BlockFrom the form
The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.
NPS Form 10-900 (Oct. 1990) OMB No. 1002-0186 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the intormation requested. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items. 1.
Name of Property historic name_ Paul Pratt Memorial Library other names/site number_Pratt Historic Building (preferred), Cohasset Free Public Library 2. Location street & number 106 South Main Street - not for publication city or town Cohasset - vicinity stateMassachusetts _ code_MA countyNorfolk code_021_zip code 02025 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this 2 nomination [] request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property M meets - does not meet the National Register Criteria.
I recommend that this property be considered significant - nationally O statewide [2 locally. (- See continuation sheet for additional comments.) Brona Simor 7/26/06 Signature of certifying official/Title Brona Simon Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Date Massachusetts Historical Commission State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property meets - does not meet the National Register criteria. (See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title Date State or Federal agency and bureau 4. National Park Service Certification 1, hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined eligible for the National Register - See continuation sheet.
- determined not eligible for the National Register - removed from the National Register - other (explain): Signature of the Keeper Tatrick Andrus Date of Action 9/7/2006 Pratt Historic Building Name of Property 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) X private _public-local - public-State - public-Federal Norfolk, MA County and State (Check only one box) X building(s) - district - site - structure - object Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing 1 1 Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) N/A _buildings _ sites 2 1 _ structures 1 3 _ objects 4 5 Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register 6.
Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) EDUCATION: Library Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) RECREATION AND CULTURE: Museum DOMESTIC: Multiple dwelling Z.
Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) LATE 19'H AND CENTURY REVIVALS: Colonial Revival Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation STONE walls_ BRICK STONE roof SLATE other CONCRETE WOOD Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) KnS Form 10-900 e (5-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet UMBApprovel No.1021-0018 Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page - Summary Paragraph The Paul Pratt Historic Building, formerly known as the Paul Pratt Memorial Library, is a single-story brick building in the Colonial Revival style designed by local architect Edward Nichols and built in 1902, fronts on South Main Street in Cohasset, Massachusetts.
The building is located on a slight rise south of the Cohasset village center, while to the rear the lot slopes away steeply to Jacob's Meadow below. The original building is a modified Greek cross plan, the prominent hipped-roofed rectangular mass of the building crossed by a secondary axis of a monumental pedimented front portico and rear bookstack. The granite front foundation connects to a granite retaining wall that continues the line of the front wall of the building and supports the front walks and driveway, while the majority of the basement level of the building is brick, at a lower grade below. A rectangular flat-roofed two-story 1963-64 addition, of similarly buff-colored brick, fits into the corner between the northern and eastern arms of the building and partially wraps the rear bookstack.
The building has prominent round-arched and keystoned recessed windows on the ground floor, with simpler rectangular windows on the basement level (paired and banded together in the addition). The crossing of the building is surmounted by a squat square wooden tower that holds a tall octagonal wooden lantern with a copper roof, surrounded by a wooden balustrade with corner posts topped by urns. The lantern lights the rotunda below, the central circulation point of the building's interior, which contains four large murals depicting Cohasset's history, completed in 1946 by Boston painter MacIvor Reddie.
Although the building has been reconfigured several times since the period of significance, the basic floor plan of the ground floor remains unchanged: a large reading room to the north, vestibule to the west, small reading room and alcove to the east, and librarian's room, delivery room, and bookstack to the southeast and south. Rich interior woodwork, elaborate molded plaster cornices and ceilings, and a fireplace remain intact on this level of the building. The building also retains important elements of library building technology, including a separate 4-story fireproofed bookstack with Luxfer prism glass window transoms. Besides storage, the basement level contains two private apartments with separate access from the rear by a side walkway, installed in 2004 by its current owner, the Cohasset Historical Society.
The building is generally in good condition, little altered since its period of significance, and has historic integrity in terms of setting, design, materials, location, workmanship, feeling, and association. Location and Setting The Pratt Historic Building is located atop a rise and faces west-southwest, fronting on an upland stretch of South Main Street in the South Shore Massachusetts town of Cohasset. The rectangular upland western section of the property, which according to the Assessor's map contains 24,630 square feet, slopes at the rear steeply toward the east. The eastern lowland section, 23,400 square feet, is within a coastal wetland named Jacob's Meadow, almost at sea level. The lowland section is triangular, its shape established in an 1893 survey by two drainage ditches which converged at a tributary of the James Brook.
At each end of the original building, and in line with the front wall, a retaining wall of Quincy granite extends parallel to the front foundation and marks a clear division between the higher, landscaped street level front yard and the much lower level of the meadow bank beside and behind the building. The front line of the property also slopes downward moderately toward the south, from 22 to 15 feet above sea level, as South Main Street descends along a stretch that originated as an artificial causeway across the southern part of the meadow in the early 19" century. James Brook, a small but (continued) UMBApprovel No.
1024-0018 K*S Form 10-900e (5-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page - significant stream, bisects Jacob's Meadow and travels eastward to empty, by way of a tidal gate, into Cohasset Cove and Cohasset Harbor beyond. Once much larger, Jacob's Meadow is now primarily the interior area of a block surrounded by (clockwise from the north end), Brook Street, Elm Street, Border Street, Summer Street, and South Main Street. Many of the properties fronting on the surrounding streets contained rear extensions into the meadow, which today is an even stand of tall marsh grass and reeds in standing water.
With the exception of the town's wastewater treatment plant (accessible by a long lane from Elm Street), built within the marsh and visible from the rear of library, the interior of the marsh remains an historic open space. While the property's eastern boundary is within Jacob's Meadow, land use surrounding the property to the north, south, and west is generally residential. The building is set back about 75 feet from South Main Street. The unrelated dwellings on each side are set back equally as far from the street, while those elsewhere along the street are much closer to the curb. The immediately adjacent residential neighborhood on South Main Street is primarily 18'h and 19" century dwellings, with only two 20" century houses: a "foursquare" from the early years of the 20" century and a post-World War II ranch style now modified to have a second story.
Adjacent and nearby dwellings face South Main Street and have small landscaped front yards. Historic architectural styles of nearby dwellings include Greek Revival, Cape Cod Cottage, small 19" century 1½ story front gable side-hall houses, and a Tudor Revival style parish rectory for St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church. The meadow is named Jacob's Meadow for Capt. John Jacob, prominent public figure in early Cohasset and an early grantee of the meadow. His house (98 South Main Street, MHC#21), ca. 1710 but considerably altered, is adjacent to the building on the north side. A short block behind the houses facing the Pratt Historic Building on South Main Street runs the right of way of the former Duxbury and Cohasset Railroad, long abandoned but now in the process of being redeveloped by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as the Greenbush Commuter Rail line.
Exterior: 1902-03 Building The Paul Pratt Memorial Library building is a modified Greek cross plan, the prominent hipped-roofed rectangular mass of the building running parallel to South Main Street. It faces west-southwest (from here on in this text, this direction will be simplified to west, and all others changed accordingly). This dominant axis is crossed by a secondary axis of a monumental pedimented front portico and flat-roofed rear bookstack. The polished granite front foundation connects to a rough-hewn granite retaining wall that continues the line of the front wall of the building and supports the front walks and driveway. The rest of the basement level walls of the building are brick, at lower grade below.
A rectangular flat-roofed two-story 1963-64 addition, of similarly buff-colored brick and slightly lower profile, fits into the corner between the northern and eastern arms of the building and partially wraps the rear bookstack. Overall, the building is a single tall story at the front elevation and generally two at the rear and sides, with a partial attic. An internal stack space, however, is four stories in height, and the section of the addition attached to it is three stories. The basement or lower story is not visible from the street; it now holds two moderate-income single bedroom apartments constructed by its current owner, the Cohasset Historical Society, as well as storage for the society. (continued) UMB Approvel No.
1024-0018 KºS Form 10-900 e (s-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number. Page. The foundation and front basement wall are granite, while the rest of the basement walls, and the walls above, are buff brick with Indiana limestone trim. The polished molded watertable line of the front façade continues around the rest of building as a foot-wide beltcourse between the basement level brick wall and the brick wall above. The upper-story brick wall is slightly inset from the line of the basement brick wall, with the profile changing at the watertable/beltcourse. The addition has a plain concrete foundation and continues the wide beltcourse between floors with a matching flat concrete band on its western and northern façades.
The bricks in the original building are set in a uniform alternating stretcher bond, while those in the addition, of a similar buff color but more highly glazed, are set in a stretcher bond with every sixth row alternating headers and stretchers. Quoins of alternating deep red brick define the two southeastern corners of the building, rising to just below the watertable/beltcourse on the southern wing, and just above it on the eastern wing. Below the roof eaves on all four sides of the original building, and lining the front-facing gable of the portico, is a cornice supported by prominent dentils, a wide unfigured frieze, and a simple architrave; this cornice also holds a copper eave trough. The addition also has a cornice and architrave, but the cornice is shallower and the architrave narrower. The principal roof is hipped and sheathed with slate, a ca.
1960 replacement for the original copper roof. Barely visible from the front, a low rectangular brick chimney (with a limestone cap) pierces the roof on the eastern side of the southern wing, its long side aligned with and parallel to the wall, further anchored to the roof with a tent metal cricket. A matching chimney, symmetrically placed in the north wing, was removed in the 1963-64 addition. Both the bookstack and the addition have flat roofs, each covered with a rubber membrane. A square metal roof hatch in the eastern side of the northern wing (not far from the chimney) allows roof access from the attic. A squat square wooden tower, holding a tall octagonal wooden lantern cupola with an octagonal copper domed roof, surmounts the crossing of the building.
A wooden balustrade, with turned balusters and square paneled corner piers, each topped by urn and finial, defines the top of the tower and frames the lantern. The balustrade has deteriorated, and the loose northeast vase has been removed and stored in the book delivery room until it can be repaired. The 12-light windows in the lantern have been fixed in place, and each is topped with a 5-light fanlight window. The lantern has a copper domed roof, with a shallow cornice, a wide unfigured frieze, and a simple architrave, similar to that of the main block below. The tower and lantern have been covered with metal siding. A gilded mackerel weathervane with directional arms, which originally surmounted the cupola, was removed and taken by the departing town library to its new library facility on Ripley Road; only the metal rod remains.
The symmetrical single-story front façade of the original building, which faces to the west and fronts South Main Street, has nine bays organized into three roughly equal parts (Photographs #1 & 2). A center pavilion extends forward slightly, while each of the side pavilions has three bays. In all six of the side bays on this façade, tall recessed windows are defined by a round brick relieving arch with limestone keystones, sills, and impost course stops. Window sashes are one-above-one double-hung, with a half-circle transom hopper window above. Below each window in the basement level, a short opening of the same width as the windows above is cut into a polished granite foundation and fitted with a deeply recessed hopper sash. The molded and sculpted watertable and foundation projects forward nearly four inches from the brick wall.
Two pairs of brick engaged columns, with limestone bases and capitals, define the center pavilion and frame the wide front doorframe and (continued) OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 ABS Form 10-900a (5-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page - the two narrow, one-above-one double-hung windows with arched hopper transom tops that flank the entry bay on each side. Between the center two brick columns, the front door has a limestone surround of two fluted pilasters supporting a tall entablature, undecorated except for a simple egg-and-dart molding. The semi-circular tanlight transom once held a heavy iron fanlight grate, now stored in the attic.
The current undersized door is a later replacement for the original paired doors shown in the architect's blueprints, and is flanked by wood infill on both sides. The door itself is wooden, with two large panes of wire-reinforced glass and a pivoting bar handle. A brass mailbox attached to a wooden base and an oval brass plaque with a raised "106," both installed since 2003, occupy the second brick pilaster (directly north of the front door) at chest height. The central portico dominates the building's tri-partite front façade, ridge roofed, forming the front entryway to the building. Four tall, unfluted lonic columns of concrete support the portico roof, unevenly spaced with two on each side of the entry; their spacing matches that of the brick engaged columns in the center pavilion. A low flight of four granite steps extends the full width of the portico.
The columns rise from square limestone plinths and round bases, while the Ionic capital is intertwined with an egg-and-dart band. The front-facing gable of the portico has a cornice supported by dentils, a wide frieze inscribed PAUL PRATT MEMORIAL LIBRARY, and a simple architrave. The brick tympanum has a roundel with a limestone surround and compass-point keystones. Set into the roundel is a black-faced clock with a brass schooner base design, fitted with brass hands and brass hour bars and numerals (3, 6, 9, and 12). The raking cornice of the tympanum also has a row of dentils. Suspended from the ceiling of the portico is a large six-sided gold and black electric lantern, hanging from a conduit and supported by three decorative chains.
A wide concrete wheelchair ramp with two-bar pipe railings, installed in 1977, attaches to the north side of the porch and parallels the front façade before turning west toward the circular front drive. Two similar two-bar pipe railings, installed in 1977 to replace similar previous railings, line both sides of the front stairs between the inner columns. Two openings under the north and south sides of the portico, of the same shape as the other basement windows, were filled in when the ramp was added in 1977. At least one of these openings would have been the coal chute to the former coal room directly below. East of the front retaining wall, the end facades of the original north and south wings are nearly identical. They are each two stories high above grade and three bays wide. Copper downspouts, set in about a foot from the east and west ends of the façades, frame these end facades.
The upper windows are identical to those in the upper story of the front façade: tall recessed windows defined by a round brick relieving arch with limestone keystones, sills and impost stops. The window sashes are one-above-one double-hung, with a half-circle transom hopper window above. On the basement level, however, the windows are simple rectangular recesses with a subtle brick flat (gauged) arch above and limestone lintel below. In the north wing these windows are fitted with six-over-six double-hung sash, while the south wing basement windows were replaced with simple one-over-one double-hung sashes, fitted with aluminum storms, in 2004. Although not shown on the original blueprints, a much smaller, higher window on the basement level of the north wing, squeezed between two existing windows, appears to date from the original build.
It has an identical but proportionally smaller arch and blends seamlessly with the surrounding wall; the bricks around this window show no sign of having been disturbed for a later insertion, and the window would have lighted a toilet room that dates from 1902-03 but was removed in the 1977 renovation. (continued) OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 A7S Form 10-900-e (S-86) United Statec Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - _ Page - The three remaining rear façades of the original building are similar to the side façades. The eastern side of the south wing is two bays wide. The windows on both levels are identical to those of the south facade, except that the northernmost basement level window here is, instead, an original doorway.
The current metal paneled door, two tall and narrow lights over two tall and narrow panels, is a replacement for a similar wooden door and was installed in 2004. A louvered metal vent has been inserted between the flat arch above the door and the watertable/beltcourse above. The south wall of the bookstack has one single bay, its windows narrower than those in the main axis of the building. The bookstack windows have a fixed upper casement and a fixed fanlight of Luxfer glass blocks, with movable lower casements. A single copper drainpipe attaches to the western end of this wall, near the doorway in the adjacent wall. The east façade of the bookstack still retains three of its original four center window bays, the windows identical in description to those on the south side of the bookstack. All the bookstack windows have aluminum storms.
The 1963-64 rear addition was designed with simple rectangular windows with flat brick arches and stone sills, fixed sashes above and movable sashes below (Photograph #3). Of its four facades, the southern façade has a single three-story bay, the basement level vestibule door topped by windows for an intermediate level restroom and the current upper floor restroom in the three-story room stack. The eastern façade has the most windows of the addition, in five bays. At the southern end, a single casement window lights the intermediate level restroom, while a bay of two windows, tall above short, lights the back hall and the staircase. The northern 3/5 of the façade contains three wide paired windows, giving an almost ribbon window light into the two main levels of the addition. The northern façade of the addition is blank, with no doors or windows.
The western façade of the addition has a ribbon of four windows on each level. The outside two windows on the lower level were blocked in with white painted panels during the 2004 renovation. Also during that renovation, the addition's basement level fixed and movable sash windows were replaced with simple one-over-one double-hung windows. Other Manmade Exterior Elements The rough-cut stone retaining wall that connects to and continues the line of the front foundation on both sides of the building is dark Quincy granite. On both sides it is a three part construction, with a higher wall next to the building, a square pillar, and then a second shorter wall panel. On both sides, this retaining wall is capped by a row of three large blocks of light-colored Beechwood Granite from the former Tiffany quarry in the village of Beechwood, in southwestern Cohasset.
The edges of the upland lot are defined by stacked stone retaining walls, presumably also dating to the first construction and infilling of the lot, between the street and the library. The lawn simply ends atop these low walls at the edges of the lot, and along the entire upland section of the property; the neighboring lots are a foot or more lower than the library lot. The north lot line retaining wall may contain stones from a former wall that curved across the lot's truncated northwest corner in 1901, when the Snows gave the land to the library. An old stone wall 34.5 feet in length, running northeasterly to southwesterly, cited as "an old stone wall" in 1891, forms part of the north-central boundary of the lot. It appears to remain intact in the dense brush at this corner of the lot.
The northwest corner of lot today has a distinctive square granite pier, three feet high, with a concrete cap. This pier is not visible in this location in early photographs of the library, but a nearly identical pier (now missing) appears in photographs of the southwestern corner of the lot after the library was built. Plot plans show that the single pier was in place at the northwest corner before the (continued) UMB ApprovelNo.1024-0018 K.*S Form 10-900e S-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page 1977 renovation. Two wooden utility poles, immediately adjacent to the roadway on the front of the lot, carry a number of utility lines; they (or similar poles) are visible in the 1908-09 photographs of the library.
For the purposes of this nomination, the Foundation Retaining Wall, the Old Stone Wall, the North Lot Line Retaining Wall and the South Lot Line Retaining Wall are contributing structures, and the Northwest Corner Stone Pier is a contributing object. A semi-circular driveway, both ends of which join South Main Street, provides vehicular access to the front of the building. Dating from 1902 and originally gravel, it was paved ca. 1960, at which time, presumably, the granite curbing was also added. This wide driveway serves as a parallel parking area, and directly in front of the building holds a new (2004) four-car parking space for tenants of the two basement apartments. For the purposes of this nomination, the Front Driveway is a contributing site. Several miscellaneous objects have appeared on the lot since the period of significance.
A short fiberglass flagpole with a fiberglass base sleeve occupies the corner of the front lot between the ramp and the front drive. A wooden coupling attached to the flagpole at knee height carries a small brass plaque that reads "In Memory of E. Lawrence Parker, Jr." Immediately in front of the flagpole is a semicircular bench formed from a single block of rough-cut granite. The 1977 plot plan shows a circular tree well in this spot; and no earlier photographs show a flagpole. In 2004, as part of the redevelopment of the basement into two apartments, the side walkway was regraded and repaved, new railings installed, and nine new light bollards added, leading from the southwest corner of the lot to the two rear doorways. Since 2004, a gable-roof portable garden shed was erected near the northeast corner of the new wing.
A new wooden signpost in the middle of the semicircular front lawn holds a wooden signboard that reads "Cohasset Historical Society 1928, The Pratt Building 1903." For the purposes of this nomination, the Memorial Flagpole, Stone Bench, and Signpost are non-contributing objects, the Rear Walkway a non-contributing structure, and the Garden Shed a non-contributing building. Interior: 1902-03 Building According to the blueprints, the ground floor of the original 1902-03 building was designed with two large reading rooms to the north and south, flanking a central rotunda. The southern reading room was further subdivided into an alcove and librarian's office along its eastern wall. Directly across from the vestibule was the rear book delivery room, a narrow hallway leading into the third floor of the four-story stack room.
Despite a rear addition off the larger north reading room and several renovation campaigns, this basic ground floor layout remains remarkably intact. The Rotunda: The main circulation hub for the building is the rounded octagonal rotunda. Listed clockwise beginning in the west, the walls of the rotunda contain the doorway to the vestibule, a paneled wall with a window into the front lightwell, the doorway to the north reading room, a bookcase set in a paneled wall, the doorway to the book delivery room, a bookcase set in a paneled wall, the doorway to the south reading room, and the doorway to the basement (a small flat-topped doorway to the southwest). Excluding the latter, the four large doorways have arched tops with wood-trimmed sofffits.
Each of these eight doorway or wall sections is (continued) UMS Approvel No.1024-0018 KPS Form 10-900-e (5-86) United Statec Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page - framed by a pair of tall wooden pilasters (eight total), with simple Tuscan capitals. Above the wooden pilasters is a well-developed entablature of cornice, frieze, and architrave, complete with astragal, cyma reversa, and dentils. At this height the rotunda is no longer nominally octagonal, but clearly circular; this entablature completely encircles the rotunda. Behind and upward from the entablature cornice, eight tapering column-like soffits rise from paneled bases to a central oculus.
All of these trim details above the pilaster capitals are molded plaster stained to match the wood trim below. The oculus itself is fitted with a metal framework of concentric rings of oval shapes, fitted with wavy frosted glass. The entrance doorways from the rotunda to the north and south reading rooms have arched fanlight transoms with metal tracery, the outer ring of the fan a row of bullseye lights. The Cohasset Historical Society recently discovered in storage, restored and reinstalled the original double wooden doors leading into the north and south reading rooms. Each of these four doors has three deep-set lower panels, a large glass light from waist to head level, and a pair of square panels above. A large crescent-shaped paneled wooden librarian's counter, the center section of which dates from 1903, is located just to the east of the rotunda's center.
According to the blueprints, this counter originally closed off the book delivery room from the rotunda. By 1977, it was in front of the doorway to the librarian's office (where the southeast bookcase is today); during that 1977 renovation it was moved a second time, to its current location, and the ends extended. In 1946, the exceptional architecture of the rotunda was further enhanced with a series of four murals depicting important vignettes of Cohasset's history, painted by Boston and Cohasset artist MacIvor Reddie. When read clockwise, beginning at the northwest corner, they tell a chronological story. The captions read, 1614CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH IS KNOWN TO HAVE ENTERED COHASSET HARBOR; 1670 - SURVEYOR LIEUT. JOSHUA FISHER OF DEDHAM LAID OUT EACH MAN'S ACRES; 1778 - MRS.
DANIEL "RESOLUTION" TOWER CARTED WATER FOR CORN DURING A DROUGHT; COHASSET HARBOR DURING THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The latter view of Cohasset Harbor, in the southwest corner, shows Tower's Main Wharf during the height of the town's nineteenth century maritime era, as well as the mackerel schooner "E.A. Lombard" of Tower Bros. Co. at its customary mooring just off Tower's Lumber Wharf, Border Street. In style, the murals are reminiscent of the murals produced by the WPA for public buildings during the previous decade. The North Reading Room: In his description of the building, architect Edward Nichols noted that the interiors of rooms of the original building are "paneled to the height of the windows with birch in mahogany color, with birch floors." The largest of the ground floor rooms, the north reading room retains much of its elaborate decorative plan and surfaces.
Although both wings have three bays of windows on the west facade, Nichols added a fourth bay to balance the interior of each reading room: a blind window adjacent to the center axis of the building (roughly in line with the outer brick engaged columns of the center pavilion). These blind windows, like the built-in bookcases, are fitted with two rows of peg holes on each side so that moveable (continued) UMB Approvel No. 1021-0018 K°S Form 10-900-e (S-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page - 8 shelves can be placed at whatever levels necessary. The walls have elaborate recessed-panel wainscoting below and simple plaster walls above.
Below and between most of the windows on the western side are built-in bookcases, again decorated with recessed panels on the sides. Along the north end of the room, these built-in bookcases are double-sided peninsular structures that extend approximately twelve feet into the room. A thin trim-band runs the perimeter of the room and joins the tops of the arched windows at the level of the architrave; each window has a prominent hood above this level, a classical frieze and cornice. Along the room's south wall, the doorway into the rotunda is slightly shorter, the top of its cornice ending just beneath the bottom of the trim- band, and the two side doors well below the trim-band.
The east wall of the former north reading room, which once held a center fireplace mantel flanked by two windows, now contains a two-part opening into the 1963-64 northeast rear wing, the northern 3/5 of which is fitted with shelving. A simple wooden soffit and trim, stained to match the rest of the room, lines this later opening. Both north and south reading rooms have high ceilings well lighted by the large exterior windows, but they also have large hanging fluorescent light fixtures. These boxy brass fixtures appear to date from the 1930s, given the Art Deco styling of their metal frames and their wavy translucent glass panels. The electrician repairing the lights reports that replacement ballasts and panels are impossible to obtain.
The ceiling has a prominent plaster cornice with dentils and a center design of nine large panels surrounded by a raised lattice plaster pattern; all the plasterwork is painted white. The fluorescent lights hang down approximately eight feet from the ceiling, centered in the four corner panels. The floors in both reading rooms and the rotunda are currently carpeted; presumably the birch flooring remains beneath the carpet. Four of the original radiators remain in place. The Cohasset Historical Society uses the north reading room as a combination working and display area and the existing built-in library wooden shelving for exhibits. The South Reading Room: The south reading room is smaller than its northern counterpart, as the architect separated off the eastern third of the wing for the alcove (to the south) and librarian's office (to the north).
The south reading room shares many distinguishing details with the north reading room: paneled wainscoting, a fourth blind window fitted with shelves, and original radiators. Proportional to the room's smaller size, the ceiling is lower and the frieze-and-cornice hoods are missing from above the windows. The trim band in this room ties together the tops of the windows and doors, while also supporting the plaster cornice immediately above. The plaster ceiling in this room has nine recessed panels - eight rectangular panels and a circular center panel, as opposed to the larger square panels in the north reading room - tied together with raised latticework.
In addition to the four hanging brass light fixtures with Art Deco detailingrectangular in this room as opposed to the larger square fixtures in the north reading room - this room has a large octagonal brass light fixture in the center, with a later replacement shade. This reading room has very few built-in bookshelves, and the richly paneled wainscoting gives it a distinctive character. A window-like frame on the north wall of this room, originally another blind window fitted with a bookshelf, now provides light for the front stairway through two later frames fitted with wire-reinforced glass. In place of an arched window transom above, this fixture has two quarter-circle hinged doors that originally opened into a (now removed) storage space. Both of these arched northern wall openings have applied decorationscarved laurel wreaths tied with ribbons - in the frame above the transom.
The Cohasset Historical Society uses this room as a meeting and activity room. (continued) UMB ApprovelNo. 1024-0018 AC7S Form 10-900a 45-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Nortolk), MA Section number - Page- The Alcove: In the southeast corner of the south reading room, a large basket-handle arch with a wooden keystone opens up the wall into the alcove. Carved Roman Doric wooden pilasters placed atop paneled waist- high piers frame the surround of this arched opening between the south reading room and its alcove. The corners above the arch contain applied wreath carvings similar to those in the north wall of the south reading room, except that they combine the wreath and ribbon motif with the torch of knowledge.
The walls of the alcove have built-in bookcases and paneled wainscoting rising to about ten feet in height, higher than elsewhere. The paneled northern wall of the alcove features a large decorative manteled fireplace. The fireplace has a broad wooden mantelshelf supported by large scroll brackets and a row of dentils below the shelf. Below the shelf, the firebox (built of long narrow yellow Roman bricks) has a variegated yellow polished marble surround and hearth, framed by an eared architrave applied to the wall paneling. The Librarian's Office: This small room is the northern third of the eastern third of the southern wing. Originally this was the library's main office, and opened to the circulation desk at the perimeter of the rotunda. That rotunda doorway has since been replaced by a bookshelf wall.
The room still has two other original doorways, to the south reading room and to the book delivery room. More recently it served the library as a periodicals shelf room. It has a trim band architrave and a simple plaster cornice. Both the librarian's office and the alcove have a single suspended brass fluorescent light fixture, similar in vintage and design to those in the reading rooms, but tapered instead of box-like on the sides to better diffuse the light. It has a single eastern- facing window and a single radiator. The Book Delivery Room: This back hallway, lined with shelving, is a circulation nexus and has always served as the main link between the library and the separate stack room. The room has a trim band architrave and a simple plaster cornice. This room is separated from the stack room by sliding paneled metal fire door, faux-painted to give it a grained wood appearance.
Originally automatic, the door is now manually operated. The Stack Room: The stack room, the rear (eastern) arm of the cruciform building, is a four-story structure designed as a fireproof separate volume to protect the books in case of a fire in the main building. In the 1977 renovation the third floor - the floor on the same level as the ground floor of the librarybecame the staff librarians' main office. Presently this level houses the Historical Society's office and archives. Originally each of the four levels of the stack room held rows of metal stack bookshelves; only the bottom two floors of bookshelves remain.
The floors of the top three bookstack levels were originally translucent glass panels, to more thoroughly diffuse the light throughout; today the glass panels remain only in the level between the first and second floors; the top two glass floors have been replaced with solid flooring for office expansion. Above the main office, the top floor of the stack contains another office. It retains a simple plaster cornice without a trim band. The bookstack has a mix of wall and floor radiators in the lower levels and later baseboard heaters above, as well as later fluorescent lights, usually bare bulbs. The booklift, connecting the four levels, is now in the northwest corner of the bookstack, moved from its original site in the southeast corner.
A distinguishing feature of the bookstack is the interior metal stack staircase in the southwest corner, its utilitarian nature (continued) UMBApprovelNo.1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page10 alleviated by its green color and two-bar railing with curled-end bar panels. It has eight to nine treads per level and three top winders. Despite the changes in the library, the lower two levels of the stack room have continued to be used for their original purpose since the library was first built. The windows of the stack room deserve special description. On the exterior, aligned on the rear façade with the windows in the rest of the building, the bookstack has two levels of windows to light four levels of bookstack.
On the interior, each level of windows lights two levels of bookstack. Two or three towel-bar shaped iron guards are attached to the window frames on the second and fourth levels to keep staff from accidentally kicking into them or damaging them with book trolleys. The bookstack windows retain their fixed Luxfer transoms, casements of small prism-glass blocks, in both the upper sash and fanlight above. Several of these prisms at the third level are stamped LUXFER. These louvered glass blocks, designed specifically for industrial, commercial, and institutional uses, are set in three-part fixed metal sashes. Each upper sash has 54 blocks, arranged in three horizontal sections, each section six blocks wide by three blocks high, with more blocks in the fanlight above.
The Vestibule and Basement: Except for its molded ceiling, the vestibule was removed in 1977-78, when the front winder staircase and restroom were also demolished and replaced by a wide metal winding staircase down to the basement level with a lightwell above. The vestibule was rebuilt as a walled bridge across this gap, with large reinforced glass side windows. The lightwell is further lit by the two small center pavilion exterior windows, the large window in the south reading room, and windows installed in the rotunda and north study room to replace the former stairwell doorways from those rooms. The basement is now divided into four discrete areas, as a result of the 2004 renovation: bookstack, two apartments, and storage. It was originally an area of partially heated spaces used primarily for the coal furnace and storage.
Over the years, as the coal furnace gave way to fuel oil and a newer, smaller furnace, the furnace area was restricted to the central room. In 1977 much of the older furnace was removed and a smaller heating plant installed in a small mechanical room at the east central part of the basement. The rest of the basement walls were removed, and the basement became a large, multilevel children's area. In 2004, the area under the southern wing and southern half of the rotunda was converted to a separate apartment, Unit #1, while the lower level of the addition became Unit #2. Both units use former secondary rear exits as their main entries; no new doorways were cut into the building façade. Each one-bedroom apartment has a kitchen and bathroom, and either a combined (Unit #1) or separate (Unit #2) living room and dining room. The walls are metal stud construction, with plywood subflooring.
The old windows were replaced with similar double-hung windows; two of the four windows in the western wall of the 1963-64 addition were replaced with blank panels. The remainder of the basement, under the north wing and north half of the rotunda, is storage for the Historical Society. Freestanding shelves line the former coal room under the portico. The stone and brick exterior walls are visible on the interior, the brick painted white. The structural relieving arches over the basement windows in the northern wing, three rows of header bricks, are visible on the interior, but not the exterior façade. The basement level floor, covered in carpet, changes levels several times by a series of broad single steps; the lowest level is the mechanical room, under the book delivery room. (continued) OM8Approvel No.
1021-0018 K°S Form 10-900-a (S-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number- Page - 11 The Attic: Since the 1977 renovation that demolished the front stairway, access to the attic is gained only through a locking hatch cut into the upper wall of the top level of the bookstack. Most of the attic has a large brick kneewall, which supports the wooden framework of the roof rafters and trusses. The attic is floored, with the two side levels higher than the middle, since the ceilings in those rooms are higher than the ceilings of the rooms around the rotunda.
The octagonal drum of the rotunda occupies the center of the attic; a wooden ladder on its south side climbs to a ramp placed across the roof of the dome of the rotunda, which leads into the bottom of the lantern through a hatch in its side. The interior of the lantern has vertical boarding below the windows and horizontal boarding above. A staging in the center of the lantern provides partial protection for the leaded glass light below and supports an electrical fixture with a single bulb that provides nighttime illumination within the lantern. Below the staging, the floor of the lantern is open, to provide illumination to the dome below through the leaded glass oculus. The center panel of the oculus is unglazed to allow ventilation.
Among the interesting details in the attic is the chimneystack of the alcove fireplace, which emerges through the ceiling as an east-west axis rectangle, and turns 90 degrees as it climbs to the roof, to emerge above the roof as a north- south rectangle. The tympanum of the front portico is open to the attic, with the limestone blocks evident atop the triangular brick pediment. The box that formerly held the clockwork for the tympanum clock is still in place, although the clock was long ago replaced with a smaller electrical motor. In the front hallway, the landing and top two winders of the former staircase remain.
The Addition: The 1963-64 wing, a simple two-story rectangle with a southern extension, has three main vertical volumes: two stories of large, uncolumned space; a separate two-story staircase volume in the southwestern corner; and a small three-story singe-room southeast extension. The large room on the upper floor of the addition is now a storage area for the Cohasset Historical Society's extensive collection of 19" and early 20" century costumes and accessories. Existing metal library shelving has been adapted to hold large acid-free boxes and clothes stored on hangers. The top floor of the extension, originally a librarian's office and accessed from the third story of the bookstack, became the main unisex restroom in the 1977 renovation, accessed from the addition.
The middle level, formerly the librarian's restroom and accessed from the second level of the bookstack, is now a staff kitchen and storage. The ground floor is a rear vestibule, a common area used mostly by the rear apartment tenant, but available as an emergency exit from the bottom level of the bookstack or the addition staircase. Changes Since the Period of Significance Four major construction campaigns have occurred since the period of significance: a gradual updating in the late 1950s and three architect-designed reconfigurations in the decades since. Despite these changes, most of the architecturally significant elements of the building's exterior and interior remain intact. The architect for the 1963 building addition was Cohasset resident Horatio Williams Beal of the firm J.
Williams Beal, Sons, Granger & Poskus of Boston; the contractor the Ambrosia Construction Company of Quincy. The architect for the 1977 renovation was Maurice Nathan Finegold of Anderson Notter Finegold Associates, and the contractor Constantino and rarley of Burlington. The architects for the 2004 conversion of the building were James F. Rissling and Jim Sandell of the firm Carr, Lynch and Sandell, Inc. (continued) M.*S Form 10-900 a (5-86) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMBApprovel No.
1024-0018 Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page _12 In the half decade after the close of the period of significance (the years immediately preceding 1962), the Board of Directors made several significant changes to the building: replacing the copper roofing with a new slate roof and copper gutters, pointing and waterproofing the bricks, building a new fireproof boiler room, installing the building's first hot water heater, laying new vinyl flooring, replacing shades with drapes, regrading and rebuilding the front lawn, blacktopping the driveway, and regilding the weathervane. The 1963-64 renovation fitted a 28 x 55-foot rectangular brick block into the northeast corner of the building, extending significantly beyond the northern wall of the original building and slightly wrapping the eastern stack wing.
Closing off two bays of windows and a door on the east side of the north wing and a single bay on the north side of the east (bookstack) wing, the addition was primarily a large single room on each floor, with a large interior circulation staircase in its southern end. Where the addition overlapped the bookstack slightly, covering the northernmost of the four windows on the east side of the bookstack, it provided a small three-story room stack containing, from top to bottom, a librarian's office, restroom, and vestibule. The resulting southeastern corner of the addition tied into the formerly walled-off bookstack, and its floors generally matched the bottom three floors of the stack. All three rooms were accessed from the stack room, while the bottom vestibule also provided an additional exit from the basement level of the new wing.
The most significant change to the formal interior spaces of the original building was the demolition of the northeastern chimney and the formal fireplace mantel and wall in the northern reading room, to provide access to the new addition. The 1975 renovations to the library included the demolition of the former restroom and narrow winding staircase at the west entrance, and their replacement with a broad semicircular metal staircase to the basement, surrounded by a light well lined with reinforced-glass windows. The ceiling of the vestibule was retained, while the floor was converted to a bridge across the light well. The furnace area in the basement was confined to a small rectangular room adjacent to the bookstack in the east central section.
The rest of the interior basement walls, aside from support pillars, were removed, and the window openings at the sides of the front portico blocked in. The top two levels of the bookstack shelving and flooring were removed and replaced by two levels of solid-floored offices. The former librarian's office in the southeastern corner of the addition was converted into a public restroom, now accessible from the addition and not from the stackroom office. A wheelchair access ramp was installed parallel to the north wing of the library, attaching to the north side of the portico. A new access hatch to the attic was cut through the top floor of the bookstack, to replace the attic access lost at the front of the building.
When the Paul Pratt Memorial Library vacated its former building in 2002, it took with it the mackerel weathervane that originally surmounted the cupola, for installation at the new library facility at Ripley Road (the former Osgood School). After the Cohasset Historical Society, a private non-profit organization, acquired the property from the Town of Cohasset in 2003, they launched an ambitious plan to convert some of the basement space not needed for their collections or programming into housing for qualified moderate-income senior citizens. The 2004 project built two apartments into the existing spaces at the Paul Pratt Library, Unit #1 in the bottom floor of the new addition, and Unit #2 in the south side of the basement of the original building. The kitchen in Unit #2 occupies the southern half of the area under the rotunda.
As part of the project, the (continued) M7S form 10-900 e (5-B6) United States Department of the Interior Nationai Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No.1024-0018 Pratt Historic Building Cohasset (Norfolk), MA Section number - Page 13 contractor also built four parking spaces for the apartments, on the western side of the circular driveway, over former lawn space directly across from the front door of the building. The new parking spaces were covered with bituminous concrete and lined with granite curbing; sections of the curbing were also reset to accommodate a wider driveway. The walkway to the back door was regraded and also covered with bituminous concrete paving. A new galvanized steel pipe handrail, painted black, lines the entire outside length of the path, including the forked section (to the separate unit doors) at the bottom.
Black metal bollard lights light the path. Condition Because of the focused renovation and updating projects of the last few decades, the building is in good condition. The only area obviously in need of repair and restoration is the balustrade around the rooftop lantern. Archaeological Description While no ancient Native American sites are known on the property, sites may be present. Five Native sites are known in the general area (within one mile). Environmental characteristics of the property generally represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of ancient sites. The building is located on a small parcel (less than one acre) that is split with upland in the western half and tidal meadow named Jacob's Meadow in the eastern half.
The upland parcel, on which the building is situated, includes a level to moderately sloping slight rise or hilltop containing well drained soils formed in friable glacial till, stones and boulders, and originally included a ledge outcrop in front of the building. Jacob's Meadow, which is subject to tidal flooding is drained by James Brook; located less than 1,000 feet from the property. James Brook drains easterly to Cohasset Cove and Cohasset Harbor, both located within one-half mile east. In spite of the information presented above, the potential for locating significant ancient Native American resources on the property is low. Construction of the building, which has a basement, blasting to remove the ledge outcrop, and several stages of grading would have destroyed any Native American resources that were located on the property.
The latter conclusion is supported by the fact that each of the activities described above occurred on the upland portion of the property, about one-half of the nominated area. A low potential also exists for locating historic archaeological resources on the property. Despite the existence of South Main Street as a road before the 1670 Land Division and the location of Capt. John Jacobs (second) house a short distance north of the building, no residences, barns, outbuildings, or occupational related features (trash pits, privies, wells) have been identified on the property. The site was generally known as unbuildable prior to construction of the library. Grading of the property, which can be documented as late as the 1960s, would have also destroyed any historic archaeological resources located in the area. (end) Pratt Historic Building Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance