Nomination for Brown Square House

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Form No. 10-300 (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OFTHE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE DATA SHEET FOR NPS USE ONLY NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM RECEIVEO FEB 8 6 1975 DATE ENTERED 1AR 9 19/4 0B$75000 SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS 1 NAME HISTORIC Brown Square House AND/OR COMMON Garrison Inn LOCATION STREET & NUMBER 1l Brown Square CITY.

TOWN Newburyport STATE - VICINITY OF CODE Massachusetts 3 CLASSIFICATION 025 - NOT FOR PUBLICATION CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 6th coUNISsex co0509 CATEGORY -DISTRICT X_BUILDING(S) _STRUCTURE _SITE _OBJECT OWNERSHIP _PUBLIC XPRIVATE -B0TH PUBLIC ACQUISITION _IN PROCESS _BEING CONSIDERED STATUS _OCCUPIED -UNOCCUPIED XWORK IN PROGRESS , ACCESSIBLE XYES: RESTRICTED _YES: UNRESTRICTED _NO PRESENT USE _AGRICULTURE LMUSEUM A COMMERCIAL -PARK -EDUCATIONAL - PRIVATE RESIDENCE _ENTERTAINMENT REGIIOUS _GOVERNMENT SCIENTIFIC _INDUSTRIAL -TRANSPORTATION -MILITARY _OTHER: HOWNER OF PROPERTY NAME Garrison Inn Trust STREET & NUMBER 5 State Street CITY. TOWN Newburyport - VICINITY OF 5 LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION URTOUS GISTRY OF DEEDS,E South Registry District STREET & NUMBER 32 Federal Street STATE Massachusetts CITY.

TOWN Salem 6 REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE Inventory of the Historic Assets of the Commonwealth Massåêlisetts DATE 1973 DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS CITY.TOWN _FEDERAL XSTATE _COUNTY _LOCAL Massachusetts Historical Commission Boston STATE Massachusetts 7 DESCRIPTION CONDITION EXCELLENT _GOOD XFAIR _DETERIORATED _RUINS _UNEXPOSED CHECK ONE AUNALTERED ALTERED CHECK ONE XORIGINAL SITE _MOVED DATE. DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Description of the property

The buildings comprising the Garrison Inn in Newburyport, Massachusetts, were originally constructed in 1801-1810 as two mirror-image attached town houses for Moses Brown and his brother. The initial intention was for an entire terrace of these houses facing what became Brown Square, a long rectangular green just off State Street. The scheme was apparently far too grand and urban even for one of the major eastern ports and only these two dwellings, which would have tied down one end of the row, were completed. The appearance, today, is of one large and imposing brick structure. The townhouses, conceived on the grand scale of the early Republic, were four-story brick structures on a granite foundation completely below ground. The brick was laid in flemish bond. The two "I" structures combine to form a "T" in plan, the top of which represents the principal facade and faces due north.

It has eight windows across it on each floor, four for each of the two houses. The fan-lit main entries, with double doors and side lights, replace the two innermost windows on the first floor. All windows are 6/6 with brown sandstone sills and skew-back lintels, with the exception of the fourth floor where the windows are 6/3. A string course of brown sandstone runs the perimeter of the entire building at the second floor. The west elevation of the main block, facing Pitcomb Street, is three bays wide; the two northern windows flank a chimney flush with the wall. A single fan-lit door, now closed, replaces the southern-most window on the first floor. The east elevation of this block, which would have become a party wall with the proposed continuation of the row,has the two first floor windows flanking a flush chimney and one window on the northern end on both the second and third floor.

of the southern elevation of the main block that are exposed have two windows across on each floor, with a single fan-lit door replacing one óf the first floor windows in The rear wings, of brick and the same height as the main block, have three windows per floor along their east and west fronts respectively. The southern elevation of the combined wings has four windows across on all floors; the two innermost windows of the first floor are replaced by two single fan-lit doors. were the original kitchen entries, split by a party wall that has no expression on the exterior below the dentiled cornice. with the party wall splitting it. Iwo chimneys rise out of the center of the two halves of the service wing to complete the external appearance of the building, which has never been altered since it was built.

One exception is that one of the third floor windows in the south elevation of the main block in the eastern half was enlarged to make a door to a since-demolished fire escape. The principal alterations were internal, and even these preserved the details of the major rooms. The principal stairs were removed, the party wall punctured with large arches on each floor and some partitions, especially on the first floor, were removed, but all mantels, cornices, chairrails and bases were retained, as well as sliding doors between the paired drawing rooms on the second floor front of each residence. What exists is a pair of early Federal town houses almost perfectly preserved from without and retaining a great deal of the original detail and layout within, a monument to the scale of living the merchants of Newburyport expected to realize for themselves, their port city, and the early Republic.

That this extreme scale was never achieved again in location or style is no denigration of the idea that generated it.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD _PREHISTORIC -1400-1499 -1500-1599 -1600-1699 -1700-1799 X1800-1899 -1900- ARCHEOLUGY-PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC AGRICULTURE XARCHITECTURE ART XCOMMERCE -COMMUNICATIONS AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW _COMMUNITY PLANNING _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE _CONSERVATION _LAW ECONOMICS _LITERATURE _EDUCATION _MILITARY LENGINEERING -MUSIC _EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT _PHILOSOPHY LINDUSTRY _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT _INVENTION _RELIGION _SCIENCE _SCULPTURE _SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN -THEATER LTRANSPORTATION _OTHER (SPECIFY) SPECIFIC DATES 1809-1810 BUILDER

Statement of significance

/ARCHITECT Moses Brown, builder STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Brown Square House is a four story brick Federal building looking out over Brown Square and built in 1809-1810 by Moses Brown. It was designed to be part of a row of elegant town houses, facing a square given to the town by Moses Brown for the "public enjoyment." For various reasons, including the illness of the contractor and Brown's financial setbacks caused by the fire of 1811 and the War of 1812, the block was not finished, and alternating protruding bricks in the northeast wall were left exposed, waiting for a connecting building. Even so, these two interconnected resi- dences constitute the largest remaining brick building in Newburyport. Moses Brown was a leading Newburyport merchant and philanthropist and the houses remain as a symbol of his industry and maritime success.

Although the structure was built to contain private residences, its long use as a boarding house, hotel and inn has enriched its historical value. Moses Brown's reasons for building the town houses are not certain; possibly they were built as an investment. At the time the houses on Brown Square were built, Brown was already living in a fine house on Dalton Street, one he had coveted from his earliest days as a chaisemaker. In 1813 Brown's newly married daughter and her husband, William B. Bannister, were listed in a town directory as residing in one of the houses. William Bannister, who was a member of the General Court, first as a Representative, then a Senator, necessarily spent a good deal of his time in Boston, and by 1813 part of the Brown Square House had been converted into shops.

After Moses Brown's death in 1827, the Brown Square House passed to his granddaughter, Sarah White Bannister, who owned the property until her death in 1880. By 1849 the house was in use las a boarding house, then a hotel, remaining so until the inn was closed in 1948. Mrs. C.C.P. Betten was the first proprietress, being succeeded by w.H. Thompson, innkeeper, who was in turn succeeded by E.P. Pride in the 1870's. After Sarah Bannister Hale's death in 1880, Pride named his establishment the Brown Square Hotel. open year-round. In 1922 Robert W. Weltshe, owner of the now-demolished historic Wolfe Tavern, bought the property, and on July 2, 1923 opened the Garrison Inn. He named it in honor of William Lloyd Garrison, whose statue, executed by Daniel C. French, has stood in Brown Square since 1893.

After the construction of the Route 1 by-pass, business declined for the Garrison Inn, and in December of 1948 Weltshe closed the Inn. The building remained empty but intact up to the present, and the current owner, the Garrison Inn Trust, is trying to obtain funding to restore the building and is seeking a zoning variance to re- establish the Inn and to recapture the activity it once knew.

The rest of the file

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

MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Historical Survey Associates, Inc., Ihe Brown Square House - Garrison Inn, Newburyport, MA, 1972 10 GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY less than 1 acre UTM REFERENCES A[2,91 L314 47,6,0 14,71443,20 ZONE EASTING NORTHING cuLLILL VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION BLALLLULILuI ZONE EASTING DLULLILLI NORTHING JulLu LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE CODE COUNTY CODE STATE CODE COUNTY CODE 11 FORM PREPARED BY NAME / TITLE Christine Boulding, Assistant Survey Director and Anderson Notter Assoc., Inc ORGANIZATION Massachusetts Historical Commission STREET & NUMBER 40 Beacon Street CITY OR TOWN DATE February 18, 1975 TELEPHONE 617-727-8470 STATE Massachusetts Boston 12 STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATION THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS: NATIONAL_ STATE - LOCAL As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), 1 hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE SIGNATURE Eliakeh R. Amadon 2/26/75 TITLE Mass. Historic Preservation Officer DATE FOR NPS USE ONLY CERTIFY THATITHIS PROPERTY IS INCLUDED IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER emaule DATE STRECTOR. OFFICE OFARGTED DATE KEEPER OF THE NATIO </7/45 3/1/>5 Property Brown Squase House State Mass. Working Number 2. 28.73.31l TECHNICAL Photos / Maps / Essey CONTROL pl OK 3,3.75 HISTORIAN Restoratim fiim appears to be Anderson Nbtter. ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN Tormar 3.3.22 ARCHEOLOGIST ACCEPT LEBOUKL 3-3-75 OTHER HAER Inventory Review REVIEW UNIT CHIEF AccrpT Cole 3-4-75 BRANCH CHIEF National Register Write-up Federal Register Entry 5-6-75 Send-back Re-submit 3.725 KEEPER Entered 3/7/15 MAR 8 1975 IN T:2106- 74 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service WASO No. 7 Form No.

10-301a (7/72) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROPERTY PHOTOGRAPH FORM (Type all entries - attach to or enclose with photograph) STATE COUNTY FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER MAR 8 1975 DATE NAME ÇOMMON: Garrison Inn AND/OR HISTORIC: Brown Square House LOCATION STREET AND NUMBER: Brown Square CITY OR TOWN: Newburyport STATE: Massachusetts CODE 025 PHOTO REFERENCE PHOTO CREDIT: Martin Staab DATE OF PHOTO: 1974 NEGATIVE FILED 4 TState Street, Newburyport, MA IDENTIFICATION DESCRIBE VIEW, DIRECTION, ETC. north facade and west elevation COUNTY: Essex CODE 009 IRECHVED FEB 2 8 1975 NATIONAL REGISTER # 13/ * U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1973-729-152/ 1446 II - I PROPEITY OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER #| 081 Form No. 10-301 (Rev.

10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROPERTY MAP FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY RECEIVEDFEB 2 8 1975 DATE ENTERED MAR 7 SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- ENCLOSE WITH MAP 1975 1 NAME HISTORIC 2 3 4 Brown Square House AND/OR COMMOGarrison Inn LOCATION CITY. TOWN Newburyport _VICINITY OF MAP REFERENCE SOURCE United States Geological Survey SCALE 1:24,000 DATE 1952 REQUIREMENTS TO BE INCLUDED ON ALL MAPS 1. PROPERTY BOUNDARIES 2. NORTH ARROW 3. UTM REFERENCES COUNTY Essex STATE MA ENTRIES IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER STATE MASSACHUSETTS Date Entered MAR Y 1975 Name Location Brown Square House Newburyport Essex County Also Notified Hon. Edward M. Kennedy Hon. Edward W. Brooke Hon. Michael J. Harrington Regional Director, North Atlantic Region PR State Historic Preservation Officer Mrs.

Elizabeth R. Amadon, Executive Director Massachusetts Historical Commission 40 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts MMott/cha 3-10-75 YNR Data Sheet DATE: 3/17/97 Reviewer INIETASI GeOfO NR DOE March 7, 19.75 NAME AS IT APPEARS IN FEDERAL REGISTER: Brown Square House OTHER NANES: Garrison Inn, Mit (sCc) LOCATION: STREET & NUMBER LCITY. TOWN CSTATE 11 Brown Square Newburyport Massachusetts - VICINITY OF CONGRESSIUNAL DISTRICT 6th COUNTYEssex code 009 OWNER OF PROPERTY: (Circle) PRIVATE STATE LOCAL GOV'I MUNICIPAL COUNTY OTHER ADMINISTRATOR(underline) FEDERAL (AGENCY NAME) : NPS REGION: (CIRCLEX, N.ATLANTIC SOUTHWEST ROCKY MOUNTAIN MID ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST MIDWEST WEST PACIFIC NORTHWEST FEATURES: - INTERIOR - Substantially intact-1 - unknown - 4 - not applicable - 7 EXTERIOR ENVIRONS -Substantially intact-2 -- Substantially intact-3 _ unknown.- -.

unknown -6 _not applicable - _ Not applicable-9 -Interioi, exterior, coviions not intact-0 CONDITION- _EXCELLENT _GOOD SPATR _DETERIORATED SUNALTERED _RUINS _ALTERED _UNEXPOSED -Reconstructed _ORIGINAL SITE _MOVED -Unknown _U'nexcavated _Excavated ACCESS - Yes-restricted Yes-urrestricted No access Unknown historic district? YES NO WITHIN NATIONAL REGISTER HISTORIC DISTRICT? YES NO IF YES, NAME: WITHIN NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK? YES IF YES, NAME: ADAPTIVE USE: YES NO Saved?

YES NO FUNCTION(S): (use vocabulary words) then- prrvate reridence, commuual now- commercial SIGNIFICANCE: ARCHEULUGY-PREHISTORIC ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC AGRICULTURI t~ SARCHITECTUR 6-LOMMERCE _COMMUNICATIONS Claims "first" YES _CONSERVATION LECONOMICS _EDUCATION -ENGINEERING _EXPLORATION _INDUSTRY -INVENTION NO _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE _RELIGION _LAW/Gov't/politics _SCIENCE _LITERATURE -MILITARY _SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN _MUSIC _PHILOSOPHY POLITICS/GOVERNMENT _TRANSPORTATION _OTHER (SPECIFY) "oldest" YES NO -_entertainment health -recreation -settlement - socio/cultural _urban & commun planning "'only" YES NO ARCHITECTURAL STYLE: FEDERAL architect/m.builder: landscape/garden designer: interior decorator: ETHNIC GROUP: NAMES: (label role & personal appropriate date) events engineer: artist/artisan: builder/contractor: MosEs Brown, leadine, Rewbum, porr merchant and Philanthropist institutional VDATES: DATE OF CONSTRUCTION (Specific date or 1/4 of century): /809-18/0 DATE(S) OF "MAJOR" ALTERATIONS: (801,12 HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT DATE (S) : SOURCE: (OF NOMINATION) PRIVATE STATE LOCAL GOV"T MUNICIPAL COUNTY OTHER FEDERAL 'AGENCY: ACREAGE: (to nearest tenth of an acre) Cerothan 1 COMMENTS: (ånclude architectural informatzon hero) BRKK, ARONITELEOWNDaTTON; 4 STORIES, TSHAPE, LOW HIPPED ROOR, WTERIOR CHIMNETS; TWIN FRONT CENTER ENTRAUCES, EACH WITH SIDE LIEHTS AMD FANLIGHT; -SIDEENTRANCE WIAL RANLENT, STONE BELTEOURSE AUD WINDOW SILLS AND LINTELS; DENTICULATED MODILLION CORNICE; HUCH INTERIOR Atteg DETAIL INTACT.

FEDERAL. THO MIRROR-IMAGE TOWAHOUSES ENVISION SIGNIFICANCE:(maximum two sentences) inad tasitky veyinat elia ED AS THE END OF AN ENTTRE TERRACE OF "HOUSES FACING BROWNLAreZ SayaR&; BUILT ROR MOSES BROWN, LEADING NEWBURYPORT MERCHANT PHILANTHROPIST: