Nomination for State Normal Training School

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

NPS Form 10-900 (3-82) OMB No.1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form See instructions in How to Complete National Register Forms Type all entries-complete applicable sections 1. Name For NPS use only JUN 8 1983 received date entered historic State Normal Training School (preferred) and/or common 2. Location Washing ton Street School street & number Washington Street N/Anot for publication city, town Westfield N/Avicinity of state MA 3. Classification Category Oyynership district public X building(s) private structure both site Public Acquisition object in process N/Abeing considerec code 025 county Hampden code 013 Status occupied X unoccupied work in progress Accessible X yes: restricted .

yes: unrestricted no Present Use _ agriculture commercial educational entertainment - government industrial military museum park private residence religious scientific transportation X other: vacant 4. Owner of Property name City of Westfield street & number City Hall, Court Street city, town Westfield N/A vicinity of 5. Location of Legal Description state Massachusetts courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Registry of Deeds, Hampden County Hall of Justice street & number 50 State Street city, town Springfield 6. Representation in Existing Surveys state Massachusetts title Inventory of Historic Assets of the has this property been determined eligible? Conmonwea1th #156 date September, 1982 - federal X state - - yes x no - county local depository for survey records Massachusetts Historical Conmission city, town Boston state MA 7.

Description State Normal Training School, Washington Street, Westfield, MA Condition x excellent good fair VUL _ deteriorated ruins .unexposed check one A unaltered altered Check one & original site moved date N/A Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

Description of the property

The State Normal Training School, a late Victorian masonry structure, (1899/1900. Gardner, Pyne and Gardner architects), is situated on a. level lot, set back about forty feet from Washington Street in Westfield and roughly centered between the two other side streets. Landscaping consists of a lawn with some trees and shrubs on Washington Street; the remainder of the lot is paved. There are no outbuildings associated with the school structure. A mixture of residential and commercial business buildings dating from the last three-quarters of the 19th century characterizes the surrounding neighborhood. Rectangular in plan, the State Normal Training School rises 2½ stories from a full basement (granite at grade, back below grade) with a large attic due to its double hip roof. Greyish slate shingles sheath the lower pitch. The shallow upperpitch with skylight is not visible from the street.

Pairs of decorative book chimneys pierce both the east and west roof slopes. Red brick, probably produced by the Westfield Brick company, is the predominant building material, trimmed with cut brownstone. The 1900 Board of Education Annual Report states that the bricks were "Culled", undoubtably to keep construction costs down! The building's four symmetrical elevations are basically similar with a central bay surmounted by a projecting roof gable and flanking bays containing four windows on each story (rectangular on the first and segmentally arched on the second) and four small windows at basement grade level. Ornamentation overall is fairly simple consisting of plain brownstone window lintels and watercourse, dog tooth brickwork between the upper story and eaves and exposed decorative rafter feet under the eaves.

Architectural interest is focussed on the central bays in which vertical emphasis plays against the strong horizontality of the total structure. The most elaborate treatment occurs on the west (Washington Street) elevation; a double door entry on the first story is recessed undér a segmental arch with carved brownstone panels and colonettes flanked - by segmentally arched windows. This is surmounted by a brownstone lintel spanning the central bay and engraved 'in gothic type: "State Normal Training School 1899". A row of five segmentally arched windows marks the second story, surmounted in the gable field by a single wider segmentally arched window.

The north and a south (side) elevation's central gable bays are identical consisting of a shallow gable roof projecting porch supported on brownstone columns at basement level surmounted by a square window and segmentally arched window which overlap the first and second stories and second and attic stories respectively. The east (rear) elevation repeats the side elevations, but lacks an entry porch. With the exception of a three story steel fire escape applied to the rear elevation which has not irretrievably damaged the fabric of the building. The exterior of the Training School is unchanged since its construction. The interior: is described in the assessor's records as having a concrete basement a superstructure of steel beams and columns, pine wainscoted walls, and ceilings of pressed metal (tin?). Almost all of this interior detailing remains intact.

The first floor contains five classrooms and two offices, while the second floor has six classrooms. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form OMB No.1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 Far NPS use anly received date entered Continuation sheet State Normal Training School Item number 7 Hashing ton st, hestfiend Page 1 The Training School is located on the site of the original State Normal School constructed in 1843. Ihere ls, theretore, some potential for the presence of associated archaeological remains in the torm of surficial artifact deposits and for features. A forthcoming rehabilitation project is planned to stabilize the building's fabric and convert it for use as office space, following the Secretary of the Interior's Standards.

Part 8 Page 1 The State Normal Training School typifies the characteristics of the Romanesque Revival style of the late Victorian period in its overall proportions, ornamentation and multiple masonry types. Only two similar institutional buildings of the period are extant in Westfield: the Ashley Street School and the State Normal School (1892; NR) .

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Significance State Normal Training School , Washington St., Westfield, MA Period Areas of SignificanceCheck and justify below prehistoric -archeology-prehistoric community planning 1400-1499 archeology-historic - conservation 1500-1599 agriculture economics 1600-1699 architecture X education 1700-1799 art engineering 1800-1899 commerce exploration/settlement 1900 communications industry _ invention lándscape architecture law literature military music philosophy politiçs/government . religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater transportation other (specify) Specific dates Built 1899/1900 Builder

Statement of significance

/Architect Gardner, Pyne & Gardner, architects Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The State Normal Training School possessed integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. It is an outstanding local example of late Victorian institutional architecture designed by the prominent area firm of Gardner, Pyne and Gardner, additionally it served as the home of the second oldest public teacher training school in the nation, thus chronicling a turning point in late 19th century educational reform. The State Normal Training School meets criteria A, B, and C of the National Register of Historic Places. The Training School is one of two surviving structures of: 19th century date associated with the Westfield State Normal School, the other is the Westfield State Normal Building (NR-1978).

Both buildings represent a dramatic shift in attitudes towards education at the end of the 19th century which emphasized the professionalization of teaching. The normal school instructed aspiring teachers while the training school functioned as a facility for practice teaching and served as a regular school for the community. Present day state colleges are an outgrowth of this system. The only other major example of a normal school established in the mid-19th century in Massachusetts 15 in Bridgewater, however, the innovative teachers training school concept 1s unique to westtiela in this period. As early as 1896, there was the need for a State run school for the training of future teachers at the Westfield Normal School; due to the erection of the new.

Normal School; in 1892, the student population had increased to a point where there were inadequate provisions for the future teachers to observe well trained teachers or practice teach. Sending Normal Schoo1 students into the Westfield Schools for practice teaching proved unsuccessful, because they were invariably sent to the most overcrowded schools, and the principal and staff could not oversee student teachers. In 1898, Westfield Normal School Principal Chapin and others requested the building of a separate "training" school, as had been done in other State normal schools. The Legislature approved funding, the building was constructed, and the doors opened in the fall of 1900. For approximately fifty years the Normal School or Westfield State used the school for training teachers.

In 1956 the school was turned over to the Westfield School system; Title to the Training School passed to the City in 1977. The State Normal School at Westfield was significant not only for the region of Western Massachusetts which it primarily served, but for the nation as well. Its contribution to education acknowledged byPresident Theodore Roosevelt on a visit to Westfield in 1902. Among the distinguished persons associated with, the school were the statesmen George B. Cortelyon, and the chemist, Lewis Benajal Allyn. The architect primarily responsible for the State Normal Training School, Eugene C. Gardner was the founder and principal member of the architectural firm of Gardner, ryne ana Gardner and the toremost architect in the Springfield-Westfield-Northampton area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Born in the Florence section of Northampton, Gardner started his career in Northampton and was later based in Springfield. (continued) 9.

The rest of the file

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

Major Bibliographical References Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Board of Education Annual Reports, Boston, MA, 1897-1900. , Massachusetts State Normal School at Westfield, MA for the Year Ending June 25, 1901, Boston, MA, 1901. Lmes san, ard otes oestprinifield 400ah tests1, 275-82. 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property approx. 3/4 acres Quadrangle name Southwick, MA/CT Quadrangle scale 1:25000 UT M References 18518,29 Zone Easting 4PP.5559 Northing cLI LuL ELIJ GLy LLLL Zone Easting EasiLul Northing. FLU LLILLLI LILILL HLULALbau Verbal boundary description and justification Bounded north on Church Street 194 feet, west on Washington Street 175 feet, south on School Street 175 feet, thence northerly 168 feet to the first mentione bounds.

List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries state code county code N/A state code county code 11. Form Prepared By name/title Virginia Fitch, Preservation Planner and Lee David Hamberg, consultant for Kane & White, Architects, Farmington,CT organization Massachusetts Historical Commission March, 1983 street & number 294 Washington Street telephone (617) 727-8470 city or town Boston state MA 02108 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), I 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.

State Historic Preservation Officer signature Patiua 2 Westowski title State Historic Preservation Officer, Mass. Hist. Commdate 5/26/83 For NPS use only 1 hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register Entered in tha Natio0al Regiater 7/7/83 eaiste date date Attest: Chief of Registration NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES *ted States Dogert at ef stre lodaria ational Park Serric State Normal Training School Hampden County MASSA CHUSETTS EYALUATION / RETÜRN SHE resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: Reviower's comments: Working No. JUN 8 1983 Fed. Reg. Date: 2-7-84 Date Due: 7/2/83-2/23/83 Action: LACCEPT2/2/83 Entered in the - RETURN National Register REJECT. Federal Agency:. - sample - request appeal - NR decision -Nomination returned for: Recom. / Criteria Reviewer.

Discipline Date technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussad below continuation sheet 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Proco u Ver 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Représentation in Existing Surveys W dis preperty tewn tremm 7. Description ezcotle pood detortorate ,ruine and orgined ( hock em - unertered summary paragraph completeness clarity alterations/integrity dates boundary selection Jhoek ene noved 8. Significance eried Aroce el 3 eme detes wder Arentteet -t ol Stenifcanoo (in e summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relation ship of integrity to significance justification of exception other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10.

Geographical Data lareage of nominate Quedrangle neme UMTReterencss Verbel beundery deecriptien and juetificatien 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evalueted signiticance of thie property aithin the state ie: _ netional - state Mistorie Pr vation Officer 13. Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Signed - Date Phone: 202 272-3504 Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet State Normal Training School Washington Street Westfield, Massachusetts Photographed by Lee David Hamberg, September 1982 Negs. filed w/ Westfield Historical Commission Photo no. l of 3 Front (west) facade SERGE DORMELS ERrininG State Normal Training School Washington Street Westfield, Massachusetts Photographed by Lee David Hamberg, September 1982 Negs. filed w/ Westfield Historical Commission Photo no.

2 of 3 Front (west) doorway State Normal Training School Washington Street Westfield, Massachusetts Photographed by Lee David Hamberg, September 1982 Negs. filed w/ Westfield Historical Commission Photo no. 3 of 3 Side (south) facade