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697 NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 8-86) EOED UA 024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service MAY 0 3 1991 National Register of Historic Places NATIONAL REGISTER Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations of eligibility for individual properties or districts. See instructions in Guldelines for Completing National Register Forms (National Register Bulletin 16). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the requested information. If an item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, styles, materials, and areas of significance, enter only the categories and subcategorles listed in the instructions. For additional space use continuation sheets (Form 10-900a). Type all entries. 1.
Name of Property historic name District Five Schoolhouse (preferred) other names/site number Fenner Hill Schoolhouse 2. Location street & number School Street city, town Webster state Massachusetts code 025 N/A not for publication N/A vicinity county Worcester code 027 zip code 01570 3. Classification Ownership of Property private X public-local public-State public-Federal Category of Property X building(s). district site structure object Number of Resources within Property Contributing Noncontributing buildings sites structures objects Total Name of related multiple property listing: N/A Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register 0 4.
State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this X nomination Jrequest for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the NationalRegister of HistoricPlaces andmeets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property [meetsI -does not meet the National Register criteria. See continuation sheet. Signature of certiying official Executive Director, Massachusetts Historical Date Commission; State Historic Preservation Officer State or Federal agency and bureau Xmeets does not meet the National Register criteria. See continyation sheet. uditz MeDanougr Cosil 24,199L Sigrature of commenting or other official Date State or Federal agency and bureau 5.
National Park Service Certification 1, hereby, certify that this property is: entered in the National Register. See continuation sheet. determined eligible for the National Register. ] See continuation sheet. determined not eligible for the National Register. Antored in tho #ationai regtobee Melun Bye 6/5/2 removed from the National Register. other, (explain:) freio mo konon Date of Action District Five Schoolhouse, Webster, Massachusetts 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (enter categories from instructions) Education/Schoolhouse Current Functions (enter categories from instructions) Recreation/Museum 7. Description Architectural Classification (enter categories from instructions) Mid-19th Century/Greek Revival Materials (enter categories from instructions) foundation Granite walls_Brick roof Asphalt other Wood Describe present and historic physical appearance.
The District Five or Fenner Hill Schoolhouse is located on the east side of School Street, in the town of Webster, Massachusetts, on a small parcel of land sold to the town for this purpose, nearly opposite the intersection of Hill Street. As the name for the school suggests it sits at the top of one of the hills rising to the east of the French River. oriented with its ridge parallel to the roadway and with its primary entry in the south gable end. School Street began as a long north-south artery in the area, connecting Webster to Thompson, Connecticut to the south. With the construction of this schoolhouse in 1835, and of the larger school at the lower, north end of the street in 1869, the road gradually took on its current The surrounding neighborhood is one of single and multi-family residences constructed during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The neighborhood's present appearance and building stock reflects the growth of the town of Webster from a string of mill villages along the French River and Mill Brook to an industrial and commercial center with a brick and wood frame commercial Main Street forming its spine and large residential neighborhoods filling the interstices. The school is a single-story brick gabled block at its core, constructed in a common American bond of seven stretcher courses to one header course. The building is nearly square, measuring 32 feet in length and 25 1/2 feet in width. Although it has no basement, its footings are capped with granite blocks, and granite was also employed to trim the openings, still visible as sills and lintels. A single entry opening is located in the south gable end, 23623 with a window and a door in the opposite north gable end.
west elevations are pierced by three windows, located closer to the front than to one another or to the rear. Photographs of the school dating to the late nineteenth century show the two-over-two sash that remain in place. Louvered shutters that were in place at that time were replaced by the 1920s with single board and batten shutters, which are still in place on the street, or west, facade. The school's wood shingle roof was replaced sometime after 1935. All photographs show the school painted as it remains today. The entire brick block was used as a single classroom, and remains an open room in its current use as the museum and meeting place for the Webster-Dudley Historical Society. In 1973 the interior was remodeled to add storage space for collections, as a series of closed cupboards between the windows. At that..
[X See continuation sheet PS Form 10-000 Ooat 6-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet District Five Schoolhouse, Webster, Massachusetts Section number - Page - ting taii s, buf iresains at malded chair rail and cornice, was removed on the The brick block has a small frame addition at each end, a gabled vestibule measuring 6by 12 feet on the south front over the door, and a former shed and -necessary on the rearmeasuring 8by 22 feet. The vestibule is covered in clapboards, and formerly had a plain surrounded door and window to the left. The openings have been replaced, probably in 1966, with a single door opening and Colonial Revival surround; the door itself was recently replaced and an aluminumscreen/storm door added to protect 1t.
The rear ell was rebuilt in its orginal configuration after a fire in the early 1970s. Formerly the site of the school's heating stove and fuel storage, and later, indoor plumbing, the ell now holds a small kitchen and a bathroom, retaining the existing door and window surrounds. The alterations and the enclosed frame make exact dating of these appendages difficult, but the differing trim of the ell surrounds, and the matchboard wall and ceiling cover in the vestible, suggest that these were later nineteenth century additions. The school's privy was formerly located to the northeast from the school. Four granite posts are located in the yard before the door, and a fieldstone wall marks the parcel along the street side.
The District Five Schoolhouse is located within a primarily working class neighborhood of Webster that expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth century up the hills to the east of the French River. This area was settled in the dispersed agricultural phase of regional development, and an early nineteenth century house, the Moore Homestead, is located to the south. More dense development took place in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, but no hamlet or village emerged here. To the west clusters grew around Chase's Mill and to the north and west around the merino, and later, linen mill, both of these in the neighboring town of Dudley, while another cluster grew at the depot to the north.
Resources from this period, the construction period for the school, are not located together, both because of their original siting, and because of late construction which brought infill and replacement. Those closest to the school include a small house constructed in the 1860s, the Andrew Snow House, and another from the 1850s. The majority of the construction in the vicinity of the school dates to the late nineteenth century overlay that extended dense settlement further from the river and the main routes. School Street was widened and straightened in 1860 as part of this pattern. During the third quarter of the century a number of large gable-front houses were located along School Street and its adjacent neighborhood, and the area to the east was platted for small lots in a grid illustrated in the Beers Atlas of 1870.
But the development was not completed as outlined, indeed today some of the streets do not connect across the hill. The Richards Atlas of 1898 shows a dense grid pattern of development oriented to the commercial development of Main Street, and extending south from there. (continued) NPS Form 10-000 OMG 1020-0016 United States Department of theInterior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number - Page - < District Five Schoolhouse, Webster, Massachusetts The extent of that development can be marked along School Street to Fifth Street. At the turn of the century large triple deckers, two-family houses in a related gable-front form, as well as a number of large and small single-family dwellings were added as infill. Opposite the school are three triple deckers and to the north and the south, more modern buildings.
(continued) MPS Form 10-000 (0-06) United States Department of theInterior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number _/ Page _ 1020-0018 District Five Schoolhouse, Webster, Massachusetts Archaeological Description No prehistoric sites are recorded on the property or in the general area (within one mile). In general, the potential for significant prehistoric archaeological remains is low because of small lot size, historic development on the lot and because locational criterion (slope, drainage, distance to water) of the property are not particularly favorable for prehistoric settlement. A moderate potential exists for significant historic archaeological remains on the property.
Archaeological survivals of the school's privymay exist northeast of the school building; school-related sheet refuse may also be present on the grounds surrounding the school building. (end) District Five Schoolhouse, Webster, Massachusetts Statement of Significance