Nomination for Myrtle Street 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 DEC 6 1984 date entered JAN 3 1985 historic Myrtle Street School (same) and/or common 2. Location street & number 64 Myrtle Street N/A not for publication city, town Springfield N/A vicinity of State Massachusetts 3.

Classification Category Ownership district X public x building(s) private Structure both site Public Acquisition object n/ a in process being considered code 025 county Hampden 013 code Status _ occupied X unoccupied - work in progress Accessible * yes: restricted - yes: unrestricted no Present Use - agriculture commercial educational entertainment - government . industrial military 4. Owner of Property museum park private residence religious scientific transportation other: Currently Vacant name City of Springfield street & number 36 Court Street city, town Springfield N/A_ vicinity of 5. Location of Legal Description state Massachusetts 01103 courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Hampden County Registry of Deeds street & number 50 State Street city, town Springfield 6.

Representation in Existing Surveys Inventory of the Historic Assets title of the Commonwealth #3245 state Massachusetts has this property been determined eligible? yes X no date 1984 federal X state - county - local depository for survey records Massachusetts Historical Commission city, town Boston state Massachusetts 7. Description Myrtle Street School, Springfield, Massachusetts Condition excellent x9ood : fair Check one Check one deteriorated ruins unexposed unaltered Xoriginal site -x altered _ moved date N/A (1904 Addition by James M. Currier; 1914 additions by E.C. & G.C (Gardner) Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance

Description of the property

The Myrtle Street School consists of a complex of four interconnected brick buildings located on a block of Myrtle Street between Hampden and Worcester Streets in northeastern Springfield, more than six miles from the center of the city. It is situated in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield, an area along the Chicopee River that was developed in the mid nineteenth century as a planned mill village. The school is built into a hillside on the upper terrace of the Chicopee River. Set back fifty five feet from Myrtle Street, the school occupies a lot of over two acres, with sloping lawns to the north and east, and playing fields and a parking lot at its rear, western side. The school's surroundings are primarily residential, with single- and multi-family wood-frame houses of the mid nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

Built in three stages between 1868 and 1915, the school is the work of two prominent Springfield architects, James M. Currier and E. C. Gardner. Each section is distinguished by wel1-preserved period details and styling. The school has been well maintained and is the second oldest surviving school in Springfield. In its present form, the school is basically U-shaped in plan, but with asymmetrical projections resulting from the numerous additions it has sustained. The 1868 mansard-roofed original structure is visible from Worcester Street, to the north of Myrtle Street. This structure is now at the rear of the school. The major additions of 1903 and 1914 are Joined by a central entrance pavilion and present a united main facade to Myrtle Street. The gymnasium, also part of the 1914 addition, faces Hampden Street to the south.

The attached sketch map keys the four phases of the school's development to the following descriptions. 1868 A. Original Building The earliest part of the school (A), dating from 1868, is located at the rear, western side of the complex. This portion is a 2 1/2-story brick building standing on a brick foundation. It is dominated by a projecting central pavilion that once served as the school's main entrance. The building has elaborately detailed Second Empire styling. A brick watertable surmounts a raised basement and delineates the base of the first story; rising from the watertable are round-headed windows with brownstone sills. On the west facade, these windows are unadorned. On the north and south sides, however, the windows are further elaborated by rounded brick hood molds with decorative stops and are set into recessed two-story brick arches.

Above a modillioned wooden cornice, the building is capped by a slate mansard roof with ornate wooden dormers. The western facade of the building was obscured when the first addition was made to the school in 1903. 1903 B. Classroom Wing The first addition (B), which faces Myrtle Street, is an imposing three-story structure with a fifteen-bay facade and a central pediment. It was built in 1903 across the western facade of the 1868 building and features fine Classical Revival-style detailing. The brick addition 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 For NPS use only received date entered 985 Continuation sheet Myrtle Street School Item number Page 1 has a central, five-bay pedimented pavilion projecting from its main facade.

Monumental brick pilasters anchor the pediment. Centered in the pavilion is a recessed entrance framed by brownstone pllasters and crowned by a brownstone entablature with cornice, dentils, egg-and-dart molding, and a wide frieze. Flanking the pavilion are two symmetrical five-bay wings. Window openings are topped by brownstone lintels on the first story and brownstone keystones on brick lintels on the second story. In 1914, a large three-part section was added to the Myrtle Street School. It consisted of a second large classroom wing facing Myrtle Street (C), a three-story recessed entry pavilion connecting the 1903 and 1914 wings (D), and a low, one-story gymnasium block (E). C. Classroom Wings Extending to the south of the 1903 wing, this addition has a similar but not identical 1mposing facade facing Myrtle Street, with a central projecting pavilion.

Differences of fenestration and detailing mark the addition's sixteen-bay facade. The pavilion is six bays wide and has the words "Myrtle Street School" inscribed in brownstone between the first and second stories. Arched window hoods form an arcade on the second story. Symmetrical five-bay wings flank the pavilion. The southern side of the building, facing Hampden Street, is noteworthy for its two-story, three-bay projecting pedimented pavilion with monumental pilastered entrance. The entrance has a shouldered brownstone surround and is crowned by a brownstone entablature with cornice ancones and wide decorated frieze. Above the entry is a single window opening, the only fenestration on this side of the building. The two flanking paneled bays contain brownstone plaques with cornucopia festoons. D.

Entry Pavilion A recessed three-story three-bay entry joins the two classroom wings on Myrtle Street. The first story, with its central entrance, is covered by a portico with brownstone Corinthian columns. Three arched windows with brownstone surrounds and keystone occupy the second story above the entrance. They are separated by sculptured rondels. E. Gymnasium The gymnasium is located at the rear of the 1914 classroom wing and faces Hampden Street. is a low one-story flat-roofed block of brick construction. Its three-bay facade features a central entrance with unusual brownstone Egyptian Revival detailing, including battered piers, cavetto cornice, and winged sun disk. Above the entrance is a brownstone panel inscribed with a Latin motto: "Mens Sana In Corpore Sano" ("A Sound Mind in a Sound Body"). Further above the entrance is an ornate brownstone date plaque.

The gymnasium is capped by a curved parapet. Interior The school retains much of its original wood trim and cabinetry throughout. Wooden staircases and structural supports in the 1868 section, as well as steel and terrazzo staircases and steel supports in the major additions, also remain. 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 Myrtle Street School Item number Arutaegiarea OMB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 For NPS use only received date entered JAN Page 2 3 structures (company housing?), and privies or other features from the 1868-1903 period.

From the form

The catalogue entry the section above was filed under.

Significance Myrtle Street School, Springfield, Massachusetts Period prehistoric 1400-1499 1500-1599 1600-1699 X 1700-1799 1800-1899 1900 Areas of Significance - Check and justify below archeology-prehistoric _ X community planning - archeology-historic conservation agriculture X architecture X economics education art engineering commerce exploration/settlement communications industry invention landscape architecture law literature military music philosophy politics/government religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater transportation other (specify) Specific dates 1868;1903/4;1914/15 Builder

Statement of significance

Architect J.M. Currier; E.C. & G.C. Gardner TheMyrtre osSrenit Schelini one paragraph is a wel -preserved example of late 19th/early 20th century school architecture displaying Second Empire and Classical Revival styling. Its plan and three stages of construction are significant as reflections of evolving changes in schoolhouse design from 19th to 20th century precepts. The school is also significant for its associations with several prominent architects and for its role in the development of Indian Orchard, a planned mid 19th century industrial community in a remote corner of Springfield. It retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and feeling, and meets Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level. The mill village of Indian Orchard grew up during the mid 19th century.

Using the waterpower of the dammed Chicopee River and its recently constructed canal, the Ward Manufacturing Company established a cotton mill in the area in 1854 and at the same time built boardinghouses and tenements for its workers. The Indian Orchard Mills Company followed suit in 1858 when it constructed a second mill and additional boardinghouses. During the 1860s the community grew rapidly, and by the end of the decade, a new school became a necessity. The first school in Indian Orchard, built in 1848 by the Indian Orchard Canal Company, had been a one-room wood-frame structure that doubled as a church. It was located on Myrtle Street, between Hampden and Berkshire Streets. An 1854 replacement, at the southeast corner of Berkshire and Myrtle Streets, brought additional space, but it too quickly became insufficient.

A two-story wood structure containing four rooms, the school was sold to the City of Springfield in 1857 and functioned as Indian Orchard's only school until the nominated property was built. in the years immedlately tollowing the Civil war, Springfield embarked on a major school nodernization plan. Six large brick schools, all with fashionable slate mansard roofs, were built. Among them was the new school in Indian Orchard, which today is the only one of the six still standing. ,The Indian Orchard Mills provided a lot at the southeast corner of worcester and Myrtle Streets, and local architect James M. Currier drew the plans for the new school. Completed in 1868 at a cost of nearly $29,000, the brick building, known for many years simply as the Indian Orchard School, had five large classrooms and a hall that seated 250 persons.

Its first principal was Rebecca Sheldon, the first woman to be named principal in the city of Springfield. In the late 19th century, Indian Orchard underwent a major industrial expansion, bringing still more people to the village. This made a further enlargement of the educational 9.

The rest of the file

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

Major Bibliographical References Municipal Report of the City of Springfield, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1890, 1904, 1905, 1908, 1915, 1916 Springfield Directory: 1866/67, 1867/68 Springfield Sunday Union, May 23, 1915 (See Continuation Sheet) 10. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property 2.3 acres Quadrangle name Springfield North Quadrangle scale 1:25000 UT M References A 1,8| 710,5/969 14,679169 B Zone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing LL GL1 Verbal boundary description and justification (See enclosed Building Dept. plan.) List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries state N/A code county code state code county code 11. Form Prepared By Betsy Friedberg, Preservation Planner, (MHC), with Edmond P.

Lonergan, Springfield name/title organization Massachusetts Historical Commission date September 1984 street & number 294 Washington Street telephone (617) 727-8470 city or town Boston state Massachusetts 12. State Historic Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: national state X _ 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 Vaeuie A.

Talmage tite State Historic Preservation Officer Massachusetts Historicadat6ommission Nov.16,1984 For NPS use only ereby certify that this property is included in the National Register Byen Entered in the eeper of the National Registe National Register date 1-3-85 Attest: Chief of Registration date U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1983 O - 419-311 NPS Form 10-000-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 For NPS use only received date entered JAN 3 1985 Continuation sheet Myrtle Street School Item number 8 Page 1 facilities necessary. In 1903, an eight-room addition was begun, and it was finished the following year at a cost in excess of $40,000. The new building was constructed across the facade of the 1868 building and faced Myrtle Street.

In 1914, a larger addition was built extending south from the first one. This was completed in 1915 at a cost of $125,000 and contained an assembly hall, gymnasium, lunchroom, and eight classrooms. Both additions were designed by the prominent local architectural firm of E. C. and G. C. Gardner, and both featured Classical Revival detailing. The 1914 addition was planned for community use as well as educational purposes. Its assembly hall was the largest public space in the village, and it helped the Myrtle Street School become the social center for the entire community. The hall had a capacity of nearly 700, movable seats, a stage that could hold 75 to 100 people, and a gallery with a motion picture booth. The gymnasium, one of only two in Springfield at the time, was the result of the latest in educational theory.

It was located in a separate building at the rear of the second addition and measured 74 by 43 feet. It had an iron roof and a gallery for spectators, and was built without interior posts that might impede visibility. The gymnasium faced Hampden Street and its entrance featured Egyptian Revival detailing, the only known example in Springfield, except for a few cemetery buildings. The Myrtle Street School continued to serve its original function until the early 1980s. Now closed, the school is slated to be converted to housing for the elderly. The Myrtle Street School is an outstanding and well-preserved educational complex as well as the largestpublic structure in Indian Orchard, an area with few remaining early examples of public institutional buildings. Its location in a neighborhood of modest workers' housing makes it particularly imposing.

With its finely detailed Second Empire and Classical Revival features, it is also one of the most stylish buildings in the village of Indian Orchard. Contemporaneous institutional buildings in the village include the Indian Orchard Mills Company Hall (1865), the two-story Fire Station (1870) and the larger Oak Street Fire Station (1897) with a five-story tower and the single-story Indian Orchard Branch Library (1908), the beginning of the branch library system for Springfield. None of these structures equal the Myrtle Street School's fine detailing and imposing size. The school is further significant for its three phases of construction, which reveal the evolution of schoolhouse architecture. The 1868 original structure, with its vertical typical ot mid-l9th century educational design.

With a new century, the modern school became central staircase, clearly defined classroom wings and space for graded classrooms, and increasingly specialized facilities (such as a gymnasium and/or auditorium). All these features are part of the additions to the Myrtle Street School. It should be noted that the major architect of the 1914 addition, Eugene C. Gardner, was a nationally known theorist on the subject of schoolhouse design. 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 For NPS use only received date entered 3 1005 Continuation sheet Myrtle Street School Item number 8 Page 2 Architects James M. Currier (1818-1893), born in North Troy, Vermont, was apprenticed to his brother at the age of fifteen to learn the trade of carpentry.

After working as a carpenter and builder in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, he came to Springfield in 1853.. In 1859, the firm of Currier and Richards--"carpenters, builders, and contractors"--was listed in a local di rectory. Currier was also listed separately as an architect. The partnership continued until 1873, when Currier reestablished his own practice. As an architect, Currier designed four of Springfield's post-Civil war schoolhouses, as well as Main Street commercial blocks, a large woolen factory on the Mill River, and a forge shop in Brightwood that was described as the "largest axle factory in New England." Primarily a domestic architect, Currier was noted for his designs for the Warner Sturtevant House (ca. 1870) and the Joseph Stone Villa (ca.

1865), both still standing in Springfield, and a villa in Ottawa, Ontario, built for his brother and today used as the official residence of the Canadian Prime Minister. As a builder, Currier again concentrated on residential construction, particularly interior and exterior wood finishing. However, he is also known to have been in charge of the building of H. H. Richardson's Western Railroad Offices in Springfield in 1867 (still standing), and of the Springfield Institution for Savings Block of the same year (no longer extant). The Myrtle Street School is the most significant surviving example of Currier's less common institutional designs, as well as the only remaining example of his schoolhouse architecture. Eugene Clarence Gardner (1836-1915) learned the masonry trade as a boy in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

By the mid 1860s, he was a practicing architect in Northampton, and in 1869, he moved to Springfield to enter into partnership with Jason Perkins. The firm specialized in domestic architecture, and some fine examples of their work from the 1870s survive in -Cberence hgfret a to ater th t ne exampebip Springfield, including the W. C. Wilcox House, the Rufus Chase House, and the Waitstill Allis House. Thepartnership was dissolved in 1874 and Gardner resumed his own practice. Prominent domestic works that survive from this period of Gardner's career in Springfield include the Samuel Bowles House (1884) and the Julius H. Appleton House (1886). Another noteworthy design in Massachusetts is the Dimock Estate, built in Northampton in 1880 (NR 1982). He also began writing a series of "how-to" books on various aspects of architecture.

1874 and 1888, eight books were published, including Homes and How to Make Them (18/4), Common Sense inChurch Building(1880), and Town and Country School Building (1888). These ding n aad rand Tom and volumes received wide circulation and brought Gardner commissions from all over the country. By 1887, he could say that he had made plans for buildings in all but two of the states and territories of the United States. In 1885, Gardner began a journal entitled The Builder, which was published in Holyoke, Massachusetts; he served as editor until 1880. In 1889, Gardner brought his son, George C., a recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and George R. Pyne, a draftsman, into partnership with him. After Pyne's departure in 1900, E. C. and G. C. Gardner continued to work together until the elder Gardner's death in 1915.

Gardner was considered the foremost architect in central NPS Form 10-000-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 For NPS use only received date entered JAN 3 1985 Continuation sheet Myrtle Street School Item number 8 Page 3 Massachusetts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his additions to the Myrtle Street School date from this period in his career. The firm also designed many important municipal buildings in Springfield and the surrounding communities, including the Springfield City Hospital (1889), Springfield Museum of Science (1898), and the Springfield Street Railway Building (1897). The latter was listed on the National Register as part of the Memorial Square Historic District in 1977. Gardner's national reputation flourished as well.

His pattern books received both critical acclaim and extensive distribution. Critic Vincent Scully has called him "one of the last of the important pattern book authors" (The Shingle Style and The Stick Style, rev. ed., New Haven, 1971). Gardner also contributed articles to such diverse journals as Good Housekeeping; New England Magazine, American Architect and Building News, and Engineering Monthly, as well as the Tocal Springfield Republican. While Gardner specialized in institutional architecture, there are few examples of his schoolhouse designs extant in the Springfield area. His carefully detailed Classical Revival-style additions to the Myrtle Street School are a particularly fine and wel1-preserved example of the work of a prolific and influential architect.

Archaeologically,the property has potential for helping to document: community planning, specifically low-educational institutions reflected establishment and development of planned communitites; social organization particularly changes in the ethnicity and social states of the adjacent neighborhoods; and the life style (recreation and social patterns) of the students and faculty. 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 For NPS use only received date entered JAN 3 1985 Continuation sheet Myrtle Street School Item number 9 Page 1 Biographical Review of the Leading Citizens of Hampden County, 1895, pp. 886,889. Encyclopedia of Massachusetts: Biographical - Genealogical, The American Historical Society , 1916, vol. 2, pp. 52-54.

Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of Central and Western Massachusetts, 1886, p. 214 Progressive Springfield, Nov. 1891, pp. 176-78. Scully, Vincent. The Shingle Style and The Stick Style. 19/1. Springfield Vertical Files, Springfield City Library: Architects: Currier, James M. Architects: Gardner, Eugene C. Municipal Government: Municipal Building Records, 1852-1912. WASO Form - 177 ("R" June 1984) 85000024 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET Myrtle Street School Hampden County MASSACHUSETTS resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: Reviewer's comments: -sample request DEC 6 1984 Working No. Fed. Reg. Date:a 486 Date Due: 1/3/85-- 1/20/83 Action: LACCEPT - Entered in tha 1-3-85 - RETURN.

National Register REJECT_ Federal Agency: appeal LNR 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? yes no 7. Description 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 completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship 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 date title 13. Other Maps Photographs Other Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to _ Signed - Date _ Phone:.

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