Nomination for Groton High School

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form OMB No. 1024-0018 RECEIVED 2280 057 JAN 22 2010 NAT. REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES 1. Name of Property historic name Groton High School other names/site number Prescott School; Groton Junior High School; Butler School 2. Location street & number 145 Main Street N/A not for publication city or town Groton N/A vicinity state Massachusetts code MA _ county Middlesex code_017 _ zip code _01450 3.

State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this I 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 - statewide E locally. (- See continuation sheet for additional comments.) prma Simon Signature of certifying official/Title 19,2010 Brona Simon, SHPO 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 State or Federal agency and bureau 4. National Park Service Certification 1, hereby certify that this property is dentered in the National Reaister - 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): Date igrature ofthe Keeper Edson 14 Beall 3-2.10 Groton High School Name of Property 5.

Classification (Check as many bopes as apy private X public-local _ public-State _ public-Federal Middlesex, MA County and State Category of Propert 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 Non-contributing 1 1 1 1 _buildings _ sites structures objects 6 Number of contributing resources previoutay listed in the National Register Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple propertylisting.) N/A 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) EDUCATION: high school Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) EDUCATION: classrooms and administrative space 7.

Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) COLONIAL REVIVAL Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation. BRICK; CONCRETE walls BRICK roof other STONE: gravel Cast stone trim Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 7 Page1 7. DESCRIPTION Setting The former Groton High School at 145 Main Street, Groton (most recently the Col. William Prescott School), is located on the west side of Main Street (MA Routes 119 and 225) in the heart of Groton's town center.

While development of the residential/institutional/commercial center along Main Street dates back to the 18"' century, buildings along this part of the road are of mixed date, spanning three centuries of construction. Across from the school are several stylish two-story, side-gabled, buildings of the 18' through late 19" centuries, including a brick store, a large Greek Revival house on six landscaped acres, and Groton's most recently listed National Register property, the 1851 Italianate Gov. George S. Boutwell House (NR-IND 2005). A short distance to their southeast is a longtime inn/tavern (formerly the Groton Inn, NR-IND 1976), and then the main campus of Lawrence Academy and the Groton First Parish Church.

A group of 19*-century houses, some currently in commercial use, stands northwest of the nominated property just before Station Avenue, a short dead-end street that abuts the 1859 Groton Town Hall. Directly southeast of the nominated property are two one-story, wood-frame commercial buildings of the mid to late 20*h century - a hardware store and a six-store shopping center. The property on which the High School stands is a long, gently sloping 3.9-acre parcel, stretching west- southwest from Main Street to the edge of the former right-of-way of the Worcester & Nashua Railroad, the 1848 rail line that served the town center and had a passenger depot on Station Avenue. where a wide paved driveway passes along each side of the building to parking areas at the sides and ere ade paved iveway ase aion a sat or te biting o arn rear.

West of the paved area, the rear part of the parcel (acquired by the Town sometime after 1890) flares south to form a broad triangle that includes a small patch of wetlands. A large grassed playing field occupies the land just behind the parking areas; beyond that is the school playground with swings, slide, and climbing equipment (Map #2; Photo 7). The remaining west and southwest portions of the parcel are wooded. A small rectangular front lawn is crossed by brick and concrete walkways and is enhanced by two mature maple trees, a few smaller ornamental trees, and some small, carefully tended garden areas planted with low shrubs and flowers. South of the center walkway is a small flagstone patio set with rough-surfaced, granite-block benches (Map # 3).

While all the plantings are of recent date, just north of the walk is a tall wooden flagpole that was erected the year the high school opened. A small rectangular bronze plaque on the flagpole reads "Presented to Groton High School by Laurence W. Gay Post No. 55 American Legion, September 1928" (Map #4, Photo 1). At the front edge of the lawn, standing close to the sidewalk, is a 1930 metal tercentenary sign with raised lettering, mounted on a metal post. This is one of many two-sided, freestanding signs of similar (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 2 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA design erected by the Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission on the 300 anniversary of the Bay Colony.

This one is in exemplary condition (Map # 5, Photo 8). The Massachusetts state seal, flanked by the dates "1630 ... 1930" surmounts the sign. Below it in the rectangular field, in raised capital letters, are the words: OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 GROTON SETTLED AS A FRONTIER TOWN IN 1655 IN THE INDIAN REGION CALLED PETAPAWAG. WHEN ATTACKED BY INDIANS OF KING PHILIP IN 1676 ALL HOUSES BUT FOUR WERE BURNED, AND THE TOWN WAS TEMPORARILY ABANDONED. AGAIN ATTACKED IN 1689, 1704 AND 1723. MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY TERCENTENARY COMMISSION. only other site feature of note is a somewhat deteriorated gable-roofed utility shed (Map #6, Photo 9), about eight by ten feet, probably constructed in the mid-20" century and noncontributing to the nomination.

This small building, which stands at the northwest corner of the rear parking area, has a concrete-block base and upper wood board-and-batten walls. Exterior description Despite the replacement of all the window sash in 2005, the original Groton High School has barely changed on the exterior since 1928. That was the year when the 1871 Second Empire/late Victorian Gothic Butler School, which had housed the town high school and varying combinations of younger grades over the years, was rebuilt and expanded into the present Colonial Revival building designed by the firm of Haynes & Mason of Fitchburg. While some portion of the core of the old Butler School still exists in the center section of the structure, what is visible today is the much larger building that took shape around it in 1927-1928. The school is a two-story, flat-roofed three-part structure.

The above-mentioned renovated center section (about 200 feet square) sits between a long, shallow classroom and entry wing across the front (measuring about 400 x 50 feet) and a 250 x 175-foot gymnasium at the rear. Because the property slopes gradually down from the street, there is a full-height ground story, rather than a basement, below the gymnasium. With the exception of the concrete-walled rear ground story, the entire building is brick, laid in a variation of English cross bond with rows of stretcher bricks alternating with rows where headers are spaced one, two, or three bricks apart.

Although the end walls of the 1928 front section are windowless except for the basement story, in the manner popular with Colonial and Classical Revival architecture of the period, the building has a grand symmetrical façade, with banks of large, multi paned, windows and a broad, pedimented, (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number Z . Page 3 center pavilion (Photos 1-3). The architectural trim of this front section features the liberal use of sandstone-based cast stone, a material which is nearly absent on the other walls. Here, however, cast stone is present on the front steps, all window lintels and sills, and the quoined corners.

Ringing the roofline of the building at the base of a solid brick parapet is a wooden cornice molding. The shallow projecting pavilion is the most stylish part of the building (Photos 2-4). Four unfluted cast stone pilasters rise from a high foundation course of the same material to a broad wooden frieze that has always displayed the name of the school in individual letters - at first "Groton High School" and now "Prescott School." A wood cornice molding trims the gable of the pediment, and a vertically oriented oval window with keystoned surround marks the center of the brick tympanum. The symmetrical three- bay arrangement of the pavilion includes paired 6/6 windows at first and second stories, flanking a formal entry bay. Here the cast-stone lintels have both center keystones and end voussoirs. The design of the entry bay evolved somewhat from the first plans presented by the architect.

Initial elevation drawings from October 1926 depict a double-leaf entry of similar dimensions to what is there today, but the entry is shown projecting under a balcony with a turned balustrade. The entry as actually built does not project, and has a lavish wood surround with fluted Corinthian pilasters topped by consoles that support an open "swan's neck" pediment. The high, paneled, and molded frieze above the doorway includes a center circle that, as shown in a revised drawing of September 14, 1927, was meant to display the town seal. It is presently adorned with an American eagle. The doors shown in the 1927 drawing are the same type as the doors there today--with twelve glass lights over a lower panel with crossed-rail detail (rather than the older type of door shown in the 1926 drawing, which had horizontal panels and a single square light).

Directly above the doorway at the second story is a large multi light, Palladian-inspired, roundheaded window. The most ornamental detail of the façade is the pair of cast- stone floral swags that flank the keystone of this window. The façade fenestration of the outer wings of the front section changed only slightly between the 1926 drawings and the as-built 1927 elevations (Photos 1-3). While the earlier drawings depicted a single window bay at each story beside the pavilion and a bank of four connected 12/12 sash in the front wall of each wing, by 1927 the window arrangement had been changed to the present rhythm of two sets of paired 12/12s centered on each wing façade, with a tall, narrow 9/9 window to either side.

While the pavilion window lintels have keystones and voussoirs, the façade windows of these outer wings at all three levels - first and second story and basement - have simpler, unembellished, cast-stone lintels. The end walls of the front classroom wings are windowless except for two paired, three-paned basement-level windows with cast-stone lintels (Photo 2). Each wall has two narrow metal vents positioned close to the front corner of the building - one at second-story level, and one at the first, each set into an opening trimmed with a lintel of half bricks. The 1926 drawings show the center field of each of these walls articulated with a large, square, recessed brick panel. Instead, they were built with a less costly detail - a large rectangle outlined with stretcher and "soldier" bricks marked by a square of cast stone in each corner. OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 7 Page 4 The rear elevations of the front classroom wings have windows only at the basement and second-story levels. The upper-story classrooms here each have a bank of three 12/12 windows. A concrete basement stairway with an iron pipe rail descends to the basement against the rear wall of the north 1928 classroom wing, partly sheltered by a modern, metal-trimmed, flat roof (Photo 6).

With the exception of the 2005 building-wide window replacement, which installed new double-glazed wood window sash (aluminum clad on the exterior) of the same size and configuration as the original windows, all of the major exterior alterations have occurred in areas not visible, or only minimally visible from the street. The most prominent addition is the long "switchback" concrete ramp with metal railing, which was built against the north wall of the center section of the building at the end of the 20th century. The ramp ends at the landing of an original concrete stairway leading to an entry in the westernmost bay of the north central wall of the building. The paired doors there have nine lights over single square panels and are sheltered by a flat, metal-trimmed roof similar to the one over the basement stairs, though here supported on heavy iron brackets.

The fenestration of the north side of the center section includes a single tall 9/9 window above the doorway at second-story level. The rest of this north wall is an arrangement of a centered bank of four 12/12 windows with a pair of 12/12s toward the north end of each story. Rectangular vents, covered with metal grillwork of the same design as those on the front end walls, appear here just below the level of the second-story windows. The fenestration on the south side of the center section is different from that on the north. Here at both stories there is a triple 12/12 window toward the east end of the wall, and a bank of four 12/12s in the center, but one double 12/12 is located toward the rear at the first story only. The roof of that section, over a windowless interior storage space, is lower than the rest of the roof.

On this side of the building, two cast-stone stairways with pipe railings descend to four basement entries, all fitted with modern steel and glass doors. One entry is located in the rear wall of the front wing, one just beside it at the front corner of the center section, and two providing access to the kitchen and the furnace room are positioned at the rear end of that wall. A flat, metal-trimmed roof is located over the easternmost doorways, and a fiberglass roof shelters the basement entries west of the stairs. The exterior of the rear gymnasium wing is nearly devoid of architectural detail except for a slightly projecting band course of soldier bricks located about three feet below the top of the wall (Photo 6).

(In this section, as in the rest of the building, what may have been cast-stone coping at the top of the wall has been replaced by metal cladding.) The north wall of the gym is windowless except for a single basement window. On the south end, two 6/6 windows spaced wide apart shed light into the anterooms at either side of the former auditorium stage. What were originally banks of large multi pane window openings on the rear west wall of the gym are now fitted with floor-to-ceiling translucent fiberglass panels. Revised elevation drawings of 1927 show that there were two sets of double exterior doors in this wall, each above a flight of exterior stairs. The doorways were flanked by multi paned sidelights and surmounted by transoms and two large windows. Those entries are gone, but double steel doors now occupy the lower part of the outer two openings at the level of the gym floor.

Each entry has a landing and stairway/fire escape of modern pressure-treated wood. At the concrete ground story, the third bay from the north has a similar modern double door that opens onto a low concrete stairway that rises to ground level. To either side of this entry are four more translucent panels. (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 7 Page5 Interior description Considering the many demands on a school building, especially one that has housed every grade from kindergarten through twelfth, the interior of this building has changed remarkably little from its appearance in 1928.

When the high school opened that fall, there were "six large home rooms, a study hall with adjoining library,.... two smaller recitation rooms, a combined physics and chemistry laboratory ... cooking room and kitchen, a sewing room, a typewriting room, a large manual trainin oom with stock room, a cafeteria lunch room, an auditorium-gymnasium... with stage and ante rooms, a sub-gymnasium or play room with earthen floor, teachers' room, and a double office with adjoining stock room." While the functions of some rooms have changed, a few partitions have been added or removed, and most lavatories have been upgraded, the school has retained its balance of large and small rooms, wide hallways with maple floors, pressed-metal ceilings in most first- and second- story rooms, broad stairs with their original metal railings, and even a good deal of the original woodwork and detailing.

Floor plan (See Sketch Plan.) The large classrooms, filled with abundant natural light from the banks of large windows, were a major highlight of the building and a predominant characteristic of Haynes & Mason's scholastic architecture. Four of the six homerooms mentioned in the 1928 Superintendent's report (i.e. the general classrooms) were located in the new north and south wings flanking the main front entrance - two each on the first and second stories. The windowless end walls of these rooms were (and still are) covered on the interior with blackboards. Between the classrooms and projecting into the façade pavilion, is the main stairwell.

To either side of the stairwell at each floor, with doors opening onto a cross-hall leading to the classrooms, are smaller spaces - boys' and girls' lavatories (last renovated in 1995), storage closets, conference rooms, and at the first story, the Principal's Office, originally the School Superintendent's Office. That office includes the remains of a small anteroom, a storage closet with an iron safe (Map #7), and a private lavatory with its original plumbing fixtures. The other two of the six original homerooms, one at each story, are located north of the broad central corridor that runs east-west through the center part of the building. Smaller specialized teaching spaces were, and still are, located on either side of the corridor in the center section of the building. Some may even incorporate elements remaining from the original 1871 Butler School.

As shown in the revised 1927 floor plans, a small recitation room was located east of the first-story classroom, north of the central corridor. South of the main corridor at the first story were spaces used by the high school's commercial education program. From east to west, on this side of the hall the architect specified a typing room, a large bookkeeping room of about the same size as the classroom on the opposite side of the corridor, and adjoining the west end of the book-keeping room, a narrow space reserved for a school "bank." The typing room was later renovated to become the school office, with a large sliding service window facing into the corridor. In recent years the bank room was used as a conference room. (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 'Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1928. 158-159. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 6 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA At the second story, the school library was located north of the center corridor in a small space east of OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 The spaces that have been most changed from their original functions are located at the basement/ ground-story level. Today, the large rooms in the basement of the north and south front wings are general classrooms like those directly above them. According to the 1927 plans, however, the south classroom originally housed the high school's manual training program, and the north classroom was the lunch room, where the plans show a serving counter against the west wall. The dimensions of these two front rooms were the largest in the main part of the school.

In the basement of the center section of the building north of the main corridor, a kitchen or "cooking room" adjoined the lunchroom, and to its west, what later became the teachers' lounge was the small sewing room. South across the hall in this mid-section were (and still are) five utilitarian spaces. The boys' shower and locker room at the east end has lost its lockers, but much of the old plumbing remains as part of today's janitorial space. Nearby is a narrow storage closet that was labeled on the plans as a janitor's closet. The school archives are presently stored on shelves in the next space, where the word "fuel" on the architect's plans suggests that the coal bin was probably located. Next is the "boiler room," still the present-day furnace room, with its own outside entrance.

Finally, the westernmost space south of the corridor is currently a kitchen, occupying the former girls' locker and shower room. In the storage spaces and furnace room, considerable areas of brick wall and some framing elements are exposed--perhaps the only surviving elements of the original 1871 Butler School that have not been covered by later construction. It is not entirely clear from the 1920s plans whether the rear interior stairway, located north of the central corridor across from the gymnasium and adjacent to the north side entrance, occupies part of the original Butler building, or whether it was constructed in a new connecting space between that and the gym. The gymnasium, more properly called the gymnasium/auditorium, projects by a few feet north and west of the rear wall of this connecting space.

The gym is labeled "assembly hall" on the original plans, which also call for it to have a maple floor, metal ceiling, and "smooth terra cotta walls" with dado. The floor and ceiling there are as specified, but it is not clear whether the terra cotta wall treatment was ever installed (See below). The stage at the south end was taken out in 1959, but most of its woodwork and side anterooms are still intact (Photo 10). Below the gym, in the space that is labeled simply "unexcavated" in the original plans, there is now a full ground story, with a concrete floor poured in 1936 and walls and ceilings that were finished as part of a Works Progress Administration project during the Great Depression. Even before the floor was installed, the unfinished space here was used as a secondary playroom and indoor athletic area.

In the late 20" and early 21" centuries, it housed the school cafeteria in the south part, and a music room and art room on the north. (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 7 Page _7 Interior detailing. The school retains a considerable amount of its original 1928 interior detail and materials, forming an important record of school architecture characteristic of the 1920s. Maple flooring and pressed-metal ceilings are present, not just in the gym, but throughout the main first- and second-story rooms and hallways. The wide stairs and corridors, which made quick evacuation of the building possible, were considered important fire-safety features, representing a vast improvement over the old Butler building.

School reports of the time also make note of the up-to-date "fire screening" in the corridors, a system of fireproof dividers which remain today. Although the double doors themselves have been replaced, looking from west to east (Photo 11) shows two sets of fire screening in the main central corridor-the one in the background encloses the front stairwell. The screening consists of metal-framed panels filled with multiple panes of glass and a pair of swinging metal doors which are also fitted with multiple panes of glass. Some of the glass is the "wire glass" typical of the 1920s. Also visible in the same photo are the eight-pane transoms above the first-story classroom doors that were an important source of cross ventilation.

The architect's specifications called for narrow-board maple floors throughout the first and second stories, as well as for metal ceilings and plaster walls with wood-sheathed dados, even below the blackboards. The sheathing was probably the inexpensive tongue-and-groove type that was ubiquitous in public buildings of the 1920s. Today, most rooms still have chair rails, but the dados appear to be plaster. The simple wood baseboards below them, however, are largely intact. Blackboards, which in most classrooms cover two walls, were designed to have wooden chalk trays with a molding along the edge. Most of these have been replaced, but the original chalk trays remain in Rooms 217, 301, 302, 303 and 309. The large classrooms were all built with a combination of wooden shelving and cabinet space across one end, and most of them retain at least some parts of those features.

The 1926 plans refer to "patent" wardrobes" by J.F. Fairhurst & Son, implying that some of the storage facilities were prefabricated units. The most intact classroom end wall appears to be the west wall in the original second-floor chemistry/physics lab (room #303 today) south of the main corridor. There, a high unit of shelves over an ensemble of drawers and cabinets with recessed-panel doors is completely intact, including the original hardware. Beside it is the built-in double fume hood, which now houses two computer monitors. This unit includes the original upward-sliding doors for the hood, and cabinets below (see Photo 12). As with other interior elements, some of the flush wood doors to the classrooms, all of which have a large square glass light in the top section, appear to be original, and many are hung on the original hinges. OMB Approval No.

1024-0018 (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 7 Page 8 In the gymnasium (Photo 10), the walls are clad to a height of about 6½ feet in tongue-and-groove, unbeaded sheathing, rather than with terra cotta as originally specified. The upper wall surface is painted brick. The east wall of the gym is strengthened by four widely spaced brick pilasters. At the south end, although the 1959 removal of the auditorium stage left a large alcove that is now used for storage, other features from the days of auditorium use of this space are still present. The stage opening has a molded, classical surround with a prominent wooden cornice running the length of the alcove.

To either side of the stage opening are the doors to the two anterooms. The arrangement of the basement story has been described above. The small utilitarian spaces south of the corridor have a variety of period doors, including one with two plywood recessed panels, another with a grated vent in the bottom panel, and, at the furnace room, a door with three glass panes over three panels - all of them typical of the 1920s. The ground story under the gym was entirely altered in the late 20* century with the installation of an acoustic tile ceiling and low concrete-block walls separating the south cafeteria space from a central passage leading to the rear exit. North of the passage, behind a partition wall, are two rooms for music and art classes. As with its architectural trim details, the building contains a number of rare surviving original objects from the 1920s.

A large iron safe (Map #7) is located in the original stock room in the Principal's Office, and on the north wall of that office space is the control panel for the building's intercom system. (Photo 13). Beside it is a ca. 1960 master clock, a replacement for the original that, according to the 1928 Superintendent's report, ran all "the program bells, both inside and outside." The metal lockers (Map #10) installed in the corridors in 1954 "to relieve, to some degree, the crowded wardrobe condition" also date to the period of significance? On the north wall of the main entry stairwell, a bronze plaque (Map #9), approximately 14 by 20 inches, is probably the "bronze tablet" listed for $122 in the final building expenses in the annual 1928 school report.

It reads, somewhat inaccurately: GROTON HIGH SCHOOL This building erected in 1928 onthesite of The old Butler High School (Built in 1870) Was made possible by the generous contributions of the citizens of the town. Education is the strength of a free people 2 Report of the School Committee, 1954. 92. NPS Form10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page _9 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Archaeological Description While no pre-Contact period Native American sites are recorded on the Groton High School property or in the general area (within one mile), sites may be present.

Environmental characteristics of the area represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of Native located in the rear portion of the nominated parcel. The area lies within the Nashua/Merrimack River drainage. Given the above information, the size of the parcel (3.9 acres), historic land use, and the availability of wooded open space in the west and southwest part of the parcel, a moderate potential exists for locating pre-Contact period Native American resources on the property. There is a high potential for locating historic archaeological resources on the Groton High School property. The school was constructed on the site of an 18'h-century house, which was moved a short distance south on Main Street.

Additional documentary research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may locate structural evidence from this house and related barns and outbuildings. Archaeological evidence of occupational-related features (trash pits, privies, wells) related to the 18'*-century house, might also exist. Structural evidence and occupational-related features may also survive from the original construction of the Butler School, built in 1871. Portions of the basement, outer walls and interior framing from the 1871 Butler School were salvaged and incorporated into the Groton High School built in 1928. Documentary evidence and archaeological testing may identify which portions of the earlier Butler School foundation were reused in the construction of the Groton School, and which areas were new construction.

Structural evidence of stables and outbuildings and evidence of occupational-related features associated with both the Butler and Groton Schools may also survive. Occupational-related features might be restricted to trash areas and sheet refuse patterns. (end) Groton High School Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance

Statement of significance

Applicable National Register Criteria (Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property for National Register listing.) <A Property is associated with events that have made ignificant contribution to the broad patterns of ou history. - B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. XC Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the work of a master, or possesses high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components -D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. Criteria Considerations (Mark "x" in all the boxes that apply.) Property is: - Aowned by religious institution or used for religious purposes. - B removed from its original location. - Ca birthplace or grave. _ Da cemetery.

- E a reconstructed building, object, or structure. - F a commemorative property. Middlesex, MA County and State Areas of Significance (Enter categories from instructions) ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION Period of Significance 1871 to 1960 Significant Dates 1871 (construction of Butler School) 1928 (renovation/expansion: Groton High School) Significant Person (Complete if Criterion B is marked above) N/A Cultural Affiliation N/A Architect/Builder Haynes & Mason (1928 architects) H.M. Francis (1871 Butler School architect) J. B. Smith (mason) Benjamin F. Hartwell (carpenter) - G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50 years. Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) 9.

The rest of the file

Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.

Major Bibliographical References Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.) Previous documentation on file (NPS): Primary location of additional data: _ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 x State Historic Preservation Office CFR 67) has been requested - previously listed in the National Register - Other State agency Federal agenc! - previously determined eligible by the National Local governmen Register _University - designated a National Historic Landmark X Other - recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey Name of repository: _ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # -_Groton Public Library NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 . Page 1 8. SIGNIFICANCE The former Groton High School meets Criterion A of the National Register at the local level for its prominent role in providing secondary public education to students in the town of Groton, in two successive buildings, for over 90 years. Most of the building today consists of the 1928 Colonial Revival high school that met the urgent needs for expanded space, improved safety, and upgrade educational facilities at the Butler School, built to house the High School in 1871.

Portions of the shell of that earlier Mansard-roofed building still form part of the structure, contributing to a continuum of community development that began in the early days of higher public education in Groton and ended with the regional high school movement of the early 1960s. During that time, through its evolving curriculum, varied uses, and alterations in physical arrangements, the high school embodied changing educational philosophies, while reflecting aspects of daily life and culture in Groton and the wider region over several historic periods. Among the major events and development patterns illuminated by the school were the effects of two world wars, the Great Depression, and the postwar climate of the late 1940s and 1950s.

The school meets Criterion C as a well preserved example of 1920s Colonial Revival scholastic architecture and as an outstanding illustration of the work of architects Stephen W. Haynes and Harold Mason during the decade of their partnership between 1921 and the early 1930s. The building is one of the key structures and focal points along Main Street in Groton Center, and retains integrity of setting, location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Background and early history The town of Groton is the oldest of the thirteen communities that make up the northwest part of Middlesex County. It was founded as a plantation in 1655 on what was still the western frontier of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and remained a remote outpost through the end of the 17* century.

The town was burned and abandoned during King Philip's War of 1675-1676, but forty families had resettled there by 1680. The last violence between the English colonists and Native Americans took place in the 1720s and, after 1730, the community grew rapidly in population, becoming a prosperous agricultural town by the start of the Revolutionary War. In the early 19th century, the main thoroughfare through the town center was lined with the homes of merchants, doctors, lawyers, and other well-to-do professionals. The presence of a well-educated core of residents contributed to a widespread, long-term awareness of the importance of high quality public education, in addition to providing a natural home for one of the earliest major private secondary schools in the region, the 1793 Groton Academy (later renamed Lawrence Academy).

By the 1830s, factories developed in the west part of the Groton along the Nashua River, and in 1848 two railroads were built through the town. Major industry never came to Groton Center; however, although busy through-traffic along Main Street (part of the Great Road northwest from (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page 2 Middlesex County to New Hampshire) continued to support a number of taverns and other commercial establishments.

Through the Civil War years, the town center and the Main Street corridor continued as the town's primary concentration of residential, institutional, and commercial buildings, with Lawrence Academy, three churches, the 1859 Town House, several stores, a handful of inns and taverns, and rows of stylish residences, some of them on large lots and estates. Public education in Groton During the town's first two centuries, the development of public education in Groton followed a typical New England pattern. In 1681, the selectmen of the resettled community were charged to "take care that there be a school, or college, of learning of children the English tongue to read."' In 1715, the townspeople voted to convert the second meetinghouse at the corner of School and Hollis Streets to a town school.

To serve the outlying sections of town, through the 18' century Groton followed the "squadron" system, with the teacher (or teachers) conducting school in sequence at different locations, some of them private homes. Under the squadron system, each neighborhood assumed responsibility for the schooling of its children, school terms were short, and both instruction and facilities were highly uneven in quality. In 1805, the town adopted the district system, whereby the larger community joined with the property owners in each district, providing Town Meeting appropriations to help support first twelve, and later fourteen, one-room district schools. OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 instruction.

With the exception of the sons of wealthier families, some of whom attended private academies such as Lawrence Academy, and later the 1884 Groton School, most students ended their formal education by the time they were fourteen. By the 1840s, under the influence of Horace Mann and others, a robust climate for educational reform in Massachusetts began to advocate publicly established small public high schools in the late 1840s and 1850s, and in 1860 the Massachusetts school of higher education. That school was to provide instruction in history, geometry, chemistry, botany, Latin, and civics, as well as in bookkeeping, surveying, and "natural philosophy." Establishment of Groton High School After several years of debate at Town Meeting and in the community at large, Groton established a high school a few months before the 1860 state law was passed.

The Town House, which had been designed to include space for the anticipated secondary school, was completed in 1859, and on December 5 of that year, the first town high school was opened on the building's ground floor. Secondary-level classes were held in the Town House for the next decade, followed by a brief interlude in 1870 when, due to repairs to the building, they were held in rooms over Charles Gerrish's store across the street. (continued) ' Virginia May, Groton Tercentenary, 1655-1955. (Groton, 1955). 26. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 . Page 3 In the beginning, attendance was small, and the high school occupied only one room.

There was one male teacher who filled the role of both instructor and administrator. (The term "Principal" was no used initially.) Annual appropriations for the high school program in the early years were between $500 and $600. The Civil War caused a disruption in the development of the high school, with some students, as well as the first two teachers, enlisting in the armed forces. The first head of the school, George L. Smalley, was killed in battle in 1862. The School Committee refused to release the second, Edmund W. Nutter, during the spring term that same year, but when the term ended he resigned his post and joined the Union Army. The shortage of male teachers, combined with limited wartime budgets through 1866, led to the hiring in 1865 of the school'sfirst female teacher, Miss Addie Woodward, at a salary much lower than men could command.

The Butler School, 1871-1928 Through 1870, enrollment in the high school fluctuated between 20 and 44 students. The number was large enough to justify the 1870 Town Meeting's approval of over $30,000 for the construction of a new school building which would house both the high school and the District #1 (town center) school. The architect for the three-story brick, slate-roofed, Second Empire/Victorian Gothic building was Henry M. Francis, who had designed the recent renovations to the Town House. Francis (1836-1908), a graduate of Lawrence Academy, had opened his architectural practice in Fitchburg in 1868 and went on to design over 30 school buildings during his prolific career. The principal mason was J.B. Smith, (whose ensuing lawsuit with the town somewhat delayed completion), and the general contractor, carpenter, and roofer was local builder Benjamin F. Hartwell.

The school was constructed on the site of an 18'*-century house which was moved a short distance south on Main Street. Just prior to the school's construction, Groton began the process of abolishing the district system and moving to centralized, graded schools. When the town of Ayer was set off in 1871, and Groton's population fell below 500 households, however, new controversy ensued over how the various town schools should be organized and supported. Many taxpayers had opposed the high school, or at least the expense of the 1871 construction project, and it was clear that the cost would be best justified if the building could serve multiple purposes. Debate continued, and for a two-year period from 1871 to 1873, Town Reports record no appropriation at all for the high school program.

Finally, the new building, named the Butler School in honor of the long-time town historian and Town Clerk, Caleb Butler, opened for classes in the fall of 1873 with rooms occupied not just by the high school, but also by an intermediate school and the District #1 primary school. For a time, the term "high school" was dropped in favor of "grammar school," meaning a school of higher learning for the older, more advanced students. The building, officially designated the Butler School by Town Meeting in 1874, also housed a (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page4 unique institution that operated there from 1874 through about 1890.

This was a town-wide "singing school" for both children and adults that received its own appropriation of $300 a year. It had two teachers, and was held in a large space on the third floor called Music Hall, which was finished for the purpose in 1874. Having fallen briefly to a low of 19 students, once installed in the new building the high school enrollment rapidly rose to 35. The school appropriation in 1873 was $2,700; in 1875 it topped $5,000. The curriculum expanded, instruction in drawing became a valued part of the course of study, and in 1877 Latin was added. Although enrollment continued to fluctuate through the end of the 1870s, by the fall term in 1880 the staff was increased to two teachers in addition to the head teacher.

In 1881 the School Committee was officially calling the school the Groton High School, and began to publish both standards for admission and the course of study in the annual town report. By then the committee included Georgianna Boutwell, whose father, former Massachusetts Governor George S. Boutwell had been a powerful influence for establishing the high school, and had himself served on the School Committee for many years. In her statement for the 1883-84 town report, Miss Boutwell wrote that, although the school had first been called the Grammar School, "more recently and properly" it was now to be known as Groton High School. The new name may have reawakened local opposition to a high school, however, and enrollment plummeted to a low of 13 in 1883. Under a new head teacher, Charles H.

Howe (the seventeenth in the post, and the first to stay longer than three years), the numbers soon recovered, however, reaching 49 students in the spring of 1885. The School Committee's annual report for that year, noting that public high school education in Groton had reached its 25" anniversary, clarified some of its goals. One was that the high school should prepare some students to transfer to Lawrence Academy; another was that each pupil receiving a diploma should be competent to pass the entrance exams for the state normal schools, i.e. teacher-training colleges. More stability came under the next head teacher (now increasingly called the Principal), John H. Manning, who headed the school for nearly 25 years from 1887 to 1912. During his tenure, the enrollment steadily grew, reaching a high of 82 in 1906-1907.

As early as 1890, however, the Butler building was beginning to show its age. In 1891, funding was approved for major improvements to the heating and ventilating systems, which had given problems from the start. In 1896, the same year that the office of the Superintendent of Schools was created, the water at the school was analyzed by the Board of Health and found unfit to drink. The taxpayers were routinely asked to fund costly repairs. As the new century approached, both the School Committee and the Superintendent began to argue that the building, which by then served over 80 students, should be enlarged or replaced. A committee was appointed in 1901 to look into a possible site for a new high school. Its members inquired whether Lawrence Academy would be willing to lease or sell the town one of its buildings, with some land around it, but the academy was not receptive to the idea.

The committee then looked at a property on nearby Hollis Street, and presented a proposal for $20,000-23,000 to purchase the land and build a school there. This time it was Town Meeting that was not receptive, and action on the plan (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page 5 was indefinitely postponed. In 1903, local resident Lawrence Brooks offered an incentive of 25% of the cost of a new high school, but his terms, which included hiring a first-rate architect for a state-of- the-art building, resulted in a proposal for a $42,000 school, which again failed to win approval at Town Meeting.

Even a 1904 proposal for a small four-room school that would relieve the increasingly crowded conditions at Butler was rejected by the townspeople. While hope for a new high school receded for several years in the light of other community concerns, the School Committee continued to reorganize the divisions of instruction at the high school and to press for some relief to the conditions in the building. In 1911, they urged that the Butler School, which had continued to house some elementary grades (a legacy from the old School #1), be used exclusively by the high school. Their recommendation was not followed, however, and for several more years the high school continued to share the building with students in the lower grades.

Through the turn of the 20th century, high school matters took a back seat to the urgent mandate to create graded schools - a proposal that included consolidating and ultimately closing the last of the district schools. As a result, school construction plans turned to building centralized facilities for the younger grades rather than the high school. The construction of the new Tarbell School in West Groton in 1914 alleviated some of the pressures on the older buildings at the town center. The Butler School's companion at the center, the Chaplin School, had been built in 1869 on the site of the early 18h century school at School and Hollis Streets at the very beginning of the shift away from the district system. Chaplin was in worse shape than the Butler school, and it closed when a second new centralized elementary school, the Boutwell School, was built on Hollis Street in 1915.

Constructing two new town schools in the space of three years, along with some major investments in road improvements, had greatly taxed the town's resources, and although many local citizens continued to argue that a new high school was also urgently needed, for the next decade improvements at the secondary level consisted largely of expansions in the curriculum and minor repairs to the Butler building. In 1915, with the opening of the Boutwell and Tarbell schools, the elementary grades were finally removed from the Butler school building.

In the words of School Committee chairman Henry Gay, that significant change left "more room for the carrying on of the work of the high school." Commercial courses had been an important part of the high school curriculum since 1900, and in 1915 the whole commercial department, typewriters and all, was moved from the stuffy third floor down to the first floor. 1915 also marked the introduction into the high school curriculum of manual training and domestic science, which consisted largely of cooking and food management. Since 1902, the practical arts at all grade levels of the Groton schools had included a school gardens program, which undoubtedly provided some of the food for the domestic science classes. The school gardens, which consisted of small plots at various locations around town, received regular Town Meeting appropriations.

They were expertly headed by a series of young women from the Lowthorpe (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 6 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA School, the pioneering landscape design and horticulture school for women which was founded in 1901 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 results in the production of crops." Instruction in the arts was also an important part of the prevailing educational philosophy of the time, and public regard for their place in a well-rounded curriculum may have reached a peak in the years prior to 1920. Music and drawing had become individual departments within the high school, headed by supervisors who also ran programs in other school systems.

As the 1917 report by the Supervisor of Drawing explained, five branches of drawing were taught at the high-school level - representative drawing, illustrative drawing, design for practical projects, working drawings, and drawing for industrial production. In addition to changes in educational philosophy, events at the regional, national, and world levels also shaped what took place at the high school at any given time, and their influence extended to attitudes regarding the building itself. The school year of 1918 was rocked by the widespread influenza epidemic, and the high school actually closed for several weeks during the winter term.

World War I quickly altered attitudes toward some aspects of education, and school administrators cited many lessons learned from it that, in the words of the Groton Superintendent, showed "wherein our public schools have failed."3 The war's effects on the high school were as immediate and tangible as the loss of some students and teachers to the European front, the banishing of German language instruction from the curriculum, and the manufacture of tables and chairs for military camps by the manual training classes. Other results were longer lasting. Across the country, the war experience raised concern about the physical fitness of American youth, their ignorance of the English language, their "disregard of thrift," and their lack of knowledge of civic ideals and duties. The Groton School Committee and High School administration did their best to address all of those issues.

The need to expand physical education at the high school level inspired arguments for a gymnasium, and for a time the Groton School allowed the high school to use the gymnasium there. In 1921, both an introductory course in economics and a class in "office practice" were added to the curriculum. School assemblies became increasingly important as a training ground for citizenship, and the lack of an auditorium where the growing school community could gather was seen as a serious flaw of the Butler building. Once all but one of the district schools had been closed, the new Boutwell School quickly became overcrowded. In 1920, the School Committee returned the 7 and 8 grades to the Butler school building and continued to put forth arguments for a new or enlarged high school.

As of 1922, total enrollment at Butler had passed 100, half of which was accounted for by the 7 and 8th grades rather than the high school. The town invested in upgrades in plumbing, lighting, ventilation, and equipment for the building, but it was increasingly clear that what was needed most was more space. Clifford S. (continued) 2 Annual Report of the School Committee, 1915. 4, 5. 3 Annual Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1919. 125. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page 7 Griswold, who as School Committee chairman spearheaded the rejuvenated campaign for a new high school through the early 1920s, put it succinctly in his 1923 committee report: "An adequate building leans sufficient room for all now in attendance and likely for many years; roomy corridors and stairs isy gradient to allow prompt movement of classes and to lessen fire risk; properly designe laboratories and work rooms for the classes in the sciences, manual training, sewing, music, etc.; a large assembly hall for physical culture, school exhibitions, prize speaking contests, concerts, graduations, etc."* The next year, Town Meeting appointed a committee to investigate the need for a new high school building, and the School Committee grew ever more specific in its arguments, adding a school library to the list of the "three essentials of a modern high school building," along with an assembly hall and a gymnasium.

A new position of Director of Physical Education had been created, and a year-round sports program that would include both outdoor and indoor basketball, in particular, was considered a necessity at the high school level. The investigating committee, reporting in the summer of 1925, found that the enrollment at Butler had grown from 70 to 167 pupils in five years and that there was indeed a need for a new building. This was especially true since the administration, recognizing that the seventh and eighth grades were there to stay, had reorganized the institution into what they called a "six-year high school," with an integrated schedule and a common curriculum and teaching staff for all six grades. The investigating committee's findings were bolstered by a catalyzing event that took place just a week before their 1925 report was released.

On August 18, a fire broke out on the third story of the Butler the fall term opened only a week late, the safety of the old building, which had only one steep interior stairway and now had four classrooms on the top floor, became of primary concern. A School Building Committee was convened in the fall and was charged with recommending not whether a new school was needed, but whether it should be built new or as an enlargement and remodeling of the existing one. The committee pursued the idea of a new building, but it literally went back to the drawing board when plans solicited from architect William Upham of Norwood turned out to be far more expensive to build than anticipated. The frustrated Building Committee then turned to the Fitchburg architectural firm of Haynes & Mason to draw up plans that would utilize at least some parts of the existing structure.

More financially feasible than the Upham plans, the Haynes & Mason design included the addition of a gymnasium wing across the rear, and a large addition with multiple classrooms across the front of the existing Butler building. A late November special town meeting, however, blocked the borrowing of money for the project, citing the need to pay off the debt on some road construction first. The year 1927 opened with a town meeting warrant that included only a much-reduced proposal to fund repairs at the Butler School. Chairman Griswold, who had anticipated that keeping even some of the old building (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 4 Annual Report of the School Committee, 1923. 130. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 8 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA might appeal to the sentiments of the townspeople, was clearly exasperated. In January 1927 he wrote, OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Fortunately, those "radical changes" were about to come to pass in a quite unexpected manner - through the beneficence of the headmaster of the Groton School. At the February 1927 Annual Town Meeting, Rev. Endicott Peabody, the school's founder and longtime headmaster, offered to contribute $5,000 toward a new town high school. He suggested that a door-to-door solicitation should be able to raise $25,000 in private donations, a prophecy that was more than fulfilled when, by June 15, Groton townspeople had matched his offer with pledges totaling $36,500.

At a Special Town Meeting on that date, in a nearly unanimous vote, the Town appropriated $100,000, of which $30,000 was to be from gifts and donations "for the purpose of rebuilding the present High School building and building additions to said building." Groton High School, 1928-1962 The construction plans were already in hand, and once the funding was appropriated, work on the new school progressed rapidly. At the dedication of the cornerstone, it was noted that, one way or another, contributions toward the project represented a clear majority of all the residents of Groton.

The Butler building was vacated, and for the 1928 academic year the students were relocated to makeshift classrooms in the old Chaplin School (which in 1919 had become the American Legion Hall), the Grange Hall on Champney Street, the Odd Fellows Hall on Station Avenue, and even to a barn belonging to the Town Clerk, Fred Carpenter. The curriculum was curtailed somewhat during the construction year, as classes in manual training and drawing had to be suspended. In January 1928, expressing his satisfaction that the new school was "of an architecture attractive enough to draw the admiring attention of the most casual passerby, " a weary School Committee Chairman Griswold announced his well-earned retirement'. In the end, it appears that most of what was salvaged from the 1871 Butler building consisted of the basement and some portions of the outer walls and interior frame.

The front portico, bell towers, and the mansard-roofed third story were removed, as were interior partitions. A wide new classroom wing, with a full basement and a central stairway, was built across the front of the old school, and a combined gymnasium/auditorium, with a second stairhall, were added at the rear. The old floor plan of the main two-story center section of the Butler building was revised with new classrooms, a small library, a physics and chemistry lab, and a wide central hallway at each floor. Charles L. Curtis' 1928 School Superintendent's report listed the highlights of the new school: "It contains six large home rooms, a study hall with adjoining library, together accommodating 85 pupils, two smaller recitation rooms, a combined physics and chemistry laboratory...

cooking room and kitchen, a sewing room, a typewriting room, a (continued) S Annual Report of the School Committee, 1926. 136. 6 Annual Report of the Town of Groton, 1927. 31. Report of the Chairman of the School Committee, 1928. 157. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page 9 large manual training room with stock room, a cafeteria lunch room, an auditorium-gymnasium, seating 450 persons, with stage and ante-rooms, a sub-gymnasium or play room with earthen floor, teachers' room, and a double office with adjoining stock room." Haynes and Mason, the architects for the project, had already made their mark across central and eastern Massachusetts as specialists in the design of institutional buildings.

Stephen Wesley Haynes and Harolo . Mason had formed a full-service architectural partnership in Fitchburg in 1922. Among the building: they had designed prior to the Groton High School were the Community Memorial Hospital in Ayer (1925, NR); the Rome, Penan & Rome mercantile block in Fitchburg; and the 1922 additions and renovations to the 1902 Ashby Town Offices. During their ten-year partnership, the firm designed many schools, most of them in the Colonial or Classical Revival styles, including the Teaticket School (1928, NR) in Falmouth, where they also designed the Central Fire Station (1929, NR). Stephen Haynes (born 1892 in Leominster) lived to be 91 and had a long, prolific career.

After completing his architectural education at the Boston Architectural Center, he was a draughtsman for the well-known firm of Peabody & Stearns in Boston from 1912 to 1916, and for Allen & Collins from 1916 to 1918. He practiced independently for a few years in Fitchburg before forming the partnership with Harold Mason. From the early 1930s, when the partnership dissolved, until the mid-1960s, he headed his own firm under the name of S.W. Haynes and Associates. While Haynes's later work was quite varied and included houses, commercial blocks, and at least one lavish Art Deco theater (the Latchis Theater in Brattleboro, Vermont), according to his entry in The American Architects Dictionary, he considered his scholastic buildings to be his most important body of work.

Haynes's New Braintree Grade School of the 1930s is one of the earliest examples of the Art Moderne style in a Massachusetts school building. In the 1950s, schools he designed included the Burbank Hospital School of Nursing in Fitchburg and the first new school built by the town of Groton after World War II, the 1951 Groton Elementary School at 342 Main Street. Less is known about Harold Mason. After the partnership with Haynes was dissolved, he went on to design a ward for the Barnstable County Hospital in Bourne in 1938, and the Barnstable County Jail and Sheriff' s House, both in Barnstable. The large, up-to-date facilities in the building that was now officially named Groton High School provided a flexibility of usage that had been impossible in the old Butler building.

Problems with the heating system were a thing of the past, and both classrooms and laboratories were now filled with natural light from the ranges of large multipaned windows. Although its acoustics left something to be desired, the long-awaited gymnasium/auditorium, which had a stage for both oratory and musical and dramatic productions, saw daily use. The building was large enough to accommodate a curriculum with three academic tracks -- the college-preparatory Classical Course, the Social Arts or General Course OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 8 Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1928. 158-159. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page 10 (which could also provide college preparation), and the Commercial Course, which was now increasingly called a vocational track. After-school student clubs met throughout the building on Thursday afternoons. Every pupil participated in a club, and their changing topics reflected the students' interests over the decades before 1950. The first clubs included the predictable titles of dramatic, school newspaper ("The Tattler"), nature, camera, stamp, and handicraft, as well as perhaps the less predictable topics of gas engine and home nursing. As the 1930s progressed, orchestra, public speaking, gardening, woodworking, and intramural sports were added to the afternoon club activity.

The new school had a large, well-equipped cafeteria at the basement level, where lunch was served both to students at the high school and to pupils from the Boutwell School. The lunch service was staffed initially by the localchapter of the Red Cross, and was financially supported by them for many years. Among the state-of-the-art amenities in the new building were a school-wide intercom system and a master clock that regulated the clocks and bells in each classroom. The school library opened with no books on its shelves, and the school grounds remained unlandscaped for a time, but these conditions were soon rectified. At first, there was only a dirt floor in the basement space below the gymnasium, but in 1936 the floor was cemented to provide a lunchtime play space and a gym area for the 7* and 8th grades.

The work was one of many federally funded local projects executed under the Works Project Administration during the Depression years. Other WPA improvements included a major outdoor drainage project that involved regrading the land around the building. As part of the last WPA work, in 1938 walls in the rear of the basement were plastered, and new doors and a new stairwell were put in. While at first the School Committee noted that there was "no sufficient playground" at the school, in 1940 the back part of the lot was flooded for a skating rink. The school curriculum and equipment continued to evolve over the years, reflecting changing educational philosophy, advancing technology, and changes in culture and society. Physical Education became a permanent part of the curriculum in 1937, and in 1938 a limited post-graduate program was added to the three major course areas.

Movies and phonograph records first entered the classroom in 1940 and 1941 through gifts from graduating classes. With the advent of the United States' entry into World War II, both the course offerings and uses of the building changed. In 1941, civil defense activities took place in the school at least five nights a week, requiring the employment of a second janitor. In 1942, in response to a nation-wide call for public service, both students and teachers took first-aid classes, the manual training shop turned out stretchers for the front, and sewing classes made bandages, belts for air-raid wardens, and first-aid kits. All the students collected scrap metal, and many volunteered for airplane-watch service.

As part of a "Schools at War" program, at the urging of the War Department several pre-induction classes were offered, such as the three in the Fundamentals of Electricity, Machines, and Radio. The war also inspired a new emphasis on high-school mathematics. As with World War I, some students left school before graduation to enter the armed forces. When they (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page 11 returned home, the high school welcomed them back to a curriculum that offered an increased number of practical courses. In 1947, driver's training was introduced, and in 1948 the manual training department was expanded.

The industrial arts courses moved from their former 800 square-foot classroom in the front of the building to the 2,800 square-foot area under the gym, where their equipment now included automobiles to work on. Also in 1948, the school introduced a guidance program, directed by a staff member who also served as Assistant Principal. The emphasis on practical training and employment preparation continued even in the physical education department, where in 1950 the program was adapted to focus on skills that would help students secure positions as summer camp counselors. As Groton's population increased in the postwar years, 1950 also saw the return of sixth graders to the building for the first time in several decades. Their presence was temporary, however, and when the new Groton Elementary School was completed the next year, they moved out again.

But the building of an additional elementary school did little to delay the impact of Groton's own postwar "baby boom" that was soon to be felt in the older grades. In 1953, by which time the enrollment at the high school had already swelled to 251, a town-wide School Building Planning Committee was formed to address the prospect of increased enrollment across the school system that was projected for the foreseeable future. By 1954, the School Superintendent was warning of the possibility of going to double sessions at the high school.

In a striking repeat of the debates that had taken place thirty years earlier, the planning committee was faced with the question of whether the high school building should be expanded, or whether it would be better to build an entirely new building - possibly a regional high school - and to use the 1928 high school building only for the junior high grades. In 1959, with the high school bursting at the seams, the curriculum offerings in science, music, art, and physical education were curtailed, and in 1960, while awaiting the promise of a new high school building, the school entered the first of two years of split sessions. The school in the late 20# and early 21" centuries In the late 1950s, Groton Town Meeting had twice rejected the idea of regionalizing the schools with neighboring towns.

Instead, on land adjacent to the Groton Elementary School, the town built a new town high school, which opened in 1962. With only some minor remodeling, the 1928 high school building became the Groton Junior High School, with an enrollment of 210 students in grades six through eight, and with a faculty of eight full-time and seven part-time teachers. The local school population continued to grow, however. In 1969 (although Groton High School had begun admitting paying students from Dunstable as early as 1914), some of Groton's students finally became part of a regional system. Nashoba Valley Technical High School, serving a district that included Groton, Westford, Chelmsford, Littleton, Shirley, Townsend, and Pepperell, opened in Westford as a regional vocational high school in September of that year. (continued) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 12 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Serious overcrowding continued into the 1970s at both the new high school and at the junior high in the former Groton High School building. A small amount of space was freed up by removing the School Superintendent's office, which had been located in the older building since the position was created in 1896. But five of the twelve classrooms did not meet state square-footage standards, and it was clear OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 moved to the basement of the Tarbell School, alleviating some of the space pressure in the 1928 school.

In July 1975, the Groton school system officially became part of the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District, and the combined high school was renamed the Groton-Dunstable Regional High School. The wing at the new high school opened in November, allowing the building to house the Groton and Dunstable students from grades seven through twelve in a combined senior and junior high school at one location. The Prescott School With the onset of regionalization and the opening of the wing at the new high school, the old 1928 building at 145 Main Street was renamed the Colonel William Prescott School and became home to the fifth and sixth grades for the next fourteen years. In 1989, a new middle school was built on the regional high school campus, and plans to close the Prescott School were discussed.

Groton's school-age population was still escalating, however, and the building continued to serve the upper elementary grades through the turn of the 21" century. Both the 1962/1975 high school and the 1989 middle school beside it eventually reached capacity, and in 2003 a new $35 million Groton - Dunstable Regional High School opened on a large campus on Chicopee Row, southwest of the center of town. The next year, the 1962 high school building was renovated into a second middle school, Middle School North, and the 1989 middle school became Middle School South. That placed all the fifth through eighth grades into a two-building complex, and again, plans were made to close the 1928 Prescott School.

A School Facilities Task Force recommended that a new elementary school be built, and that, until then, the 1928 building should continue to serve the kindergarten through fourth grades, and that repairs and renovations be made only to sustain it until the new school opened. Town Meeting approved funding for window replacement and roof repair, which were completed in Prescott School again changed function. The school closed in 2008, and the building is now utilized by the school district for other educational purposes. School administration offices now occupy the top floor, and two parent organizations use the rooms at the lower level, which is also utilized for district- wide storage. The Merrimack Special Education Collaborative leases several of the main classrooms.

A Prescott School Preservation Committee, formed in 2005 by school parents interested in preserving the building, succeeded in procuring Community Preservation Funds for placing the property on the National Register. Listing in the Register will go a long way toward instilling pride and raising (continued) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA Section number 8 Page 13 awareness across the community of the building's importance, both architecturally, and in the development of education in Groton. Archaeological Significance Since patterns of pre-Contact period Native American settlement in Groton are poorly understood, any surviving sites could be significant.

Native American sites in this area may contribute important information that identifies the role and importance of upland/interior sites in general, and the role sites along tributary streams of the Nashua/Merrimack River drainage played in the local/regional Native subsistence and settlement systems. Pre-Contact period sites in this area could be part of a larger, possibly seasonal, settlement network of sites based along the Nashua River, the Merrimack River or part of a specialized adaptation to local environments in the central Massachusetts uplands and Worcester Plateau region. Historic archaeological resources described above may contribute important information related to the overall history of land use at the Groton High School property from the 18h through 20t centuries.

Documentary and archaeological research may contribute important information related to the early settlement of Groton and the history of education in the town. Additional historical research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may locate the exact site of the 18" century home that preceded the 1871 Butler School on the nominated property. Similar research may determine the location of barns, outbuildings, and occupational-related features associated with the home and activities conducted on the property. Careful mapping of structural remains found on the property and detailed analysis of the contents of occupational-related features may contribute important information related to their construction dates and domestic/economic activities that were conducted in and around the structures and features.

Presumably the home was part of a farmstead; however, at present, the type of agriculture and husbandry that was practiced remains unknown. Some type of cottage industry to supplement farming may have also been present. Historical and archaeological research may also contribute important information related to educational patterns of landuse on the property. Documentary research, combined with archaeological survey and testing, may identify which portions of the Butler School were reused in the later Groton High School. Similar research may also contribute information that identifies the location and function of outbuildings on the property and their relationship to the Butler School. Historical and archaeological research may also determine whether any barns, stables, or outbuildings were used after the Groton High School was built. OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (end) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 9 . Page 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA 9. MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Books, articles, pamphlets, and files Annual Reports of the School Committee, Town of Groton, 1859-1970. Green, Samuel A. Facts Relating to the History of Groton. Two volumes. Cambridge, MA: University Press, 1914. Groton Public Library: Historical collection. Hurd, D. Hamilton, ed. History of Middlesex County, Mass. Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis, 1890. May, Virginia. Groton Tercentenary, 1655-1955. Town of Groton, 1955. Murray, Barbara, et al., editors. Groton at 350: The History of a Massachusetts Town, 1655-2005. Town of Groton, 2005. Ruckstuhl, Charles E. Forgotten Tales of Groton, 1676-1941. Groton: Chas. Ruckstuhl Co., 2001.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Ayer, MA. National Register Documentation Form for Community Memorial Hospital. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Commission, 2004. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Survey of Historical and Architectural Resources, Groton, Mass. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1960s-1970s. Architectural drawings Haynes & Mason. Plans for Alterations and Additions to Groton High School. October, 1926. Revised Floor Plans for the New High School, Groton, Mass. September 1927. Maps and atlases (Butler Building) Beers, F.W. Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. New York: F.W. Beers, 1875. View of Groton, 1886. Troy, NY: Burleigh Lithograph Company. Walker, George H. & Co. Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Boston: G.H. Walker & Co. 1889. (end) Groton High School Name of Property 10.

Geographical Data Acreage of Property 3.9 acres UTM References Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet) 1.19 289127 4720142 Zone Easting Northing 2. Zone Easting Northing Middlesex, MA County and State 3. Zone Easting * Zone Easting x See continuation sheet Northing Northing Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet. Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.) 11. Form Prepared By name/title Anne Forbes, consultant, with Betsy Friedberg, National Register Director, MHC organization Massachusetts Historical Commission date street & number 220 Morrissey Blvd.

telephone city or town Boston state _Massachusetts zip code January 2010 617-727-8470 02125 Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form: Continuation Sheets A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location. A sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property. Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items) Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.) name Town of Groton street & number 173 Main Street city or town Groton state_ telephone MA 978-448-1100 zip code 01450 Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev.

10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number10 Page1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA 10. GEOGRAPHICAL DATA Verbal Boundary Description The boundaries of the former Groton High School property at 145 Main Street, Groton are those recorded and shown on Groton Assessor's Map 113, Parcel 43. Boundary Justification The property boundary includes the entire 3.9-acre parcel on which the building is located (end) NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number photos Page 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA PHOTOGRAPHS Unless otherwise noted, all photographs by Anne Forbes, 2007. 5 x 7" photographs 1.

Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: View southwest, with main facade 2. Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: View south-southwest 3. Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: View north along facade 4. Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: Main entry bay 5. Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: North elevation, center section 6. Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: View east with rear wall of gymnasium 7. Groton High School, 145 Main Street: View west, with playing field and playground 8. Groton High School, 145 Main Street: Tercentenary sign, 1930 9. Groton High School, 145 Main Street: Utility shed, mid-20* century 10. Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: Gymnasium, looking south toward former stage 11. Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: Main corridor, first story, looking east 12.

Groton High School, 145 Main Street, 1928: West wall of former chemistry/physics lab, second story 13. Groton High School, 145 Main Street: Intercom control panel (1928) with ca. 1960 master clock Historical images (photocopies) A. Butler School. (Stereograph, courtesy of Groton Historical Society.) B. "New High School Building," Groton School Report, 1928. C. "Student Body 1927-1928," Groton School Report, 1928. NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number - Page 1 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Groton High School Groton (Middlesex), MA MAP# MHC# 1. GRO.147 2. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

NAME OR DESCRIPTION Groton High School Playing field and playground Patio with granite-block benches Flagpole and plaque Tercentenary sign Utility shed School safe Intercom panel Bronze plaque Metal lockers RESOURCE COUNT C=contributing; NC = non-contributing B= building; O =object; Si = site; St = structure DATE 1871/1928 late 20t C. ca. 2000 1928 1930 mid-20t C. ca. 1928 1928 1928 1954 STATUS TYPE C NC NC C C NC C B Si St B C C C TOTAL RESOURCE COUNT: BUILDINGS STRUCTURES: OBJECTS: SITES: Contributing 1 0 TOTAL: 7 TOTAL: Non-contributing 1 1 0 3 A Butler School, 1871. Stereopticon view, late 19th century. Groton Historical Society. New High School Building QROTON SCHIDOL ROPORT. 1928 STUDENT BODY 1927-1928 @ ROTON SCHDOL RopORT, 1928 N0C ONN HALL 0.53 B - 44 1.2 A6C + 1.34 SCALE = 100 200 6.49 6 0.44 AcC 4 an roc 8 0.43 AcC 4.

43 38 NocO GROTO SCHOD 4.2 A0C B1 FO = photo location 2 = map number 40° F'a5 noc 1.1 Acc GROTON HIGH SCHOOL 145 MAIN STREET TOWN OFOROTON LAWRENCE PLAYGROUND TOWN O'GROTOR PUBLIC LIBRARY 12000 2.073 Ac UMENCE NCIOENY 1745 LOWELL ROAD RTE. 40 0.54 AcC TOWN COMMON STREET CHURCH 197.1C 1S.SS ROUTE 119 116-12 M.L. NO PARCEL 56, 62 PROPERTY MAPS GROTON MACCAPHIISFTTS .30 % 1 AoC TN 13 , 0.34 AoC INDEX DIAGRAM 109/112 224 108 1/, 116 107114/115 MAP NO.

113 FORMER STAGE GYMNASIUM - IT' 5@ = photo location os wall positions former ibutler School (conjectured) 208 OFFICE pot PRINCIPAL 13 21l mot SKETCH PLAN: GROTON HIGH SCHOOL FIRST STORY 301 BoH (2 = photo location 303 302 LOARMAC CONTOR conference Room closet> ROSTROOMS -- - potiton 309 SKETCH PLAN: GROTON HIGH SCHOOL SECOND STORY ART Room cafeteria storage Furnace storage storage taritor teackers Lorunge 113 TITT 10' NURSE evosot Reçoom conference SKETCH PLAN: GROTON HIGH SCHOOL BASEMENT AND GROUND STORY 116 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Groton High School NAME: MULTIPLE NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Middlesex DATE RECEIVED: 1/22/10 DATE OF 16TH DAY: 2/24/10 DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: DATE OF PENDING LIST: 2/09/10 DATE OF 45TH DAY: 3/08/10 REFERENCE NUMBER: 10000057 REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: PERIOD: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: COMMENT WAIVER: VACCEPT RETURN ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: 3/2/10 Entered in The National Reglster of Hlisterie Places RECOM./CRITERIA REVIEWER DISCIPLINE TELEPHONE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N If a nomination is returned to the nominating authority, nomination is no longer under consideration by the NPS.

GROTON HIEH SCHOOL QROTON, MA. VIEW SW, WITH MAIN FACADE ANNE FORBES pLOtO 2007 @ GROTON HIGHSCHOOL QROTON, MA VIew SourH-SouTHWESr ANNE FORBEs ploto 2007 3 QROTON HRH SOTOOL GROTON, MA VIEW NORTI ALONG FACADE ANNE FORBES photo 2007 PRESCOTT SCHOOL 1QROTON tCH Scttool QROTON, MA MAIN ENTry BAy ANNE FORBES ploto 2007 § GROTON HIGH SCHOD QROTON, MA NORTH ELEVATON, CENTER SECTON ANNE FORBES ploto 2007 @ GROTON HIG# SCTIDOL GROTON, MA VIEW EAST, WITH ReAR WALL Of GYNUASIUM ANNE FORBEs photo 2007 ) QRoTaN HGt SatEOl QROToD, mt VIEW WeST, PLAYING FIELD & PLAyGROUND ANNe FORBES ploto 2007 1630 1930 GROTON SETTLED AS A FRONTIER TOWN IN 1655 IN THE INDIAN REGION CALLED PETAPAWAG. WHEN ATTACKED BY INDIANS OF KING PHILIP IN 1676 ALL HOUSES BUT FOUR WERE BURNED, AND THE TOWN WAS TEMPORARILY ABANDONED. AGAIN ATTACKED IN 1689.1704 AND 1723.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY TERCENTENARY COMMISSION 8 AROTON HGH SOHOOL GRoTON, MA -Tercentenarg sgn ANNE FORBES ploto 2007 9 GRoToN that scusdl GROTON, MA - utititz shed MID-20TH CENTURy UTILITY SHED ANNE FORBES phOto 2007 10 QROTZN HIGH SOMEOL QeaToN, MA -oginnasium LOOKING SOUTH FROM FORMER STAGE ANNe FORBEs photo 2007 II QROTON HIGHSCHODL QROTON, MA MAIN CONRIDOR 1ST STOM LOOKING EAST ANNE FORGEs photo 2007 MSCHOLASTI The Pledge of Allegiance BBED - 1 AROTON HGH SCHODL QROTOo, MA WEST WALL, FORMER CHEMISTNy aud Pitysics LAB, SecOND STORY ANNe FORBES photo 2007 ! 12 10. 9 May 260 B AROTON MIGA SATOOL aROTON, MA INTERCOM PANEL (1928) WITH ca. 1960 MASTER CLUCK ANNE FORBES ploto 2007 CORTET CHAACTA Toe The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Massachusetts Historical Commission RECEIVED 2280 JAN 22 2010 NAT.

REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE January 19, 2010 Mr. J. Paul Loether, Chief National Register of Historic Places Department of the Interior National Park Service 1201 Eye Street, NW 8" floor Washington, DC 20005 Dear Mr. Loether: Enclosed please find the following nomination form: Groton High School, 145 Main Street, Groton (Middlesex), MA The nomination has been voted eligible by the State Review Board and has been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. The owners of the property were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30 to 45 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment. A letter of support has been received.

Sincerely, Betery Trething Betsy Friedberg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission Enclosure cc: Peter Cunningham, Chair, Groton Board of Selectmen Alvin Collins, Groton Historical Commission Anne Forbes, consultant Raymond Capes, Chair, Groton Planning Board 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125 (617) 727-8470 - Fax: (617) 727-5128 www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc FROM : Panasonic FAX SYSTEM PHONE NO.: Jul. 21 2009 Ø1:07PM P1 FNITH TOWN OF GROTON 73 Main Stree Sroton. Tol: (ach) 448-11150-123- Fax: (978) 448-1115 LABOR X 1655 Board of Selectmen Peter S. Cunningham, Chair George F. Dillon, Jr., Vice Chair John L. Saball, Clerk Mihran Keoseian August 8, 2006 Community Preservation Committee 173 Main Street Groton, MA 01450 RECEIVED JUL 21 2009 MASS.

HIST.COMM Dear Members: At our meeting on August 7, 2006, the Board of Selectmen concurred to support the Prescott School Preservation Committee's application for Community Preservation Act funds to secure funds for nomination in the National Register for Historic Places. This is a wonderful opportunity for the Town of Groton and the Board fully supports the Committee's quest in obtaining admission to the National Register of Historic Places. Sincerely, THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN lee S.Cuum Peter S. Cunningham, Mihran Keoseian, Member George F. Dillon, Vice Chair