Major Bibliographical References Murdock School, Winchendon, MA Previous documentation on file (NPS): -preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been requested previously listed in the National Register previously determined eligible by the National Register designated a Nafional Historic Landmark recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # 10. Geographical Data Acreage of property two acres QUAD-Winchendon SCALE-1:25000 UTM References A 118 7413140 417.21981610 Easting Northing CLL [X] See continuation sheet Primary location of additional data: X State historic preservation office Other State agency Federal agency Local government University Other Specify repository: DRIC ASSFTS _MHC #184 Zone DLI LILL Easting LILu See continuation sheet LIILLI orthin LILILu Verbal Boundary Description See assessors map.
See continuation sheet Boundary Justification The boundaries of the nominated property include the school, front lawn, and driveway. Since the original 14 acres associated with the Murdock School has been diminished with the construction of a new High School and playing fields, only this immediate area is included. -See continuation sheet 11.
Form Prepared By name/title Diane Siergieg, Preservation Consultant for Winchendon Historical Commission organization Massachusetts Historical Commission August 1987 street & number 80 Boylston Street telephone (617) 727-8470 city or town- Boston 02116 OMB Approvel No.1024-0018 NPS Form 10000 (8-08) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page Murdock School, Winchendon, MA Ephraim Murdock, Sr., was one of the major builders of houses in North Village dur ing the first half of the nineteenth century and was also the owner of cons iderab le real estate. In the next generation, several children of these three families intermarried. Two Murdock sons married two Morse daughters: Ephraim Mur dock, r., married Sophia Morse and Elisha Murdock married Rhoanna Morse.
Two other Murdock children joined with the Whitney family: Mary Murdock wed | Amasa Whitney, Jr., a merchant who operated one of the earliest stores in North Village, and William Murdock espoused Mary G. Whitney. These three sons of Ephraim Murdock, Sr. were largely responsible for advancing wondenware manufacture to the foremost industry in Winchendon. Both Ephraim Jr. and Elisha Murdock fostered the application of machinery to the work. Much of this new equipment was devised in the plant of their brother, William, who opened the first machine shop in Winchendon in 1839. William Murdock, who invented two types of bobbins used in textile mills and improved jack spools, also perfected a lathe for turning pails, and fabricated other machinery that greatly increased woodenware production. Ephraim Murdock, Jr., and El isha Murdock operated factories.
In 1834, El isha Murdock, considered the father of the woodenware industry in Winchendon, founded E. Murdock and Company (incorporated in 1928 as New England Woodenware, Inc.), which became the most extens ive woodenware mill in the country. In about 1836, Ephraim Murdock, Jr., estab lished Murdock and Company, which operated two woodenware mills, one on Millers River in Winchendon Village and the other on the north branch of the river in Slab Hollow (now known as Glenallan). Murdock and Company manufactured tubs, pails and other items. In 1849, Ma jor Sidney Fairbanks joined as a junior partner and the firm became Murdock and Fairbanks, employing about 100 workers. Ephraim Murdock, Jr., also operated pail factories in Keene and Swanzey, New Hampshire.
Besides the proceeds from a successful career of more than fifty years in manufacturing, he further augmented his estate through wise investments. considerable real estate in Winchendon and was, for years, the principal owner and president of the Cheshire Railroad. Ephraim Murdock, Jr., also served as a Director of the Winchendon National In local affairs, he was elected to the School Committee in 1854 and the Board of Selectmen in 1846, 1850, and 1874. He served on the building committee for the new Town Hall, in 1850, and in other years was involved in committees to establish a home for the insane, and to create a new town erected the I. M. Murdock Building at 98 Front Street (extant) in memory of their only child, Isaac Morse Murdock (1831-1875) and donated the property to 1.
kureson But1 ting a 9851-18751 Morse) Murdock (1805-1888), continued NPS Form 10-000e (8-86) - OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page Murdock School, Winchendon, MA use by the Church of the Unity. Before the Fire Station at 16 Pleasant Street was built by the town in 1876, Ephraim Murdock, and hall on Chestnut Street to EheralertuFdoek alpanyooreosecandooldestonse Winchendon, or gan ized in 1851. Ephraim Murdock, Sr., initiated the family commitment to local education. In 1843, he erected Winchendon Academy, used as a private school without charge, by children of both sexes in Winchendon and other communities.
When the town took no action in response to a state law requir ing communities of 2,500 inhabitants or 500 families to provide a high school, Ephraim Murdock added a provision to his will leaving the Academy Building to the town on the condition that it be used for educational purposes. The town accepted the bequest, and in March 1854 opened the first public secondary school in Winchendon. When the Academy was determined inadequate in 1866, the Brick School (renamed the Wheeler School in 1904; demolished in 1965) was constructed and utilized as the high school until supplanted by the nominated property, the Murdock School. The Wheeler School was then converted to elementary grade use. In the meantime; the Academy Building, having fallen into disrepair, was condemed by the state inspector in 1894.
A previous vote - to replace the structure with a four-room schoo lhouse was overridden in a special town meeting, which appropriated funds for repairs. The Academy was - then remodeled from a temple-front, Greek Revival structure to the Colonial Rev ival appearance it retains today. Renamed the E. Murdock School in 1904. the building remained a grammar school until 1961 when both it and the Wheeler School were closed. The next year, after 108 years of scholastic service, the old academy building was turned over to the heirs of Ephraim Murdock, Sr. Today the edifice, with additions, serves as the headquarters for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Family interest in local public education extended through the next generation of the Murdock Family.
Elisha Murdock, a personal friend of Horace Mann, served on the School Committee almost continuously from 1829 to 1863.Ephraim Murdock, Jr., followed his father's example. He also provided the town with a schoo lhouse, in this case, the nominated property, Winchendon's third high school. In his will and that of his wife, provision was made, after specific bequests, for the creation of a trust, a major purpose of which was to allow for the construction and support of "a suitable house for a school for both sexes of scholars of not less than ten years old..." The schoo Thouse was to be located within one mile of their residence at the corner of Front and Pleasant Streets ( now the site of American Legion Park) on a street named in their honor and platted between 1870 and 1886. The neighborhood immediately around the school began to develop dur ina the same period.
The estate of Ephraim Murdock, Jr., at the time of his death, in 1882, was valued at more than $ 500,000. continued NPS Form 10-000-e (8-86) OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number. 8 Page 3 Murdock School, Winchendon, MA The Murdock School was constructed on a 14-acre holding at a cost of $120,000 en dowed with a trust fund of $250,000. The land on which the school was built was purchased with monies from the Murdock Estate.
Completed in 1887, the Murdock School included two large classrooms, a room "devoted to philosophical apparatus,"a chemistry laboratory, a music room, an art room and a "workshop for practice and experiment." By far the most elaborate school building in Winchendon--in both its high-style Romanesque Revival design and its up-to-date facilities--the costs of the school far outstripped any other in Winchendon until the eve of the Second World War. room, laboratory, and lavishly appointed assembly hall were those more likely found in a larger urban community, not one that, like Winchendon, had a population of on1y 4,390 in 1890.
And while the Romanesque Revival was a popular style for educational institutions in northcentral Massachusetts in the last decades of the 19th century (notably the 1874 Chestnut Street School, Gardner, now demolished), none were as elaborately conceived as the Murdock School. Nor do other Winchendon examples executed in brick--for instance, the near by Poland School (1924), the Marvin School (1905), and the Streeter School (1939)--equal the Murdock School in elaboration of design and opulence of interior. Not coincidentally, the Murdock School was the only one of Winchendon's late 19th/early 20th century public schools to be privately financed. The Murdock School was considered by contemporaries of its designer, Henry Martyn Francis (1836-1908), to be his masterpiece. Born in Lunenburg, H. M.
Francis was the son of a wheelwright and carpenter, Franklin Samuel Francis, who later became developer of a stone quarry on Rollstone Hill in Fitchbur a (supplier of materials for several of Fitchburg's stone bridges). Henr y M. Francis attended Groton Academy for two years after graduating from local district schools and Lunenburg Academy. From July to November 1858, he worked on the survey for the Croton River Aquaduct, part of the New York City water supply: For two years, beginning in 1859, H. M. Francis worked in the architectural office of Alexander R. Estey in Boston, before returning to Lun enbur g. He worked as a carpenter there and in Westfield and Florence before joining the Simmons Organ Manufactory in Boston. After only three months, however, he left to join the office of architect George M. Harding in Portland, Maine.
Nine months later, he left to spend a year with architect, George F. Meaham, then returned to Harding's office until 1868, when he opened his own business in Fitchburg. His first important commission came that same year when he was asked to design the Rollstone Congregational Church in that city. During his active, forty-year career, Francis designed about thirty school buildings, twenty-five churches, fifteen libraries, a large number of other continued OMB Agprovel No. 1024-0016 NPS Form 10,000 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page. Murdock School, Winchendon, MA public buildings as well as several hundred residences.
Among his most important structures are: Fitchburg High School Building (not extant); the Wallace Library and Art Building (demolished), the Calvinistic Congregational Church (NR :1979), Safety Fund National Bank Building, and the YMCA Building (now Shawmut Worcester County Bank), all in Fitchburg; the Universalist Churches in Fitchburg, Palmer, and Monson; the First Baptist Church in Clinton; the Congregational Church in Leominster; the Stone Church in Lincoln (NR, Lincoln Center HD, 1985); the Ingalls Library in Rindge and the Clay Library in East Jaffrey, New Hampshire; and the Dickinson Library in Other school buildings designed by the Lowe Hall, Cushing Academy, Ashburnham; the Lincoln School, Leominster; Lyman School, Ashby; and Westford Acadamy, westford. Other Tibraries des igned by H. M.
Francis are: Fletcher Library, Westford; Hazen Memorial Library, Shirley; Newton Library, Royalston (NR, Royalston Common HD, 1976); and the Wheeler Library in Orange. -Among his commer cial buildings are: the Hazen Block, Shirley; the Woods Block, Leominster (NR, Monument Square HD, 1982); and the Godfrey Hadd Block, . Greenville, New Hampshire. His firm designed City Hall in Somerville and the . Town Halls in Groton, Lincoln, Monson, and Orange. HenryG.Morse(d.1910), the builder of the Murdock School, wasfor many years the leading contractor and builder in Fitchburg. He was born in Sterling, the son of Joseph and Ann (Winchester) Morse, but attended public schools in Lancaster and Clinton, where he learned carpentry. He arrived in Fitchburg as a young man and after three years as a journeyman, established his own bus iness.
Earning a favorable reputation for quality work, his firm was successtul trom the start. H. G. Morse, contractor and builder, constructed many of the finest residences, churches, and commercial buildings in the vicinity. The Murdock School was one of several in which Morse was associated with H. M. Francis. when the MurdockSchool opened on August 31, 1887, three courses of study were offered: an English and Scientific Course, which concentrated on English language and literature, History, Geometry, Natural Philosophy and Chemistry; an Academic Course, which substituted Latin, French and German for certain English courses; and a Classical or college preparatory course, which expanded the above curriculum by adding college admission requirements and Advanced Latin.
The school was supported entirely by the Murdock Trust, but was considered part of the school system under the supervision of the schoo1 committee with the consent of the trustees. Pupils from other communitieswere allowed to attend based on payment of tuition of $5.00 per semester in a three-term school year. In 1889, the student body numbered 109 with a faculty of seven teachers. Photos of the interior taken at the time of the building's opening show an opulent interior, with elaborate woodwork, continued - OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-000-e (6-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 5 Murdock School, Winchendon, MA fixtures, and furnishings apparently unparalleled in other schools of the period in the region.
Income from the Murdock trust fell below the amount required for operating expenses for the first time in 1916. The town appropriated payment of the Around 1920, the school became known as Murdock High School. Beginning in January of that year, theschool department assumed all operating expenses after the trustees, having made all the necessary repairs, turned over to the town the remainder of the income from the fund. The next year, an Industrial Arts course was added to the academic program in hope of retaining students who would otherwise drop out. Two years later, courses in Printing and Home Economics were introduced. The scholastic magazine Murdock Murmers was initiated in 1923 and in its early years was awarded several prizes for excellence by the Central Massachusetts Interscholastic Press Association. The Student Activity Society was es tabl ished in 1923.
Income from the sale of the magazine along with dues, admissions to athletic competitions, and the proceeds of other sponsored eventswerereguiredtofinancetheatleticprogram,publish the paper ad support the other expenses of the Society as no item was provided in the School Budget to fund such activities. In 1927, student enrollment at Murdock High School exceeded 200. to the varied needs of the increased student body, revision of the curriculum was begun. By 1936, the four-course academic program consisted of College Preparatory, Secretarial, Civic, and Vocational-Household Arts. its facilities at the time of its construction, the school by 1945 was being seen as old fashioned and lacking the latest amenities. Among the earliest recognized deficiencies of Murdock High School was the absence of a gymnasium and other athletic facilities.
In that year, the principal noted the inferiority of lighting and ventilation systems, inadequately equipped laboratories and shops, and the lack of a gymnasium at Murdock High School, which prevented the town from providing the children of Winchendon with a modern secondary education. The 1949 report of the court-appointed Master, prepared in response to the Murdock Fund Trustees' petition requesting permisston to transter the Murdock School to the Town, revealed that the school, burlt for a student body of 100, had an enrollment of 438. result of these court proceedings, Murdock High School and its four teen-acre lot were conveyed to the town of Winchendon, in 1950, for the sum of one Right of reversion to the trustees was based on violation of the retention of the name Murdock School and continued educational use of the building for children at least ten years of age.
continued OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-000-0 8-86 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 6 Murdock School, Winchendon, MA During the next de ca de, several controversies ensued over the need for a new secondary school and the disposition of the Murdock School. The modern Murdock Junior-Senior High School, constructed on the part of the original four teen-acre Murdock School parcel north of Grove Street, was opened in 1961 and in that year, the nominated property was closed. The associated with the school (bounded by Murdock, Park, School, and Grove Streets) include a playing field and bleachers at the western end. Only the school and its drive and lawns, which face Murdock Street (about two acres) are included in the present nomination.
A negative report from the Study Committee, appointed by town meeting in 1964 to investigate the possiblity of renovating the Murdock School, was overridden by the efforts of a group of citizens determined to preserve the school. The Murdock School was remodelled in 1974 and reopened the next year as part of a "middle school complex" in which grades six, seven, and eight vary in location between the Murdock, Poland and Amro W. Streeter Schools. Currently, the Mur dock School is primarily used for eighth graders, but the large, second-floor hall is also utilized for assemblies and meetings of band and chorus. NPS Form 10-900-e (8-86) - OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 9 Page 1 Murdock School, Winchendon, MA MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES Davis, William T.
"Win chendon. Hamilton D. Hurd. chenadelph iais tor Yof Llorsester County, aited by Fitchburg Da il& Sentinel. June 18, 1396; October 14, 1908, p. 1 and March 21, Greenwood, Lois Stevenson. Winchendon Years 1764-1964. Town of Winchendon, 1970. Marvin, Rev. A. P. History of the Town of Winchendon. Winchendon: By the Author, 1868. Proceedings and Addresses at the Dedication of the Murdock Schoo!. Fitchburg: Press of Blanchard and Brown, 1887. Winchendon Courier, May 19, 1882 p. 2 and May 26, 1892 p. 2. Winchendon Historical Society Museum. Vertical File. Ephraim Murdock,Jr.% Isaac Morse Murdock. Worcester County Registry of Probate. Case 42512, Filed March 8, 1853; Case 937, Filed August 15, 1882; and Case 7764, Filed March 15, 1888.
SCHOOL MURDOCK SCHOOL murdock fivenue Winchendon, mA MILL 00.37 32 STREET 57 24 B1.74 15 STREET 06-3 137° 12.5 130 100.33' 129 I25 131 135 30.02 136 132' 134 5 CEDAR 615 128 L3 L*9 140.74 1150 185.72 I12 133 PVT 127 248 88 30° -SG: :50 24 387 350 .S SHI 77.5 25 SPO2 N0 100 140 100° 141 150 5882 5B-2-32 32 512.22 5,1.67 - 12 po 18. ROUTE 11 10 182 STREET 60 28 29 70° 139,13 140 141 143 137 c2.S 137: 138 62.5 77 0* 1-145 scale 1'= 175' 30 PARK 113 130 131 100 142 100° 143 100" 1579 225 35 31.25 ,e=5* 99.75 36 51.25 38 99.25 GROVE 325 81:5 39 40 - 6s 25 SOLDIERS MONUMENT PARK AVENUE 130 129 452 128 :52 127 STREET 1047 53 5 1634 122% 35C C25 l= MURDOCK 333 3es/ 3Z2 118 PHOTO NO 12 MLHLISA LAL_ILELJA P. CIMIME 1-031 ILAL A_I CELIL ZEM ASSEMBLY HALL. PHOTO NO. 13 LABORATORY. ROOM 6 SECOND FLOOR Rm6 PHOTO NO. 14 AZIA STUDIO. Fe # Buktepig Km PHOTO NO.
15 PRINCIPAL'S ROOM. Rni 3 noN ded IASO Form - 17 R" June 198 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET 87002562 Murdock School Worcester County MASSACHUSETTS - resubmission nomination by person or local government owner objection appeal Substantive Review: -sample Reviewer's comments: -request Working No. _ DEC 29 1987 Fed. Reg. Date: --1-09 Date Due: - /28/88-2/12/80 Action: LACCEPT 1-28-58 Eotered in tl - RETURN National Regtsi _REJECT Federal Agency: LJappeal LJNR 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 Condition -excellent good L fair L deteriorated -ruins -unexposed L yes no 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 Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Lsummary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria justification of areas checked J 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: GPO 918-450 Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet MURDOCK SCHOOL Murdock Avenue Winchendon, Massachusetts Bob Place, photographer Spring, 1985 Robert Place, Winchendon, MA Photograph 1 of 2 Fascade (east elevation/south elevation) PHOTO bg BOB PLACE Property: Murdock School Murdock Avenue Winchendon, MA Photographer: D. L. Siergiej Date: Spring 1987 Negative: Winchendon Historical Society Photo No. 2 of 2 South and West Elevations SITE PLAN S T.
CH00L Chain Link Fence 900 Bleachers Goal Post x Score Board y Bleachers Bleachers M -Refreshment Stand/ Rroadcast Bnoth ROW Basketball Backboards- Flag Pole MURDOCK ST. G MURDOCK MUROOCK WINCHENDA MASS SCHODL VENVE (1957 IVD CMRAIO The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State Michael Joseph Connolly, Secretary Massachusetts Historical Commission Valerie A. Talmage Executive Director State Historic Preservation Officer December 18,1987 Carol Shull National Register of Historic Places Department of the Interior National Park Service P.O. Box 37127 Washington, DC 20013-7127 Dear Ms. Shull: Enclosed you will find the nomination forms for the following properties: Danvers, Fox Hill School, 81 Water Street, HPCA #10212 MA Douglas, E.N.
Jenckes Store, Main Street Malden, Odd Fellows Building, 442 Main Street Winchendon, Murdock School, Murdock Avenue They have been voted eligible by the State Review Board and have been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. Owners were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30-75 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment. No comments have been received to date. S incerely, Bituy Friidierg Betsy Friedberg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission BF/es Enclosure 80 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116 (617) 727-8470 DEC 29 00.
Block