historic preservation massachusetts

Georgetown Brick Schoolhouse No. 4 // 1854

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Constructed in 1854 for intermediate and high school classes at a time when one-room schoolhouses were still the rule in Georgetown, this well-preserved brick building is a reminder as to how far education and schooling has come. As nearby one-room schools consolidated and after the new Central School Building (now Georgetown Town Hall) was built in 1905, this Greek Revival school building was converted to town offices. The town was still fairly small, so the offices only occupied the ground floor, and the town rented the upper floor to the All Saints Episcopal Church, who purchased the building in 1917 and occupied it for nearly 50 years. They likely added the Craftsman style entry porch. The church was deconsecrated in 1966, and the building sold in 1970 to the Noack Organ Manufacturing Company, who added an assembly room at the rear.

Old Ashby Academy – Ashby Grange Hall // 1820

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In 1819, less than a decade after the First Parish Church in Ashby, Massachusetts was built, a group of parishioners split to form their own congregation, erecting this Federal style building as its new house of worship a year later. The congregation grew and eventually would build a new church, the Ashby Congregational Church, in 1835. The building was soon after, sold to a group of citizens interested in starting an academy. In 1836 they opened Ashby Academy, which offered education beyond the eighth grade for those who could afford it. Ashby Academy closed in 1860 and the Town of Ashby purchased the building in 1864 for a high school and town offices, a use that remained until a new school was built in 1902. Since the 1970s, the building has been occupied as a local grange hall, and maintained by a local group, the Friends of the Ashby Grange Hall. The building is a significant, transitional Federal/Greek Revival style building in town with its pediment and elliptical windows.

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.

First Congregational Church of North Adams // 1863

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Initially the Congregationalists of Adams and North Adams, Massachusetts met in a small, wooden meetinghouse that was lent to them for use by the Baptist Church. The small, but active congregation totaled just 22 people; 5 men and 17 women. The first minister of the church, John W. Yeomans, worked diligently to see the new church succeed. He was able to raise $3000 from Congregationalist members here and in surrounding communities to build a church of their own. In 1827, a new brick meetinghouse was constructed on the site of the current building. Due to the continuing growth of the church, a new building was necessary after membership outgrew the brick meetinghouse. Bricks from the 1827 building were used in the construction of this church. Architect Charles Edward Parker began construction of the First Congregational Church during 1863 and finished building in 1865. The church was constructed in the Romanesque Revival style; which can be seen in the church’s narrow elongated windows that are covered with wide stone arches, as well as its brick and stone construction, and the building’s slate, conical-shaped roof. What a textbook academic example of an early Romanesque church, especially in a relatively remote town!