BlockFrom the form
The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.
NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) RECEILoMBNo 1024-000 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service 785 AUG 1 1 2010 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NAT. REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES NATIONAL PARK SERVICE This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions.
Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items. 1. Name of Property historic name_Ellice School other names/site number_District # 2 Schoolhouse 2. Location street & number_ 185 Pleasant Street not for publication city or town_Millis vicinity state_Massachusetts code_MA county_Norfolk code_021 _ zip code 02054 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this 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 -meets - does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant - nationally - statewide Dlocally. (- See continuation sheet for additional comments.) Brona Suron August 5, 2010 Signature of certifying official/Title Brona Simon Executive Director, Massachusetts Historical Commission, State Historic Preservation Officer State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria. (See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title Date State or Federal agency and bureau 4. National Park Service Certification I, hereby certify that this property is: Eentered in the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined eligible for the National Register - See continuation sheet.
- determined not eligible for the National Register - removed from the National Register - other (explain): laam I. Beall ariiio Date of Action Ellice School Name of Property 5. Classification wnership of Propert Check as many boxes as appl private Xpublic-local -public-State -public-Federal Norfolk County, MA County and State (Check only one box) Abuilding(s) district site structure -object Number of Resources within Propert (Do not include previously listed resources in the count. Contributing Noncontributing 1 2 _building _ sites structures objects Total 3 Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register N/A lame of related multiple property listin Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing N/A 6.
Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) EDUCATION: school Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) VACANT: Not in Use 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) MID CENTURY: Greek Revival Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation_BRICK, STONE walls_WOOD: shingles roof ASPHALT other Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 1 Description OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Ellice School Millis (Norfolk), MA The Ellice School, located at 185 Pleasant Street in Millis, MA, is a single-story, Greek Revival, two-room, vacant schoolhouse, that was constructed as a district school for the town of Medway in ca. 1849. This portion of Medway is situated is relatively flat but is considered to be on a hill relative to Rockville. Beyond the school house the land slopes down to Rockville and the Charles River to the south. The school is between a mid 19**-century farmhouse (built between 1852 and 1858 by Horace Twichell) and a ca. 1920s Arts and Crafts house (built by Edwin Waite). Opposite the schoolhouse there are modest mid 20th- century residential properties lining the east side of Pleasant Street. Forested land and wetlands stretch out behind the schoolhouse and other dwellings on the west side of Pleasant Street.
The Ellice School, although vacant for the last 70+ years, retains historic fabric and important historical association with the history of Millis's schools. The school property follows the lot lines which are shown on Millis Assessors Map #43. The only other features on the parcel are about ten granite posts (3'6" high) along the south property line with a small section of dilapidated picket fencing that once stretched between the granite posts (contributing structure), and a low stone wall (contributing structure) lining the west/rear property line. Pleasant Street is a north-south road leading from Main Street just west of Millis Center, south to Village Street where it jogs across and continues south through Rockville to the Charles River. After Pleasant Street crosses the river it becomes Dean Street for a short distance before passing into the town of Norfolk.
Just north of the school, Dyer Street branches northwest to connect with Village Street, forming a vacant triangle of forested land (bordered by Village Street on the north, Pleasant Street on the south, and Dyer Street on the west). The ¾-acre schoolhouse lot is at the same grade as the dirt shoulder of the road. The building is surrounded by a grassy and moss-covered area which is bordered on three sides (not the road side) by deciduous and pine forested land. A large oak tree remains at the edge of the road where once there were two oaks. Along the southern property line are remnants of the granite post and picket fence noted above. This fence is on the school property. A stone wall that shows in historic photographs across the back of the school lot remains, but is now behind voluntary growth of forest material.
Building The Greek Revival two-room schoolhouse on the west side of Pleasant Street rests on a granite block and brick foundation, is sheathed in wood shingles, has wood trim, and is capped by an asphalt shingle roof. The overall size of the building is 35' in width and 53' in length. Photo #1. The building served as a schoolhouse until 1931; during the Depression local women sewed clothing for the poor here, and for a short time during World War II women gathered here to make bandages for the war effort. The schoolhouse, presently only used for storage, is in a deteriorated condition with window openings boarded with plywood, its trim removed or eroded, three of the four exterior doors covered with plywood, and steps to all but one entrance have been removed.
The plywood was installed in the early 1990s and replaced a planked shutter (tongue and groove boards hung with strap hinges on one side) that had covered the windows (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Ellice School Millis (Norfolk), MA Section number 7 Page 2 before the mid 20** century. The two windows on either side of the door on the north long side of the school retain the planked shutters. The interior is deteriorated with caved-in ceilings, failed plaster, and missing windows; however there is enough historic fabric inside and out to gain a clear understanding of this building's appearance over its lively days between 1849 and 1931. The building is sheathed in wood shingles that have been laid over asphalt shingles.
The only remaining evidence of the original clapboard siding is in the gable peak of the rear elevation. There is evidence of the switch from clapboard siding to shingles (not the layer that is visible today) in 1920 photographs of the school that show new shingles and alterations in fenestration due to the relocation of the entrances from the gable front to the sides. The first layer of shingles was laid over the clapboards and retained the templar gable trim in the gable-front elevation; this was removed and the present layer of shingles covers the entire elevation with no break for trim molding. Physical evidence shows that asphalt shingles were applied at some time after the school closed, and wood shingles were applied over the asphalt shingles in the last quarter of the 20"h century.
Roofing material is asphalt shingles laid over wood sheathing boards, many of which have been replaced with plywood. The roof sheathing boards are laid on a common rafter system. A patch on the eastern end of the north roof slope appears charred on the interior and in the aerial view of the exterior; however the fire department has no record of a fire, nor do longtime neighbors and historians remember such an event. The present roof was installed in 1972; therefore a fire that charred the roof but did not advance must have occurred since then. A simple brick chimney is centered close to the ridge of the north roof slope. There is no documentation to indicate that the two foundation materials are a result of an addition. The measurements of the original building are similar to a mid 19*h-century Rockville resident's journal which claimed that the building was about 50' long.
That part of the school used for classroom space rests on a granite foundation, which is over a full cellar; the section of the building that is on the brick foundation has no cellar, only a crawl space, and originally included the entrance halls/coatrooms and a small stove room. The brick foundation carries the front part of the building extending westerly for 13'4" (12' of which rests on a brick foundation and 1'4" accounts for the large granite blocks that carry the cornerposts in front of the brick foundation wall). Directly in line with the rear end of the brick foundation is a break in the exterior molding - the deep entablature (fascia and cornice) under the eave. The present front classroom is somewhat deeper than the 13 feet of brick foundation so that the interior partition between the front classroom and the cellar stairs is not in line with the foundation change.
Cellar windows or coal shuttles on the north side and rear elevation have either been filled with brick or covered with construction board. Windows once had 6/6 sash, some of which remain on the interior minus the glass. Exterior window frames consist of flat unadorned framing pieces with a slightly projecting sill and projecting molded lintel with a slight pointed arch over each top framing piece. Each of the four cornerposts rests on a tall square granite block and consists of recessed paneled boards and molded capitals. A wide-molded friezeboard lines the north and south sides and once wrapped around at least three sides of the building. It has been removed from the front gable elevation when the shingles were applied. Boxed cornice moldings trim the rake of the eaves in each gable end. These moldings are substantially deteriorated.
(continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Ellice School Millis (Norfolk), MA Section number 7 Page 3 East Elevation. Facing Pleasant Street is the four-bay gable-front elevation with four window bays, each covered with lywood and having an exposed narrow sill and lintel capped with projecting, slightly pointed-arched molding. The raking boxed eaves are partially deteriorated and extend just to the top of the cornerpost caps. The full return (templal molding) has been removed and the entire elevation is covered with shingles as noted above. Cornerposts are as described above. The foundation under this elevation is brick. West Elevation.
Facing the woods at the rear of the building is the gable-end elevation with shingled siding on the main body, and clapboards in the gable peak where there is a single window opening, now covered with louvers. There are two doors, one at each end of the elevation close to the cornerposts; a pair of windows (now covered with plywood) centered on the elevation; and flanking horizontal window openings covered in plywood between the outside edge of the paired on the wall above the line of the cornice molding which has been removed as noted above, and the horizontal windows have small square lights surrounding a larger single rectangular light (as noted inside), which is more of a Victorian-era design than Greek Revival. Photo #2. The boys and girls privies were once attached to this part of the building.
Each door in the gable end led to a covered porch with attached privy under the horizontal windows. North Elevation. The 53'-long north elevation rests on a granite and brick foundation (38' of granite, 12' of brick, and l'4" for each granite block cornerpost). Wood shingles cover the side wall. There are three window bays and the only operable entrance to the building, which is between the second and third window bays. The door is approached by three makeshift wooden steps that are dilapidated and have a modest hand rail. The door is a Victorian five-recessed-panel door set in a plain frame, and probably was reused when the entrances were changed from the façade to the sides based on other historic photographs that show similar doors on the gable front façade. Above the door on the cornice, there is a shadow of the small, hipped-roof open entrance porch that once shielded the door.
Each of the windows flanking the door has a single planked shutter, unlike the rest of the openings that have been covered with plywood. South Elevation. Also 53 feet long with the same lengths of granite and brick foundation as the north side, this elevation has three windows bays and an entrance door, all of which are boarded over and not functional. All three window bays are west of the slightly off-center entrance bay. The front section of this elevation is shingled, with no windows. As on the north side, the cornice molding over the door has a shadow line showing where the hipped-roof entrance porch was attached to the building. Interior.
The interior plan has three spaces, each spanning the width of the schoolhouse and include: a front classroom; a center entrance hall bay that is divided in two with large heating ducts and an east-west partition that separates the north entrance from the south entrance; and the rear classroom. The interior is substantially deteriorated, with the roof structure exposed due to fallen ceilings, and the cellar structure is visible from the cellar steps, which have also decayed. Window bays, blackboards, wainscoting, and doors are intact enough to know what the schoolhouse looked like when in use. Photo #3. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Ellice School Millis (Norfolk), MA Section number 7 Page 4 The full basement (cellar) under the rear 38 feet of the building has a dirt floor, stone foundation walls that have been reinforced with mortar topped by the cut-granite block foundation (viewed on the exterior), and an intact floor structure of the schoolroom and entrance bays above. Tall cut-granite posts support the beams and joists. The base of the original chimney remains in the cellar and is painted white. A brick chimney has been installed near the original chimney base and rises through the building.
The roof structure (partially exposed where ceilings have fallen) shows a common rafter plan with rafter ends resting on the ridgepole and each pair braced with a tie beam that is nailed to the side of the rafters (not mortised and pegged). Roofing boards are laid over the rafters. Many have been replaced with plywood sheets. One area on the east end of the north slope appears charred on the inside as described above. Common features of the interior spaces include the window sash (where they remain), wainscoting, plaster walls, blackboards, and doors. Although all windows are boarded up with plywood, some 6/6 sash with narrow muntin bars remain within the window casings or leaning against the walls in the rooms.
Window openings are trimmed with wide casings that have molded sills with apron strips of molding forming recessed panels on the side piece, and wide projecting molded lintels or crowns. Some window sills are integrated into the top molding of the wainscoting. Interior door openings have surrounds that are similar to the windows. Several doors are leaning against the walls and have either five horizontal raised panels or a mixed pattern of four or five recessed panels. Walls are covered with wainscoting of either wide vertical boards that are spaced to form recessed panels similar to the window and door frames, or narrow beaded boards. The latter pattern is found in the corners of the front and side walls of the east room, where the old entrance doors were converted to windows ca. 1915.
Above the wainscoting are blackboards framed by a narrow ovolo molding, and above those is plaster on wood lath. The front (east) classroom has two openings (doors) leading from the middle entrance halls/coat rooms (one near the north exterior door and one immediately next to the south exterior door), four windows on the east wall, two on the north wall, and blackboards lining the full length of the south and west walls above the wainscoting. Above the blackboard on the interior west wall is a large square grill for the heating duct surrounded by a plain slightly beveled frame. An old stovepipe hole has been patched on this same wall. The floor of this room is made of narrow boards, unlike the rest of the building, which has wide board floors.
This accounts for the 1908-09 School Committee report that the floor of the east room under the brick foundation needed to be replaced due to rot and drafts. The rear (west) classroom has similarly positioned openings (doors) from the entrance halls, two window openings on the south wall, two exterior doors, a pair of double-hung windows, two horizontal multilight windows set high on the west end wall, and blackboards lining most of the north and east (interior) walls as well as the west wall between the exterior doors and under the windows. Photo #4. The paired windows in the west wall have casings similar to other window casings; however, it is known that they were added later (after the chimney and stove centered on this wall were removed), thus the casings must have been copied or all interior casings may have been adjusted - although there are no records of such an expense.
The horizontal windows date from a later era due to the style of window and the surrounds which are flat and plain, unlike other window frames. A closet with shelves is located on the east wall under a large (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Ellice School Millis (Norfolk), MA Section number 7 Page 5 metal grill of the heating vent. The door of this closet is made of narrow beaded vertical boards. The large, square heating vent is surrounded by a wide, plain beveled frame similar to the one in the east classroom. A large plaster medallion adorns the ceiling centered north to south, but not east to west.
The location accounts for a formerly large room that included the present middle section of the building, before the entrances were moved from the front of the building to the sides. This plaster round was fitted with a large wooden circular frame from which hung small lights when the building was electrified in the early 1900s. At the time of the writing of this nomination, the frame was on the floor, leaning against piled desks on the back wall of the room. The middle space between the east and west classrooms has been partially divided with an east-west partition wall. The north side was the boys' entrance and coatroom, and there are pegs and hooks along the wall surfaces. The north wall of this space has an exterior door (the only operable entrance to the building) and a window. Doors with long recessed panels lead into each classroom.
A brick chimney (painted white) rises from the cellar in front of the interior partition wall. Also in this space are two wide, metal heating ducts that rise from the dismantled furnace in the cellar and branch at the top to fit into vents that once carried the heated air into each of the two classrooms (accounting for the heating grilles in each room). The south side of the middle space, the girls' entrance, also has some pegs for hanging coats on the walls, although not as many as the north side. The south wall has an exterior door and window aligned with those on the north wall (the boys' entrance). The interior doors are missing from the openings leading to each classroom. Cellar stairs are opposite the exterior door and enclosed by walls and a four-paneled door. In addition to the building debris in each room, there also are desks and chairs as well as window frames and doors.
A stack of wooden desks with no legs is piled in the west classroom. They appear to be early 20*h- century wooden desks that once had cast-iron bases. There is some speculation that the bases also were removed for the war effort, just as the furnace steel was taken in the 1940s. Physical Changes of Ellice Schoolhouse. Exterior changes of entrances and fenestration are shown in three generations of historic photographs that help to explain the evolution of the schoolhouse. A photograph from 1901 (Photo #5) and two from 1920 (Photo #7 & 8) have definitive dates written by the photographer on the paper sleeves that cover the glass plates. A third photograph is dated 1892 by Edwin Waite's family, and is included in a short essay written by his granddaughter when in fifth grade telling the history of the Ellice School as told to her by her grandfather.
(Photo #6) The Waite photograph shows the schoolhouse with clapboard siding, templar gable ends marked by a wide molded cornice that wrapped around the building, windows of 6/6 sash with flanking louvered shutters and pointed-arched molded lintels that butted up against the fascia board, and one entrance door in the gable-front east facade. The 1901 photograph shows the gable-front facade with two entrance doors in the two end bays, and the described windows in the middle two bays. Each door was framed by flanking pilasters carrying a wide entablature with projecting lintel. The single door in the Waite photograph had the same detailing.
The 1920 photographs show shingled siding of the main body (not in the gable peaks), the same windows and casings, windows in place of the doors in the gable-front elevation, and new entrances within modern hipped roof entrance porches on each side elevation, an alteration that was made in 1915. Two windows on each side (the front two on the (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 6 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Ellice School Millis (Norfolk), MA south side and the rear two on the north side) were shingled over to provide additional blackboard space in the interior ooms.
In all three generations of historic photographs, there is a single chimney with a metal hood centered on the ridge he earlier photographs (the Waite photograph and 1901) also show a brick chimney extending from the roof just insid the back wall of the building. The former is still in place in the cellar only and no longer extends through to the roof; the in the gable peak (attic). It is possible that the horizontal windows on this west end wall were added when the outhouses were redone ca. 1904. The outhouses, which have been removed, had been attached to the rear of the building - one on each side, corresponding to the two exterior doors on the west end wall. The early photographs also show a wellhouse located in the northwest corner of the property. No evidence of the well remains.
A diagram, drawn by Edwin Waite's granddaughter to accompany her fifth-grade essay on the schoohouse, shows halls on each side of the building between the exterior (north and south) walls and the small front stove room, with a large classroom behind the halls and stove room. Waite had attended the school from ca. 1892 to ca. 1898. The diagram, drawn by his granddaughter Penny Johnson, accounts for a large classroom behind the small stove room and flanking halls. Waite's granddaughter drew only one entrance door in the gable-front façade as seen in the photograph in the family's possession that was included with her essay. This single door and two halls (one on each side of the building) appears to be an odd arrangement because the hall along the south wall would have had no exterior door and access only from the large rear classroom.
The first change to two classrooms was made by removing a partition between one of the side halls and the small room near the front of the building in which there was a stove for heating the school. This 1904 change created an east (front) room that could accommodate the three primary grades, while the upper grades used the back (west) room, which was the larger of the two. The shift of the front entrance(s) to the sides occurred in 1915 when there was a need for two full-sized classrooms. This major change led to the incorporation of the early halls/coatrooms into the front classroom and the two entrance hall spaces in the middle of the building, which caused shrinking of the back (west) classroom to its present size in order to create these new entrance halls/coatrooms.
Interior evidence shows that once the entrances were moved from the gable-front elevation to the north and south sides, the large single classroom was divided into entrance hall space and classroom space behind, and the plaster medallion was no longer centered in the west classroom. The sequence of the three photographs raises some questions about the evolution of the schoolhouse doors. In question is the date of the Waite photograph, which shows three windows and one entrance only in the gable-front elevation. The one door was in the northernmost bay of the elevation and led to a hall with coat hooks that extended along the north wall to the large classroom behind. If the photograph predates the 1901 photograph, which shows two entrance doors on the main façade, it would mean that the second door was added sometime in that nine-year span.
If it postdates the 1901 photograph, it would mean that the original school had two entrances - one to each of the coatroom/halls along the long sides of the schoolhouse - and that one was removed after 1901, possibly in 1904 when an interior partition was removed to increase the size of the front classroom, thus losing one of the entrance halls. Another quandary about the (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 Page 7 OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Ellice School Millis (Norfolk), MA date of the Waite photograph is the lack of a bank of tall evergreen trees, which are seen in the 1901 photograph. It is trees behind the school is shown in the 1920 photographs.
Thus this fact about the tree line would also argue for a later date for the Waite photograph - probably between 1904, when one hall was incorporated into the front room, and 1915, when the entrances were moved to the north and south sides. Archaeological Description While no ancient Native American sites are located on the school property, sites may be present. Eleven ancient sites are located in the general area (within one mile); most located on floodplains, upland terraces, and other landforms bordering the Charles River and its associated wetlands. Environmental characteristics of the school property represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of Native sites. The school is located on a well-drained, level to moderately sloping, upland terrace within 1,000 feet of wetlands.
McCarthy Pond is located north of the school, and an unnamed pond, wetland, and tributary stream of the Charles River to the west. The Charles River flows northeasterly, approximately one-half mile to the south and southeast of the school. The entire town of Millis lies within the Charles River drainage. Soils surrounding the school are sandy, formed in glacial till in upland areas. Given the above information, the size of the school parcel (approximately three-quarters of an acre), and the extent of historic-period land use, a moderate to high potential exists for locating ancient Native American resources on the school property. A high potential exists for locating historic archaeological resources on the school property. Structural evidence of barns, stables, and outbuildings may survive on the school property.
Builder's trenches and other structural evidence of changes to the school building may also exist. Archaeological evidence of occupational-related features (trash pits, privies, wells) may also survive. In 1904, an old outhouse (location unknown) was removed and two new outhouses attached to the rear of the school. The latter outhouses have also been removed. Early photographs show a wellhouse, for which no evidence remains, in the northwest corner of the property. (end) Ellice School Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance