South shore ma history

Faunce Schoolhouse // 1844

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This one-story, well-proportioned schoolhouse is located in the town center of Kingston, Massachusetts. The Faunce Schoolhouse showcases all the hallmarks of the Greek Revival style, including the siting of the building with its narrow end facing the street to showcase the gable roof, corner pilasters, and the entablature completing the gable as a pediment. The school was built in 1844, shortly after the nearby Town House was completed, as a center primary school. Up until the early 1900s, one or two teachers taught first through fourth grades at the two-room school. By 1908, overcrowding at the school led to a town meeting that led to the construction of a new school to provide more space conducive to learning. The Center Primary School remained open, and in 1924, the school was renamed in honor of Walter H. Faunce, a former teacher, superintendent of schools, and town selectman. The building was abandoned as a school in 1926 and stood empty until 1934 when it was sold by the town to the Kingston Grange No. 323 for $400. The Grange occupied the building until 1959 when it sold the building back to the town for $4,000. The building was restored in the 1970s and remains a source of pride for the community to this day offering free meeting and event spaces for local non-profits.


St. Mark’s Orthodox Church // 1882

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Built in 1882 as a Catholic mission church, the St. Mark’s Orthodox Church on Main Street in Kingston, Massachusetts, stands as a lovely example of a Victorian Gothic ecclesiastical building in a great state of preservation. In the waning decades of the 19th century, the Irish and Catholic population of Kingston grew, which led members to petition the Diocese to erect a mission church closer to their homes, rather than attend St. Peter’s in Plymouth. Originally called St. Joseph’s Church, the building served the local Catholic population until after the new, brick St. Joseph’s. Church was built further down Main Street in the 1930s. The local St. Mark Of Ephesus Orthodox Church congregation purchased the chapel in 1995 and restored the building, removing faux-brick shingling and reshingled the exterior.

First Parish Church, Kingston // 1851

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The original Congregational Church of Kingston was part of the established, tax-supported church of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was built in 1718, after present-day Kingston established itself as Plymouth’s North Parish. The church was replaced in 1798 with a more substantial building with two steeples. In 1833, when the separation of church and state was finalized in the Commonwealth, two new religious societies formed in Kingston and established churches. The 1798 church, which had been built as the only church in town, was now too large for its diminished population and suffering from structural difficulties. In the spring of 1851, the 1798 church was taken down, and the present church, the third on the site, was constructed. The church blends Greek Revival and Italianate styles, both popular for ecclesiastical buildings of its time, and the structure looks much like it did when built 175 years ago. The congregation here is Universal Unitarian.

Cobb-Bartlett House // 1754

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The Cobb-Bartlett House at 240 Main Street in Kingston, Massachusetts, was built around 1754 for Gershom Cobb (1717-1799) where he raised his family. The gambrel-roofed Georgian house was built before the revolution, and may have originally been a half-cape and expanded to a full-cape in the late 18th or early 19th century. The property was sold by Cobb in 1768 to Captain Joseph Bartlett, and the property remained in the family for generations after his death in 1788. The house is a well-preserved example of a Cape style house with large, central chimney and clad with cedar shingle siding and roof.

Holmes-Stetson House // 1841

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Built the same year as the Old Kingston Town House in Kingston, Massachusetts, this handsome Greek Revival style house sits on the town’s Main Street and has ties to two of the communities oldest and most significant families. The house was constructed in 1841 with matching side porches for Horace Holmes (1809-1855), a merchant and son of Joseph Holmes, a wealthy ship owner and builder. Horace operated a store near his home until his death in 1855. The property was later purchased by Captain Charles Stetson, a master mariner. The couple’s weath soon allowed them to sell this older residence and they built a “modern” Italianate style house at the rear garden (now 20 Green Street) to reside in. After successive ownership, the Greek Revival style house was converted to a store, but has since been reverted back to a residence, retaining much of its original fabric.

Old Kingston Town House // 1841

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Overlooking the town green in Kingston, Massachusetts, this stately Greek Revival home was once the original town house for the community, containing meeting hall, town offices and even a jail cell! Before we go into that further, it is helpful to learn about history first. Present-day Kingston was within the tribal homeland of the Wampanoag people, who in the decades prior to the arrival of the Mayflower, saw their populations decimated from a rapidly spreading pandemics due to earlier contacts with Europeans. Originally part of Plymouth, Kingston was first settled by Europeans shortly after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. In 1717, residents in the northern part of Plymouth petitioned the General Court to be set off from Plymouth as a separate township or a precinct. They were allowed to become the north precinct of Plymouth on the condition that they maintain a suitable minister. The northern precinct was wealthier and led to present-day Kingston incorporating as its own town in 1726, following a tax dispute. Early town meetings were held in the parish church until the separation of church and state necessitated a new town hall. The town hall here was built in 1841. As the town grew the building was re-oriented southward and enlarged in 1871 from plans by architect Luther Briggs. Further alterations were made to the building in 1935 under the guidance of the architectural firm of J. Williams Beal & Sons. In the early 2000s, space, parking, and accessibility concerns led the Town of Kingston to sell the 1841 Town House, which was purchased by private owners and converted to a residence. Inside, remnants of the old town house include old signs, office doors for city departments, former vaults converted to closets, and even a jail cell in the basement. Talk about a unique adaptive reuse!

Zenas Lane House // c.1860

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The Zenas Lane House on Union Street in Rockland, Massachusetts, was built circa 1860 for its namesake, a shoe manufacturer who later engaged in real estate and local politics. Zenas Meriet Lane married Emeline Morse and had this handsome Italianate style residence built on the town’s main street. The two-story house is capped with a shallow hip roof with eyebrow window heads breaking the eaves. At the rear of the site, there is a preserved carriage house which echoes design details from the main structure.

Lane-Smith-Bailey House // 1848

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The most colorful house in Rockland, Massachusetts can be found on Union Street, the town’s busiest corridor, lined with houses and buildings of all ages and styles. The Lane-Bailey House was built in 1848 for Marshall Lane, a shoe manufacturer in town. The Greek Revival style residence features a gable roof oriented towards the street, which reads as a pediment and a full-length columned porch that wraps around the side of the home. The property was purchased in the early 20th century by William Andrew Grant Smith (1863-1908), a wealthy jeweler, who apparently added a second floor to the house, up from a 1-1/2 story cottage, and likely added the wrap-around porch at this time. Jumping ahead to the turn of the 21st century, the prominent house was owned by Brad and Sam Bailey, who painted the residence bold colors, added a wishing well and birdhouses to the front yard, and replaced the traditional grass lawn with crushed seashells. In an article talking about the house, Brad Bailey stated, “We do it because lots of things in life [that] are dull. Our house shouldn’t have to be.” Despite the polarizing thoughts and opinions from those who walk or drive by, the house is loved and certainly causes people to stop and smile!

Rockland Memorial Library // 1903

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The Rockland Memorial Library in Rockland, Massachusetts is one of the most architecturally and historically significant buildings in the town. The Classical Revival style library was built in 1903 and is the Town of Rockland’s first purpose-built library structure. When Rockland separated from adjacent Abington in 1874, much of the collection became housed in a commercial building, which was consumed by fire in 1890, taking much of the collections with it. Although funds were raised soon after the fire for a permanent home for the library, its construction was made possible by a grant of $12,500 from Andrew Carnegie in 1902, as part of his nationwide gift to cities and towns for libraries. The handsome structure is constructed of brick, granite, and terra cotta, and was designed by the Boston-based architectural firm of McLean & Wright. The most interesting features of the building include the rooftop dome containing skylights and capped by a finial and the projecting entrance with pediment, quoins, and engaged Ionic columns.

Old Rockland High School // 1908

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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.