School Architecture

Cochituate School // 1910

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Cochituate School in Wayland, MA, was built in 1910 to educate the Cochituate Village’s growing student population. The industrial village was dominated by shoe manufacturing with workers largely consisting of first- and second-generation European immigrants who moved to New England for work. Boston architect, Willard P. Adden, designed the school, which replaced an earlier schoolhouse on the site that was outgrown. The two-story, brick school was expanded following WWII, when a long rear ell with classrooms and a cafeteria was designed by Perry, Shaw & Hepburn. In the 1990s, the old Cochituate School was renovated and converted to senior housing administered by the Wayland Housing Authority.

Old Wayland High School // 1855

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

In 1854, at the annual Town Meeting at Wayland, residents voted to build the community’s first High School, this structure, which was completed in 1855. The roughly square building is Italianate in style with the round arched windows and bracketed cornice, but with some holdover features common in Greek Revival architecture, including the tall pilasters dividing the bays, and projecting portico supported by square paneled columns. A few years after opening, the new High School was so underused, the local grammar school held some classes here. By the 1880s, high school students were sent to school outside of town. As the town population began to increase and the size of the student body necessitated a new high school. The town considered repair of this building, which had suffered from neglect, or construction of a new building. In the end, money was appropriated to build a new High and Grammar School in 1896. The town had the first school moved slightly on the town lot to allow space for the new, second school, and sold the 1850s schoolhouse to the local chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, known as Pequod Lodge. The second high school was demolished in 1978, over a decade after the present High School was built by The Architect’s Collaborative (TAC). In 1978, the Old Wayland High School was sold to the neighboring Trinitarian Church and has been used for administrative purposes and church meetings.

Lancaster Central School // 1904

Buildings of New England1 Comment

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.

Chester Academy – Chester Historical Society // 1884

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The town of Chester, Vermont, is one of the best small towns in the state for architecture lovers! Don’t believe me? I will prove it in this upcoming series. Located in Chester Village, the town’s center, this handsome brick building set off the main street, was built in 1884 as the town’s high school, replacing an 1814 private academy formerly on the site. The private academy closed in 1881, and the building was sold to the town, who by 1884, demolished the original structure and erected the current Italianate style building. The building served as the town high school until 1911, when a new high school was constructed nearby. The elementary and junior high school operated from here until the 1950s, when a modern school was constructed in town. Since 1950, the former academy building has been used by the Chester Art Guild, and currently is leased from the Town by the Chester Historical Society. The structure retains its architectural character down to the segmental arched windows and cupola.

Forbes Public High School // 1924

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The former Forbes Public High School in Westborough, Massachusetts, is an excellent example of a civic building in the Classical Revival style. Built in 1924 for a growing suburban community, the building was constructed as the town’s high school with the grounds and substantial funding donated by Francis and Fannie Forbes, life-long residents of town with Francis having roots going back to the earliest settlers here. The building was permitted in late 1924 and plans were drawn by the firm of Ritchie, Parsons & Taylor. who designed the large school with stone and brick construction, large arched windows, and pilasters breaking up the bays. Inside, the new building had 14 classrooms, a gymnasium, a shop room, and cooking rooms, all with fine carved woodwork. After WWII, Westborough further consolidated its schools, and built a new High School nearby. This building was repurposed as the Forbes Municipal Building, containing city offices and the Police Department headquarters.

Former Eli Whitney School // 1907

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Built a few decades after and located behind the Harvey School in Westborough, Massachusetts, the former Eli Whitney School is a landmark example of an educational building designed in the Neo-Classical style. Built between 1906-7, the school building replaced an earlier school on the site that was outgrown and outdated. Designed by architects Cooper & Bailey, the building stands two-stories tall with a central pedimented pavillion containing the entry that is framed by monumental fluted columns. The school was named after Eli Whitney, the famous American inventor, born in Westborough, who is widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution, and later moving to New Haven and manufacturing weapons. When Westborough schools consolidated into modern facilities in the second half of the 20th century, this building was then occupied by the YWCA, and have rented the facilities from the town until it was purchased in 2000.

Old Rockland High School // 1908

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

Rockland, Massachusetts, was incorporated in 1874 as the result of a dispute over the construction of an expensive school building in Abington Center in 1871 and the belief that East Abington could develop into a more successful industrial community if separate from Abington. By the turn of the 20th century, there were approximately 900 children in Rockland between the ages of 5 and 15 who were being educated in the local school system, largely comprised of first- and second-generation immigrants, arriving to the area to work in shoe manufacturing. Many smaller, schools dotted the landscape until a larger, consolidated school was built 1892. Decades later, prosperity and a growing population necessitated a new school, and the architectural firm of Cooper & Bailey, designed the town’s first brick school building. Classical Revival in style, the building features a prominent pediment supported by two, two-story Ionic columns and dentilated cornice. The building is now a community center – housing a day care, pre-school and meeting spaces for Girl Scouts. The building also housed Rockland’s senior center prior to the construction of a new senior center elsewhere in town. It suffers from deferred maintenance and is in need of some attention.

Canterbury Center District School // c.1860

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Center District Schoolhouse of Canterbury, Connecticut, sits behind the village church and is the town’s best-preserved example of a district schoolhouse. Built c.1860, the vernacular, Greek Revival one-room schoolhouse served the central village through the 19th and into the 20th centuries with its twin entry, double-hung windows to allow light and air into the classroom, and a belfry with bell to notify pupils when class was about to start. Like many similar one-room schools in rural New England, pupils attended class with neighbors and siblings in the small, intimate classroom of varied ages. 

Former Broad Street School // 1861

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The oldest extant school building in present-day Central Falls, Rhode Island, is this brick schoolhouse, constructed in 1861, to serve as the main village school. The rather plain two-story brick building was built just before the Civil War, during a period of rapid industrialization and growth in Central Falls, when it was then the dense core of the town of Smithfield, Rhode Island. The building contained classrooms for pupils from elementary through high school. Italianate in style, the rather unadorned building does feature oversized windows with some containing rounded tops, deep eaves, and a subtle recessed arch in the central bay on the facade. The school has been vacated for some time, and in 2024, plans materialized to convert this building into affordable housing. Hopefully the renovation/restoration is thoughtful for such a significant piece of the city’s history.

Old Chicopee High School // 1917

Buildings of New EnglandLeave a comment

The Old Chicopee High School building is located at 650 Front Street, between the two major population hubs of Chicopee Center and Chicopee Falls and is one of the finest examples of Collegiate Gothic/Neo-Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts. The school building was constructed in 1917 from plans by architect, George E. Haynes as a central high school, a single building where pupils from all over the city could be educated. The population growth of Chicopee in the early decades of the 20th century necessitated additions and reworking of the spaces of the building, eventually outgrowing the building after WWII. In 1961, plans for a contemporary high school were completed and this building became a middle school for the City of Chicopee. Architecturally, the building stands out for its siting and high-quality design. The main facade features a central clock tower which contains the main entrance. The use of brick with cast stone trim and the castellated parapet add much dimension to the large building. The City of Chicopee have done a commendable job maintaining this important landmark.