FORM B BUILDING Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
52-0-6 Lowell DRA.46 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Dracut BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Dracut Center Photograph (view from S) Address: 28 Arlington Street (Formerly 30 Arlington Street) Historic Name: Moses Greeley Parker Library
Uses: Present: public library
Original: public library
Date of Construction: 1922 (with later additions)
Source: legend applied to the building
Style/Form: Georgian Revival/gambrel block
Architect/Builder: Coolidge and Carlson, Johnson Roberts Associates, Inc. Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Locus Map (north is up) Wall/Trim: brick/wood
Roof: slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: none
Major Alterations (with dates): additions in 1939, 1979 and 2005
Condition: Excellent
Moved: no yes Date:
Acreage: 41,300 square feet
Setting: The library is located in the institutional center of Dracut near the intersection of Arlington and Bridge streets and abuts Town Hall, the Yellow Meeting House and the
Grange Hall; other nearby uses include commercial and residential. Recorded by: John D. Clemson Organization: Dracut Historical Commission Date (month / year): April, 2017
12/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 28 ARLINGTON STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.46
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
The original building for the Moses Greeley Parker Library, constructed in 1922, is an exceptionally well-preserved and elaborate example of the small public municipal library type executed throughout the nation during the early decades of the twentieth century.1 This example has a number of stylistic attributes that classify it as high-style Georgian Revival. The simple diminutive and domestically scaled symmetrical 54-foot-wide mass of the building is sheltered by a high gambrel roof. The prominent center entry is sheltered by an open pavilion consisting of an enclosed pediment supported by paired Corinthian-order columns; the pediment is positioned somewhat above the main cornice in order that the horizontal main mass of the building contrasts with the strong verticality of the pavilion in correct proportion. The entire building is constructed of brick laid up in Flemish bond with tar-stained headers that enliven the texture of the otherwise smooth walls. The building rests on a high brick foundation with a pronounce water table composed of molded ogee and soldier brick.
The building’s elaborate classical finishes are focused on the pavilion, main entrance and window openings. The pavilion’s enclosed pediment rests on a molded entablature upon which the legend “Memorial Library” is carved, and the pediment is enhanced by mutules around the cornice and along the rake boards. The main entrance, accessed by a high granite stoop, consists of a double-leaf “French” door and ¾ sidelights. A fully arched transom window is superimposed within an elliptical arch enlivened by carved tracery within the spandrel. A similar treatment is given the elaborate Palladian, or Venetian windows centered on each side elevation. Here a full molded and keystoned arch is supported by paired Ionic-order columns in place of the flanker windows, which are blind. The original elaborate sash, consisting of 18-over-18 lights and a tracery arch composed of interlocking arch-shaped lights, survives. The simpler large tripart windows that flank the main entrance in the façade, with 10-over-10 sash and 2-over-2 flankers, survive in original condition as well.
In 1939 a fairly utilitarian flat-roofed addition was placed across the rear elevation of the building. Later, in 1979, the building was further expanded. Most recently an elaborate, large addition that expanded the building’s footprint and volume approximately three times, entirely replacing the earlier additions, was constructed in 2005. This addition consists of two intersecting two-storied gabled wings connected by a glass hyphen. The main wing is placed parallel to the original building but twists in a long, gentle curve toward the Arlington Street frontage, terminating at an angled, gabled façade. This elevation is enhanced by a recessed entry of window walls surmounted by a large, fully arched window. The arch is picked out in an exaggeratedly splayed flat arch and architrave. The gables of both the twisted and perpendicular rear wings are enhanced by deep, heavy eave returns. The arches and pediments of these common-bond brick appendages mimic the restrained classicism of the original building. A third component of this addition is a much simpler rectangular block that fills the re-entrant angle formed by the gabled wings at the back of the building. Here the cube-like mass of the addition is relieved by horizontal rows of textured cinderblock broken by quadruple mullioned windows with square transoms. The library complex is sited at a deep setback behind an expansive grass lawn. Small specimen trees are planted against the original building, somewhat obscuring the architecture. A large parking lot is located near the right-rear corner of the property, preserving the site’s open, park-like setting. The site is surrounded by a mix of similar large public buildings that form the institutional core of Dracut, including a church, Town Hall and the Grange Hall, as well as a mix of residential and commercial architecture.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
The history of Dracut’s public library is recounted in some detail in the previous MHC Inventory Form. Much of this information was related by Coburn in a section of his History regarding the establishment of a library in Dracut, worth quoting extensively here for the wealth of its detail and the uses and functions to which the library was put early in its history:
1 For more on this typology, see: Kenneth A. Breisch, Henry Hobson Richardson and the Small Public Library in America, A Study in Typology (M.I.T. Press, 1997). Continuation sheet 1 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 28 ARLINGTON STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.46
The town library was not established until a recent date [1922]. It was among the last of the towns in the state to provide in this manner for the benefit of the public. This was not on account of an absence of desire for intellectual study or recreation, but rather on account of the shape of the town which is long and narrow and composed of four villages, which prevents the gathering of the public buildings at any place which accommodates the town. There was a small library owned by each district which was placed in some farmhouse near the schoolhouse and to which the scholars had access and the privilege of reading the books. These were specially adapted for instruction to the school children and no provision was made for the adult portion of the community. About 1900 a library was purchased by private subscription and placed in the residence of Roswell S. Fox, and the use of the books was for the benefit of all who wished to read them. The existence of this library was of short duration as that same year the town appropriated $200 for the purpose of establishing a town library. The schoolhouse at the Center had become vacant, the school being removed to a larger building, and the lower story had been arranged for town offices. The upper room was provided with shelves and cases, and books purchased…A former recitation room, being vacant, has been arranged with cabinets in which are placed articles which are usually found in museums. In addition to articles of curiosity, a collection of old household utensils, farming tools, military equipment, stuffed birds and animals and geological specimens has been made.2
The previous MHC Inventory Form relates that the major benefactors of the library were Mary Greeley Parker Morrison and her brother, Moses Greeley Parker. Mary G.P. Morrison (b. 1837) was married to Leonard H. Morrison (1825-1907), a native of New York and a stock broker by profession, in 1868. The size of their fortune was estimated, based upon the 1870 Federal Census, at $25,000, a considerable sum for the time. Additional census records indicate the family, including Mary, her husband, her younger brother, Moses Greeley Parker and their mother, Hannah Parker (b. 1807) resided at 11 First Street, Lowell, but spent time in Dracut, likely on a seasonal basis, at the former farm of their father, Theodore Parker (1799-1865). The library was named in honor of Mary G.P. Morrison’s younger brother Moses Greeley Parker. Parker (1842 – Oct. 1, 1917) was a Philips Andover- and Harvard-educated physician. Paquet relates many of the details of his accomplished career, which included service in the Civil War and a number of scientific achievements in electricity and advanced training in medicine in Vienna. Much of this information is substantiated in a published hagiography by Lowell historian Frederick W. Coburn.3 According to both Paquet and Coburn, in addition to his professional life and scientific accomplishments, Parker derived a considerable fortune through investments in the telephone and telegraph industries, which were a fascination to him, early in their developments. Another previously unrecognized group of benefactors were likely several members of the Fox family, from whom the Town of Dracut acquired the land for the library building. In 1921 Addie L. Fox, Everett B. Fox and Stanley R. Fox conveyed the 36,000 square foot property that would become the site of the library to the town. The deed identified the grantors as the “widow and children and all the heirs at law and next of kin of…Daniel D. Fox.” The deed also stipulated that the grantors would assume all year-to-date taxes on the property. Although the consideration was not specified, this suggests the conveyance was made in the nature of a gift. The library has had several additions to the original well-preserved building by Coolidge and Carlson in 1939, 1979 and 2005.
Coolidge and Carlson, architects Joseph Randolph Coolidge (1862-1928) was a descendent of third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson; his grandmother, Ellen Wayles Randolph, was given away in marriage at Monticello by her grandfather, Thomas Jefferson, in 1826.4 He was married to Mary Hamilton Hill (1863-1952) in 1886, who founded the New Hampshire Home Industries movement. After Coolidge retired, the couple moved to a farm in Sandwich, New Hampshire where they established Sandwich Home Industries, an outlet for the sale of crafts produced by local residents.5
[Coolidge] began his adult career as an investment banker with Lee, Higginson and Company. Following his natural inclinations, [he] abandoned the business world to train as an architect, first at M.I.T., and then at the
2 Coburn, Silas Roger. History of Dracut, Massachusetts (Lowell, MA: Press of the Courier-Citizen Co., 1922) p. 230 (the building referenced in this account served as the Town Hall until recently demolished and replaced by the current Town Hall building). 3 See: Frederick W. Coburn, Moses Greeley Parker, M.D. (privately printed, 1921). 4 The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. LXXV (The Society, 1921) p. xxxvi. Obituary of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge (1831-1920), uncle of Joseph Randolph Coolidge. 5 Boston Daily Globe, Oct. 7, 1952, pp. 19. Continuation sheet 2 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 28 ARLINGTON STREET
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Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. After practicing on his own from 1898 to 1903, he took on another M.I.T. graduate, Harry J. Carlson [1869-1957], as partner.6
Although little additional information is known regarding the lives of its principals, the firm of Coolidge and Carlson was fairly prolific. They designed a wide variety of building types in the Boston region, including academic, residential and multi- family examples. Coolidge received help establishing his architectural career through his brother, Archibald Cary Coolidge, a professor of history, director of the library and editor of Foreign Affairs at Harvard, when he executed the commission for Randolph Hall (CAM.1067, NRDIS), an early “gold coast” residential hall in 1897.7 Coolidge and Carlson later designed both Byerly Hall and an athletic building in Radcliff Yard c. 1908.8 Other academic commissions included Hampden Hall (CAM.1138, NRDIS) at Harvard; a physics building at M.I.T.; parts of the Normal and Latin campus group in the Fenway section of Boston; Asbury Hall at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey; and the Bates College Chapel.9 Early in their partnership in 1902 the firm completed a commission to design a large, modern office building at 100-110 State Street in Boston, the Postal Telegraph Building (BOS.2004). The firm’s residential commissions included houses for William F. May in Newton Centre; Edward Clark in Marion (MRN.67); several houses in the Gray Cliff Historic District (NWT.Q, NRDIS) in Newton; and the Kennard Estate for Frederick Hedge Kennard (1865-1937) at 246 Dudley Road in Newton (NWT.3654), all in Massachusetts.10 Perhaps most notably the firm designed a diverse collection of buildings for the estate of Thomas W. Lawson, “Dreamwold,” (SCI.Q) in Scituate, Massachusetts, including the main house, “Dreamwold Hall,” (SCI.14) a large barn (SCI.341) and “Lawson Tower” (SCI.907, NRIND).11 An example of the firm’s apartment house design is Westhill Place (BOS.ZC), a complex with a distinctive circular courtyard located off of Storrow Drive.12 Perhaps the firm’s most unusual commission was to design a prototype for a chain of gasoline stations.
In 1922 the architectural office of Coolidge and Carlson designed Beacon’s [Beacon Oil Company, formed in 1919] prototype station, called the “Watertown.” The building’s prominent columns, balustrade, dome, and lantern were copied from Charles Bulfinch’s Massachusetts State House…13
Examples of this design are well-known and survive at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Northampton Street in Boston (BOS.11282); Main Street in Woburn (WOB.19); Main Street in Stoneham (STN.26); and at 932 Salem Street in Malden.14
Johnson Roberts Associates, Inc., architects, 2005 addition In 2005 this firm, which specializes in public buildings including schools, libraries and municipal, restored the original 1922 Library building and tripled the building’s square footage. This firm also designed Dracut’s new Town Hall sited immediately to the east in 2016.
6 James F. O’Gorman, Christopher Monkhouse, Roger G. Reed, and Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Drawing Toward Home, Designs for Domestic Architecture from Historic New England (Historic New England, 2010) pp. 188-190. 7 Adams House History, Harvard web site. 8 James Zug, Squash: A History of the Game (Simon and Schuster, 2007) pp. 44-45, 384; also: Douglas Shand-Tucci, Richard Cheek, The Campus Guide: Harvard University (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001) pp. 260, 344. 9 American Institute of Architects, Bulletin of the American Institute of Architects, vols. 3-4, 1902, pp. 230; Boston Daily Globe, Oct. 29, 1930, pp. 17; Sherman Ford, Building Progress, vols. 1-2 (National Fire Proofing Company, 1911) pp. 233 (with Peabody and Stearns and Maginnis, Walsh and Sullivan, associated architects); Drew University web site; Bates College web site. 10 Walter Welch, “Residence of William F. May, Esq., Newton Center, Massachusetts,” American Homes and Gardens, vol. 4 (Munn and Company, 1907) pp. 476-478 (This article is richly illustrated with photographs and plans and represents an excellent representative example of the firm’s residential designs); C. Howard Walker, “The Review of Recent Architectural Magazines,” The Architectural Review, vols. 10-11 (Architectural Review Company, 1920) pp. 29; See NRHP; Newton Public Buildings Survey, Phase II – Analysis of Historical Significance, Building Analysis. 11 The British Architect: A Journal of Architecture and the Accessory Arts, Vol. 62, Nov. 4, 1904, pp. 330 (copied from Scientific American Building Monthly, no date given); see also SCI.907, NRHP (structure #76001963). 12 Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, Boston, A Century of Progress (Arcadia Publishing, 1995), pp.56, 128. 13 John A. Jakle, Keith A. Sculle, The Gas Station in America (JHU Press, 2002) pp. 159, 272. 14 Douglass Shand-Tucci, Built in Boston: City & Suburb, 1800-2000 (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999) pp. 194, 451. Continuation sheet 3 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 28 ARLINGTON STREET
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BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Dracut Assessor’s Department, Assessors Online Database. Dracut Engineering Department, Engineering Assessors Map.
Ancestry.com. Census Schedules, Vital Records, City Directories, Maps & Genealogies. Google Books.
Larson Fisher Associates, Historic Preservation Plan & Town-Wide Survey of Historic Resources for Town of Dracut, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, 2012.
1856 Map of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Henry F. Walling, Surveyor; Boston: Smith & Bumstead, Dracut excerpt on file at Dracut Historical Society (Available at MCRD North). 1875 County Atlas of Middlesex, Massachusetts. New York: J.B. Beers & Co.,. Dracut map on file at Dracut Historical Society. 1889 Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., Dracut, map on file at Dracut Historical Society.
Dracut Historical Society Collections. Directories, Assessors Records, Town Annual Reports, Photographs.
Coburn, Silas Roger. History of Dracut, Massachusetts (Lowell, MA: Press of the Courier- Citizen Co., 1922).
Frederick W. Coburn, Moses Greeley Parker, M.D. (privately printed, 1921).
Middlesex County North Registry of Deeds, Book, 642, Page 520, Apr. 16, 1921.
BOS.2004, Postal Telegraph Building, 100-110 State Street, Boston, 1902
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Pavilion and main entrance detail, view from SE.
Continuation sheet 5 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 28 ARLINGTON STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.46
Side elevation detail, view from SW.
2005 addition detail, view from SE.
Continuation sheet 6 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET DRACUT 28 ARLINGTON STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.46
East (right) elevation, view from E.
Rear elevation, view from NW.
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MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 DRA.46
National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form
Check all that apply:
Individually eligible Eligible only in a historic district
Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district
Criteria: A B C D
Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G
Statement of Significance by_____Claire W. Dempsey______The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.
The Moses Greeley Parker Library (1922), as one of the most important cultural institutions of the town, for its association with the prominent local family of benefactors, the Parker family, and for the quality of its design by a prominent regional architectural firm, Coolidge and Carlson, is eligible for National Register listing under criteria A and C. The original library building retains integrity of workmanship, design, materials, association, location, setting, and feeling.
The Moses Greeley Parker Library would also contribute to a potential Dracut Center National Register District that would include several important institutional and residential buildings, including Greenmont Avenue School (ca. 1928, DRA.44); Centre School (1898 DRA.35); the Grange Hall (1903, DRA.34); the Yellow Meeting House (1794, 1955, DRA.43, 58); and the Archibald Golar House (ca. 1900, DRA.107).
Continuation sheet 8