Nomination for Carr, Martin W., 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 received JUN _ 4 1984 date entered JUL 5 1984 historic Martin W. Carr School and/or common 2. Location Carr School street & numbem25 Atherton Street N/A not for publication city, town Somerville N/A vicinity of state Massachusetts 3.

Classification Category Ownership - district - public & building(s) X private structure both site Public Acquisition object in process N/A being considered code 025 county Middlesex code 017 Status x occupied -unoccupied x work in progress Accessible x yes: restricted - yes: unrestricted _ no Present Use -agriculture commercial educational entertainment government -industrial _ military museum * private residence (Apts.) religious scientific transportation other: 4. Owner of Property name Carr School Limited Partnership (Joyce Meschan, Michael Robinson, William Gaynor General Partners) street & number 219 Concord Avenue city, town Cambridge N/A- vicinity of 5. Location of Legal Description state Massachusetts courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Middlesex County Registry of Deeds street & number Thorndike Street city, town Cambridge 6.

Representation in Existing Surveys stateMassachusetts title Inventory of Historic Assets of The Commonwealth #70 date 1981 has this property been determined eligible? yes XX no federal XX state county - local depository for survey records Massachusetts Historical Commission city, town Boston state Massachusetts 7. Description Carr School, Somerville, MA Condition x excellent good fair _ deteriorated _ ruins unexposed Check one x unaltered altered Check one X original site _ moved date _ n/a Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

Description of the property

The Martin W. Carr School of 1898 is a handsome institutional example of Renaissance and Colonial Revival style architecture. The three-story brick building faces south on Atherton Street, two short blocks from the busy arterial of Somerville Avenue. At the north the school is bounded by Cleveland Street, and at the west by Harvard The freestanding building is situated on a level .68 acre site on the southern slope of Spring Hill, and is set back approximately 50 feet from Atherton Street. At present, the school is surrounded by an asphalt playground at the west. (Photo 1). To the east, along Atherton, is a densely-built block of one and two-family houses. Immediately to the north, south and west is a relatively intact residential neighborhood with stylish mid-nineteenth century single-family houses and later two-family house and apartment buildings.

From the school site and from inside the building there are excellent views of Cambridge to the south, particularly of the towers of Memorial Hall and the surrounding buildings at Harvard University. The H-shape plan is symmetrically organized with two classroom wings flanking a central hall and two-story grand staircase. Basement to third-story stairs are located at the north and south ends of the wing central hall. The south of the school faces the street and serves as the main facade. The building rests on a rough faced granite sill and buttressed basement walls which rise to the first brick belt courses of the rusticated first story. The basement is lit by simple segmental-arched windows. The school is finished entirely with red brick laid in common running bond.

Granite trim us used at the entrances, at window sills, and in one continous belt course between the second and third stories. Second and third story windows are vertically aligned and are grouped in arcades; they contain 8/2 sash on major elevations. At the first story, twelve identical brick belt courses rusticate the surface and accentuate the brick voussoirs of the rectangular windows. Third story windows are uniformly round-arched, with deep brick surrounds. The hip roof is slate-covered and a single chimney rises from the north wing.] The wooden cornice has a continuous treatment of dentils and modillions. (Photos 2 and 3). The main facade (south) has a central entry pavilion trimmed in granite and flanked by shallow, paired pilasters. (Photo 4). fanlight and flanking rectangular windows. The entrance is spanned by a granite panel descirbed with the words "Martin W. Carr".

There are two simple rondels in the spandrels. Above the pavilion rise a pair of rectangular windows and a prominent Palladian motif window. Although this central pavilion does not project, as is the case with many other school designs of the period, it does provide a strong organizing focus for the facade. It is flanked by three windows at each story on each side whose configuration have already been described. (Cont.) NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form For NPS use only received date entered Continuation sheet Martin W. Carr Schoo1 Item number 7 Page 1 Physical appearance (cont.) The west facade, facing the playground, opens to the grand staircase and the central hall. The entry echoes the treatment of the main facade.

The central portion of the elevation, which is deeply recessed, is organized by a prominent arcade; the upper story is lit by Palladin-motif windows which contain sash with heavy mullions. The elaborate treatment gives the building a second facade, oriented to the playground rather than the OMBNo. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 8.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Significance Martin W. Carr School 35 Atherton Street, Somerville, MA Period - prehistoric 1400-1499 1500-1599 1600-1699 1700-1799 XX 1800-1899 1900 Areas of SignificanceCheck and justify below - archeology-prehistoric community planning archeology-historic conservation agricuiture economics xx architecture xx education art engineering commerce communications exploration/settlement- industry invention landscape architecture law literature military music philosophy politics/government religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater transportation other (specify) Specific dates erected in 1898 Builder

Statement of significance

/Architect Aaron H. Gould, architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Martin W. Carr School possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship and association. It is a well-designed and preserved example of Renaissance and Colonial Revival institutional architecture, and is the only surviving work of local architect Aaron H. Gould in Somerville. Built on the site of the earlier Spring Hill Primary School (1850) and the First Baptist Church (1852), it has associations with the development of the Spring Hill area, one of Somerville's earliest residential subdivisions (1847). As an imposing public building, it reflects the expansion of City facilities to meet the strong population growth at the turn of, the century. Thus, the Carr School meets criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places.

The Carr School was opened in 1898 to serve as a 14-room grade school. Iwo additional rooms were devoted to manual training facilities used by upper grades. The Carr was the first H-plan school in Somerville. This modern plan allowed maximum light and air into the classrooms. Gould's Ellis School (1898) and the Kelley School (1902, razed) both in Cambridge, evidence the H-plan and similar exterior treatment. Although originally considered spacious, the School Report of 1901 noted that the building was already becoming seriously crowded. When opened, the Carr was one of 24 schools in the city and accomodated 700 pupils. Somerville's schools served a population which rose from 40,152 in 1890 to 61,643 in 1900. Martin W. Carr (1892-1902), for whom the building is named, was president of M.W. Carr and Company, a Somerville jewelry manufacturing firm with a national market.

Carr served as an alderman and as a member of the School Committee. He resided on Craigie Street, at the edge of the Spring Hill neighborhood. The immediate neighborhood was platted in the mid-nineteenth century as a reilroad commuter's suburb, intended primarily for Boston businessmen. Carr School was among the last additions to the area. Greek Revival, Italianate, and Second Empire Style single-family houses which surround the school site are testament to Spring Hill's early period of significance. Opposite the school to the south is the "Round House" built by inventor Enoch Robinson in 1856. (Cont.) 9.

The rest of the file

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

Major Bibliographical References Withey, Henry & Elsie Biographical Dictionary of American Architects; 2od Angalis, Hec.e5910 Samuels, Edward A. Somerville: Past and Present. Boston: Samuels and kii JIfa1l,1897 Somerville Annual Report 1898-1901 Zellie, Carol. Beyond the Neck: The Architecture and Development of Somerville, MA 10. Geographical Data Somerville: O.P.D.C., 1982. Acreage of nominated property 29 402 sq. ft. Quadrangle name Boston North, Mass. Quadrangle scale - 1:25,000 UT M References A 19| [B|2 6 |499 4694430 Zone Easting Northing BLULIL Zone Easting LLLILIL FLI HLJ LILIL Northing LLILLL LLLL LILL E L LILL GLULLILLULL Verbal boundary description and justification Nominated property includes entire parcel of land on which the building is sited. See attached map for delineation of bounds.

List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries state code county code state N/ A code county code 11. Form Prepared By name/title Candace Jenkins, Director of Preservation Planning Carol Zellie, Landscape Research Madison, Wisconsin organization Massachusetts Historical Commission date March 1984 street & number 294 Washington Street telephone 617-727-8470 city or town Boston state Massachisetts 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 bythe National Park Service.

State Historic Preservation Officer signature Patuuu Rlestowska title State Historic Preservation Officer For NPS use only I hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register eliru Byen Eatered in tha National Register date 5/23/84 date 1/5/84 Attest: Chief of Registration date NPS Form 10-900-a (3-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Martin W. Carr School Item number 8 OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only received date entered Page 1 The City's earliest public buildings of architectural significance included the Latin High School (1871) by Samuel J.F. Thayer; the Central Engine House (1871) by Shepherd S. Woodcock, and the Police Station (1874) by G.A. Clough.

Designed in the Victorian Gothic Style, with steep roofs capped by iron ceasting, all have been razed or altered. The razed Romanesque Revival Public Library (1884) by George F. Loring was the major public building of the 1880's. Renaissance Revival and Queen Anne Style designs were favored by the architects of Somerville's public commissions of the 1890's, hotably the now-altered English High School (1895) by Hartwell and Richardson. Aaron H. Gould (1865-1930) was born in Nova Scotia. Trained as a carpenter, he worked on large hotel and residential projects in Maine and in the South before moving to Somerville in the 1890's. He resided at 50 Columbus Avenue, in a Colonial Revival house of his own design, and maintained an office there and at 42 Court Street, Boston.

Gould was responsible of major public projects in Somerville including the now-razed Central Fire Station (1895) and the City Stables and Water Department (1898). Among unexecuted proposals of note is the Somerville Armory Plan (1986), a monumental structure with crenellated towers which would have re-used a portion of the Victorian Gothic Style Fire Station of 1871. Gould also did a substantial amount of work for the City of Cambridge during this period; the North Cambridge Fire Station (1896) is an extant example of his work there. IASO Form - 17 'R" June 198 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Carr, Martin W., School Middlesex County MASSAC HUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government - owner objection - appeal Substantive Review: -sample Reviewer's comments: -request Working No.

JN 4 1984 Fed. Reg. Date:2.5.5g Date Due: 1=5 =-87/7-19-54 Action: /ACCEPT - 7-5-84 Entored in t2ai _RETURN National Registen _REJECT_ Federal Agency: -appeal -NR decision Recom./Criteria. Reviewer Discipline. Date - see continuation sheet Nomination returned for: _technical corrections cited below _substantive reasons discussed below 1. Name 2. Location 3. Classification Category Ownership Public Acquisition 4. Owner of Property 5. Location of Legal Description 6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? 7. Description -yes -no Condition -excellent -good fair - deteriorated -ruins -unexposed Check one -unaltered -altered Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance summary paragraph - completeness - clarity - alterations/integrity dates - boundary selection Status Accessible Present Use Check one -original site -moved date 8.

Significance Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below Specific dates Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Builder/Architect -summary paragraph a - completeness*) L clarity -applicable criteria -justification of areas checked -relating significance to the resource context Lrelationship of integrity to significance -justification of exception -other 9. Major Bibliographical References 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name UTM References Verbal boundary description and justification 11. Form Prepared By 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national _state _local State Historic Preservation Officer signature title 13.

Other date -Maps -Photographs -Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Signed - Date _ Phone: _ Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet Martin W. Carr School Somerville, MA Photo 1 west elevation (left) south elevation (right) Photographer: Michael Robinson Negatives on File: Vis1on, Inc. 219 Concord Ave. Cambridge, MA March 1984 Martin W. Carr School Somerville, MA Photo 2 first story window and exterior detail Photograpner: Michael Robinson Negatives on File: Vision, Inc. 219 Concord Ave. Cambridge, March 1984 Martin W. Carr School Somerville, MA Photo 3 third story window detail Pnotographer: Michael Robinson ivegatives on file: Vis1on, Inc. 219 Concora Ave. Cambriage, MA Marcn 1984 Martin w. Carr School Somerville, MA Photo 4 south elevation (main) Photograpner: Michael Robinson Negatives on File: Vision, Inc. 219 Concord Ave.

Cambridge, MA Marcn 1984 Martin W. Carr School Somerville, MA Photo 5 east elevation (detail) Pnotographer: Michael Robinson Negatives on File: Vision, Inc. 219 Concord Ave. Cambridge, . MA March 1984 Martin w. Carr School Somerville, MA Photo 6 interior stair detail Photographer: Michael Robinson Negatives on File: Vision, Inc. 219 Concord Ave. Cambridge, MA Marci 1984