamworth, New Hampshire, is an architecturally significant early 20th century rustic chapel that has been lovingly preserved and expanded by its congregation. The church was envisioned by Reverend Frederick C. Cowper (1851-1929), who was called to gather congregants in the summer colonies in the White Mountains to fund and build a new chapel. Rev. Cowper was granted land in the Whittier area of Tamworth and worked with Boston architect, Walter H. Kilham, who had a summer home in Tamworth, to draw up plans for the new church. Kilham is said to have based his designs off of the 11th-century Church of Saint Helena in Austerfield, England, just in the local vernacular with rubblestone acquired from the land in New Hampshire and not cut stone blocks like that of St. Helena. The church exhibits elements of the Arts and Crafts style with the stucco wing and thoughtful stone bell tower.

Whittier Lodge // c.1905

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Whittier Lodge is a historic lodging house built in the early 20th century at the time Tamworth, New Hampshire shifted from an industrial and agricultural economy more to a summer colony. Part of the structure is said to have been built from a village schoolhouse and moved to the present site where the remainder of what became Whittier Lodge was built. The Remick Family owned the building and the rooms inside were rented largely to mill workers who worked in nearby towns over the winter, and rented in summers to visitors to the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. The lodge was purchased in the 1920s to Everett and Ethel Berry, who converted the boarding house into their home, but the building remained known for its hospitality. Ethel is said to have cooked nightly dinners in summers for the actors at the Barnstormers Theatre. Conrad Bain, later well-known for his role as Phillip Drummond, in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, spent the summers of 1949 and ‘50 at The Barnstormers and he wrote glowingly of his time in Tamworth and at Whittier Lodge, writing, “…the generosity and culinary talent of Mrs. Berry, who served a delicious and nourishing dinner to all of us every evening on her spacious screened-in porch, for the extraordinary sum of $1.25 each”. The connection to the Barnstormers Theatre continues today as in 2007, the Theatre organization purchased the lodge for use as housing for its technical/stage crew from June through August; and it is rented from September to May as apartments.

Tamworth Town House // 1794

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The historic Town House in Tamworth, New Hampshire, was built in 1794 as the meeting house, serving as both the center of religious worship and local government for the community. The Tamworth Town House was built after the community voted to call its first minister in 1792, thirty-two-year-old Rev. Samuel Hidden, who was ordained on a large boulder (ever since known as Ordination Rock), as there was no public building to house the ceremony. Within a year, members of the community voted that the new meetinghouse should be two stories with a porch (stair-tower) on the front of the building, and it was to be built near Ordination Rock. The structure has an impressive hand-hewn timber frame, spacious interior with original gallery columns, and surviving pulpit window showcase the skilled workmanship of early builders. Following the passing of the Toleration Act of 1819 in New Hampshire effectively brought about the separation of church and state. It severed allowed citizens to stop supporting the established Congregational Church in all towns via taxation and instead now support the denomination of their choosing. From this, a new Congregational Church was built in the village and the old Town House was moved to the village and renovated to its present appearance in 1852 in the Greek Revival style. The renovation added updated Classical frieze and pilasters, a redesigned main entrance, and larger windows that complemented the new use as the Tamworth Town Hall.

Ordination Rock

Chocorua Community Church // 1835

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The First Free Will Baptist Church of Tamworth, New Hampshire, was founded in 1781 and centered around the charming mountain village of Chocorua. Members met for years in private homes, schoolhouses, and even barns until a lot was acquired in 1834 for the congregation and this church built a year later in 1835. The church was remodeled in 1885 to its current form, which likely saw the building raised and the steeple added. The church was renamed in 1921 to the Chocorua Baptist Church and again to the present name, Chocorua Community Church. The Chocorua Community Church is a typical 19th century vernacular New England church with a basic form, gable roofed main block, two-stage belfry tower topped by a spire. The composition of the facades with double doors and blind lancet window above is typical of the vernacular church architecture of the period, and while not architecturally distinctive, the church is significant as a community center of the Chocorua Village of Tamworth.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Parish House, Ashland // 1899

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Adjacent to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Ashland, New Hampshire, the congregation’s Parish House stands as a complimentary extension to the Victorian Gothic church next door. Built in 1899 as a vestry for the church, the Parish House perfectly blends both the Victorian Gothic and Shingle styles of architecture into a single composition with lancet windows and steep gable roof and continuous shingle siding and rubblestone foundation. While the architect is not known, the Parish House stands as one of the finest examples of a building of its type in New England and is clearly the work of a skilled architect.

Ashland Town Hall // 1871

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The Ashland Town Hall in Ashland, New Hampshire, was built in 1871, three years after the town separated from Holderness, due to its growing economy as an industrial village compared to its mother-town’s more agricultural character. Constructed of brick, the facade is dominated by its gable roof which reads as a pediment and bays divided by brick pilasters which harkens back to the Greek Revival style; while the use of arched brick mouldings which is a common element in the Italianate style. The handsome, well-proportioned structure was used for town meetings and elections until 1950, and in 1952, the building was used by the school district as the village school. The building returned to municipal functions in 1972 and has since housed the Ashland Town Offices. The Old Ashland Town Hall was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Union Hall, North Billerica // 1892-1966

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The Union Hall in North Billerica, Massachusetts, was originally built around 1871 as a social meeting place and informal “town hall” for area residents. The building served many uses from a district schoolhouse to hosting elections and governmental events for the industrial village until a fire destroyed the building in 1891. The iconic centerpiece for the community was quickly rebuilt a year later from plans by Frederick W. Stickney, and also included space for the local fire department. The use as a school ceased but the first floor remained occupied as the village fire station until 1965, when a contemporary station was built nearby. Soon after, the 1892 structure was demolished and the site is used as surface parking for the North Billerica train station.

Talbot Mills // 1857

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The Talbot Mills in North Billerica were built in 1857 by Charles and Thomas Talbot, who produced flannels, woolen goods, and later military and later, military drab. The brothers had connections in Lowell and eventually built a new manufacturing company in Billerica on the banks of the Concord River. Charles Talbot oversaw much of the day-to-day business, while Thomas Talbot began to pursue politics, serving first as state senator, lieutenant governor, and eventually Governor of Massachusetts in 1878. When built, the Talbot Mills were originally powered solely by water, but as the company’s manufacturing facilities doubled in 1880, a boiler-engine house was built. During the 1920s, at its peak, the mill employed 450 workers, many of whom lived in worker’s housing developed and rented by the corporation. During the 1960s, the company suspended operations and the building had been rented out to tenants ever since, now occupied by Pace Industries. The main (and earliest) building of the Talbot Mill complex was built in 1857 and rises five stories with a prominent entry tower with a balustrade, octagonal open arcaded belfry call capped by a weathervane. The wooden tower is a rare survivor and hopefully will remain another 150 years.

Suffield Academy – Memorial Building // 1854 & 1950

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Initially established in 1833 as the Connecticut Literary Institute and later renamed Suffield Academy in 1937, the institution was founded with the mission to educate young men for the Baptist ministry. As the Connecticut Literary Institute was the only high school in Suffield, the town tax dollars paid for local students to attend. Originally built for the Institute in 1854, this large brick academic building was designed in the Italianate style with brackets and decorative brickwork at the cornice until about a century later when the school redesigned its campus in the Colonial Revival style. The Memorial Building was stripped down of pomp and renovated into its present appearance, but it maintains its historic form and fenestration.

Williston Saddle Shop // 1776

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Before the invention of the automobile, horseback was the most effective way to get around. In nearly every town in New England, a saddler would make harnesses, straps, and saddles from leather in small, vernacular shops like this structure in Suffield, Connecticut. The Williston Saddle Shop is said to have been built in 1776 by Consider Williston (1739-1794), who served as a Lieutenant in the American Revolution, and is sited on the town’s iconic Main Street, which is lined by stately homes, churches, and institutional buildings of all eras. The vernacular Williston Saddle Shop retains its unique character, even since it was converted to a private residence.