Major Bibliographical References (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.) Previous documentation on file (NPS): Primary location of additional data: _ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 X State Historic Preservation Office CFR 67) has been requested Other State agency _previously listed in the National Register - Federal agency _ previously determined eligible by the National - Local government Register University _ designated a National Historic Landmark - Other recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # Name of repository: - recorded by Historic American Engineering Hubbardston Historical Commission Record # MPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet 7 Section number 1 Page - OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts 7. DESCRIPTION In the Hubbardston town center, the rectangular brick and granite Public Library is an urbane and stylish Second Empire - Italianate landmark, the centerpiece of a cluster of community buildings in turn surrounded by clapboard structures from the first half of the 19th century. Centrally placed on the cornice of the two and a half story building, a carved stone plaque proclaims the building's donor, Jonas G. Clark, and its date of construction, 1874. Building the Hubbardston library was Clark's first act of educational philanthropy; in 1887 he founded Clark University in Worcester. Since its completion in 1875, Clark's gift has housed the public library, town offices, and a room for community functions. Front elevation.
On the library's five bay front, a polychome slate-roofed tower caps an ornate projecting central pavilion. The steep-pitched tower roof is ridge-hipped, as is the main roof, and retains original patterned gray, terra cotta, and pale green slate flashed with copper. The main roof has been reshingled with asphalt of a uniform color, and original iron cresting is gone from roof ridges (both alterations took place sometime after 1930).' Evident in early library photographs is the present brass weathervane topped with a Maltese cross. A small circular Second Empire style dormer is centered on the tower roof above a low-pitched front gable and the stone donor and date plaque of the cornice. Eaveline soffits and brackets are painted metal, possibly copper like the rain gutters and drainpipes, since in patches where paint has peeled a similar green color is evident.
Brick piers flank the second floor of the pavilion and support paired brackets. Paired round-headed second floor windows in the pavilion are narrow, rising from floor level. Granite voussoirs with stepped outlines contrast strikingly with the brick walls; the rusticated voussoirs have textured tooled faces. Broad granite steps, now tilted and in need of realignment, lead to a semi-circular arched central doorway beneath a porch supported with slender marble columns and topped by an ornate iron railing. The curvilinear, decorative railings, which also flank the steps and porch deck, show traces of former paint. The polished marble columns of pink and gray hue rest on panelled granite pedestals and support finely carved granite floral capitals and a bracketed porch cornice. Rear porch brackets repeat the capitals' design.
At the doorway a semicircular granite lintel carved with moldings and keystone surmounts an inset double door and transom. A wooden column with a carved capital incorporating fleurs-de-lis divides the transom, now untinted glass, but originally said to have been rose-colored.? The doors and a sign panel above them with 20th century lettering replace original tall paired doors with narrow windows (shown in photographs until c1930). Beside the doorway are bronze placques noting original uses of the building's main floor: public library (in rooms north of a central hall) and post office (in a room to the south). On front walls adjacent to the central pavilion, a brick dentillated corbelled cornice and granite string courses extend between granite window lintels.
Above six-paned second story windows segmental (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet 7 2 Section number Page - OMe Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts arched lintels on reeded imposts align with L-shaped eave brackets. Stepped voussoirs crown round- headed first floor windows, which originally were eight-paned; opaque panels (installed c1930) replace upper rounded panes. Small four-paned rectangular basement windows are ranked with upper windows below a lower string course. All windows have granite sills. The building's pressed bricks are uniform and fine-grained, laid in stretching bond. Side elevations.
The library site was graded to expose a full basement story on side and rear elevations.* On the two bay sides at basement level, six-paned rectangular windows align with upper windows, and paired central doors, panelled with paired narrow windows (in design similar to the former front doors), lead into four major basement rooms used as town offices. A walkway leads along a granite block retaining wall from the street to north side doors, while broad granite steps flanked by sections of original wrought iron railing descend from grade to south side doors. On the north side, louvers and a vent replace a pane in a northeast basement furnace room window. North second floor windows are blocked with brick (probably c1930). S Tall panelled chimneys trimmed with granite are centrally placed on side elevations near exterior walls. Rear elevation.
Features of the three bay rear elevation are consistent with the library's front and sides, but the central bay differs with an elongated eight pane stairwell window and with a small rectangular four-pane first floor window. Added to the back have been an iron fire escape (1918) and a windowless one story addition (1983) with textured concrete walls housing the present entrance to basement town offices. The north second floor window was blocked with brick. A stone foundation course echoes upper string courses. A terra cotta chimney pot stands behind the tower roof. Interior features. The library, with a central hall plan, is notable for the generous size of its spaces and the preservation of its finishings: doors, high-relief moldings (especially elaborate on cornices and ceilings), staircases, and windows.
(See attached floor plans.) On the main floor, a small entrance hall and stairwell partitioned from the hall bisect the building, separating the two main rooms. Three pairs of original tall molded and panelled doors, their surrounds, baseboards, and ceiling moldings are present in the hall. Flooring is covered with carpet. The south room, for many years the town post office, now a children's reading room, retains five tall round-headed windows with basal panelling and louvered interior shutters that recess into wall slots. Baseboards and elaborate cornices and moldings on fifteen foot ceilings are intact. Woodwork is painted (since 1914°), and flooring is covered with linoleum. The north library room is the original library space. Window finishes are intact, though rear windows are bisected by a metal gallery floor of book stacks (1929).
The addition of a ceiling of acoustic tile (probably c1930) lowered the original library space, which was two stories in height with a twenty-seven foot ceiling. Original varnished wooden bookcases remain, some of which were moved to the gallery floor. The north room's floor is linoleum. Under the stairwell is a toilet and two small (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No.1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number _ Page - 3 rooms for the librarian's use; these have original doors and surrounds. In the two story stairwell lit by a tall rear window, varnished woodwork is intact. Broad stairs and a banister with sturdy posts and balusters lead to upstairs rooms.
Here, as on many original doors, brass doorknobs with filigree designs remain. From an upper landing, doors lead into a small central anteroom and into a large south side community room. There are signs of recent water damage on the hall's ceiling and in the community room, where two sections of elaborate moldings on the twelve foot ceiling were removed to repair leaks, and surrounding paint and plaster are in need of repair. Woodwork is intact in the large room, where town organizations met after the building's construction, and which now houses the Hubbardston Historical Society Museum and archives. As on the first floor, windows are equipped with louvered recessed shutters. The wooden floor is two-tiered; a four-foot- wide platform circles the room. Tall glass-fronted display cases, which now hold the Society's collections, line several sections of wall.
It is not known whether these are original. The small anteroom, centrally located behind the building's two tall central upper windows, is also fitted with glass-fronted cases and retains original trim. In the basement, where Hubbardston has maintained town offices since the building's completion, more alterations are evident than on upper floors. The entrance into a central hall is now made through a concrete addition (c1985) including the Town Clerk's vault and rest rooms. Four original basement rooms each have an outside door. The south side rooms, now Assessors' ', Town Clerk's, and Treasurer's offices are the least altered, with spaces minimally partitioned and original doors retained between the two rooms. The northeast room, used for small meetings, was partitioned to create a furnace room (probably 1929).
& The northwest room has been divided into two offices separated by a hallway (alteration dates not determined.) Oak flooring is revealed in basement rooms where floors are not carpeted; some ceilings were tiled; a number of interior doors were replaced. In the central hall, a stairwell to the first floor has not been altered The setting. The Library lot is located on a gently sloping section of Main Street, but is itself level in front of the building. Lawn behind the Library at a lower elevation is separated from the front by granite block retaining walls. The building stands about forty feet from a sidewalk bordered with a low hedge. Low hedges also border perpendicular walkways leading to side entrances of the building, and taller, unclipped shrubs grow along the front of the building.
An elementary school and municipal building, 20th century structures, stand behind the Library, extending to the north and south. On the north side of the Library is a parking lot for the complex, and on the south, centered on a lawn by a school walkway, is a stone Korean and Second World War memorial. Because the added school and town buildings were set back from Main Street behind the building's rear lot line, the Library remains the prominent centerpiece of the civic group. (continued) NPS Form 10-903-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approvai No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - Page - The Library stands on Main Street across from Hubbardston's 18th century meetinghouse and school sites, the town's historic center.
A Greek Revival First Parish Unitarian Church (1842), set back from the road on the site of the original Meetinghouse, incorporates the frame of the 18th century building. Federal and Greek Revival buildings standing today in the immediate vicinity of the Library are the predominant buildings of the town center, defining its character and reflecting the comparatively prosperous time in town history before the Library was built (see sketch map). Across a lawn south of the library is an intact, but unpainted, vacant, and greatly threatened Federal hip-roofed house (Abijah Clark House, c1820), a building with fine swag carvings at the doorway. The Jacob Waite Inn (c1803), another large two-story hip-roofed Federal building, stands two doors farther south at the corner of Elm Street.
Across a small parking lot directly north of the library is a Federal four bay side-gabled house (Morse House, c1820). A now-vacant former general store, a side-gabled structure built in Greek Revival style and altered in the later 19th century (Wheeler General Store, 1849), stands two doors south of the Library. Two impressive and well-detailed two story Greek Revival houses, one side- gabled (Dr. Shepherd Clark House, c1840) and one front-gabled with two story fluted columns (A. Clark/J. M. Stowe House, c1850) are visible from the Library near the corner of Brigham Street, while a smaller front-gabled Greek Revival story-and-a-half house across Main Street to the north (Augustus Morse House, c1850) has a fine Asher Benjamin-inspired inset doorway. Adjacent to this house is a two story Greek Revival front-gabled shop building (Boot Shop, c1850) that now houses a real estate office.
On the same side of Main Street two and three doors north of the library are two more front- gabled Greek Revival houses, one with an L-shaped porch of fluted Doric columns (Samuel Swan House, c1835), and one significantly associated with the Library, built by Jonas Gilman Clark a few years after his marriage (15 Main Street, c1839). Here Clark lived during the 1840s when he was a carriagemaker, chairmaker, tinware manufacturer, and hardware dealer, several decades before he donated the Library. The Clark House has been modified and retains only a few of its Greek Revival features. Archaeological Description No prehistoric sites are recorded on the nominated property or in the general area(within one mile). In general, environmental attributes for the area, especially the property's distance of over 1000ft.
from wetlands, indicate locational characteristics which arenot particularly favorable for most types of prehistoric sites. Given the above information, the small size of the parcel(approximately 0.25 acres), the extent of historic period construction and grading to prepare the lot for library construction, the potential for recovering significant prehistoric resources on the property is low. A high potential exists for the recovery of historic archaeological resources on the library property. Documentary resources indicate by 1874 Jonas Gilman Clark had purchased three lots on Main Street and cleared them of existing buildings to create a setting for the library. The central lot, on which the (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number _ - Page _ library was built, contained a well and a 19"h century stable or barn owned by the Crystal House Hotel across Main Street. The remaining two lots contained a Federal Period House and a side gabled cottage. Photographs from c.1900 indicate the barn or stable may have been standing at that time indicating its site was not effected by grading or construction of the library. Portions of the well should also survive since it is unlikely grading would have extended to the maximum depth of the well. Given this information, potential exists to recover structural and feature remains of the barn and well on library property.
Additional types of occupational related features including trash areas and privies may also be present on the parcel related to neighboring residential properties or from the hotel across Main Street. (end) NPS Form10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts 8 1 Section number. Page - 8. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Hubbardston Public Library is significant under Criterion A of the National Register as an example of post-Civil War educational philanthropy. Since its completion in 1874, the Library has also been important as the symbolic and functional civic center of Hubbardston.
It is significant under Criterion B for its association with Jonas Gilman Clark, Hubbardston's most prominent 19th century native son, the founder of Clark University. It is significant under Criterion C as an example of Second Empire and Italianate architecture of the 1870s and as the work of architect Elbridge Boyden. It is also important as the best surviving example of a distinctive architectural mode Clark used for several of his later commercial and institutional buildings. The Hubbardston Library possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Criterion A. The Hubbardston Public Library is an example of the beneficent use of newly-won wealth for education in the era of great fortune-building after the Civil War.
This was Jonas Clark's first and only gift of a public library, a philanthropic act that preceded Andrew Carnegie's first library donation by twelve years.? Clark owned property near the Lenox Library in New York City, possibly his inspiration. '° He loved and collected books and strongly believed in their power for good. The sense of thrift of this astute Yankee businessman was satisfied in the multiple use of a library collection by many borrowers. Unlike many Massachusetts towns, Hubbardston did not built a town hall after incorporation, and lacked a community focal point before the construction of the Library. Town meetings continued to be held in the Meetinghouse after a Unitarian-Calvinist split sundered the only church in 1829 and after disestablishment in 1833.
That residents called the Library the "Town House" after its construction signifies its importance in Hubbardston.' Until the 1980s, when the Slade Building, then believed temporary, was erected for the police department and for additional town office space, the Library was the sole civic building in Hubbardston. History of the property and setting. The town, formerly the "Northeast Quarter" of Rutland, was one of the later areas of northern Worcester County to be settled due to its high, hilly terrain, lack of drained, fertile bottomland, and its vulnerability to attack in wartime. After the French and Indian wars, demand for land led Boston speculators to survey and sell lots, and settlers achieved district status in 1767.
During a time of agricultural prosperity and rapid growth in the Federal period, the construction of inns on the main street, part of a major north-south highway between southern New Hampshire and markets in Worcester and Providence, further enlarged the village nucleus. During antebellum years when small water-powered industries and artisan shops together with agriculture sustained the local economy, the town reached its peak population, and general stores, workshops, and houses filled remaining lots on Main Street. On the Library site, Barber's antebellum engraving of Main Street (see attached (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number 8 Page - 2 reproduction) shows a Federal house, a side-gabled cottage, and a small barn owned by an inn that stood across the road.? In 1874 Jonas Gilman Clark, then a New York resident, bought three adjacent lots on Main Street and cleared them of existing buildings to create a setting for the library. Several buildings shown on these lots on a map of 1870 appear to correspond with buildings portrayed in the Barber engraving.'3 The northern lot was one Jonas Clark had earlier owned, and on which he had manufactured tinware as a young Hubbardston entrepreneur. The lot had been bought by Clark in 1847 when it was still farmland. He sold the "tin shop estate" and his Main Street house to his brother Leonard in 1849.
' The tinshop building present on the lot in 1874 was to be removed, according to the deed of sale. " A barn on the lot seems to have been the only building allowed to remain on the parcels; photographs indicate it remained there after 1900. The central lot, on which the library was built, contained a well and a stable owned by the Crystal House hotel across Main Street, probably the barn visible in the Barber engraving. The property's owner and hotel proprietor, Oraman Hunton, retained possession of the stable after the lot's sale; it was to be moved along with foundation stone to a new location." Jonas' brother Appleton Clark, a resident of Cambridge, appears to have donated the southernmost parcel to the new library.! Appleton bought the property from the estate of Hannah Bennett, who had inherited it from Capt. Ephraim Mason.
' The lot contained a small set-back house, fate unknown, and a two story hip-roofed Federal house Mason had built in 1795, a farmhouse historically associated with much of the surrounding land. 2 This larger house Jonas Clark moved to a lot on Elm Street, providing for the library's support in the process of creating its setting. Adjacent to the Mason house on the same Elm Street lot (see sketch map) he moved a former front-gabled schoolhouse from a set-back position to streetside. Both the Mason house and schoolhouse were remodeled as "tenements" with similar Victorian console-framed doorways." Clark used rental income from the apartments to support the library. While the three lots were being cleared in August of 1874, it was not generally known in Hubbardston what Clark was planning to build.
" By late September, however, the Worcester Aegis and Gazette reported that Clark was erecting a public library building that he planned to stock with books as a gift to the town. Work on the building, already well underway, was proceeding according to plans drawn by architects Elbridge Boyden and Son of Worcester. Henry Mellen was laying brick shipped from Philadelphia, and Mann, Bigelow, and Gosling were cutting the stone; the masons and stonecutters were from Worcester. 23 In October, Main Street was regraded near the new building. 24 The Hubbardston library's fine granite carvings and masonry could not have been done by local craftsmen; in the 1870s, the only masonry buildings in town were several cottages built during the Federal period. Philadelphia bricks were probably shipped to town on a newly completed railroad line linking Hubbardston with Worcester and points south.
" While craftsmen involved in interior finishing have not been identified, it is possible that the Coffin family, woodworkers who came to Hubbardston (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No.1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number- 8 Page - 3 in 1873, were involved. Real estate and construction costs of the Library are said to have been between thirty-three and thirty-four thousand dollars. 2 For Hubbardston, the Library building was a source of pride, symbolizing its aspirations and providing a focus for community activities and offices it had never enjoyed.
The stylish building appeared in a moment of hope and expectation, three years after the long-anticipated railroad had arrived and shortly after the town's largest building, a three story boot and shoe manufacturing shop (not extant), had been erected on Elm Street. Seasonal visitors from urban areas, encouraged by the railroad, also began in the early 1870s to use the town as a summer resort.? After years of regarding itself as forgotten and passed by, Hubbardston found itself endowed with as fine a library as any town its size in Massachusetts; the building provided a symbolic connection to urban places now reached by the railroad. " That the Library's image is centered on the town seal is a measure of its lasting significance to Hubbardston.
On September 22, 1875, the Hubbardston Public Library, the focus of Clark's beneficence, moved from Hubbardston's Mechanics' Hall into the completed library building. 3° The library had its origin in a social subscription library of the early 19th century that charged annual fees to borrowers. Additional books were available to town readers after 1837, when Massachusetts enacted a school district library law. In an antebellum climate of educational reform, in it was widely assumed that every citizen had a right to knowledge, the means of self-improvement, private library associations evolved to become tax- supported institutions. Hubbardston's Library Association wrote a new constitution and gained many new readers in 1870. In 1871 it fused with the Hubbardston Farmers' Club library, and several donors enlarged its book collection by four hundred volumes.
In 1871 Jonas Clark, one of these, gave the library a set of Appleton's Encyclopedia and in 1872 another gift of 450 volumes. " The Association then offered the library to the town on the condition that it become a free library open to all residents. The town accepted the offer, appropriated funding, and appointed a librarian. 3 The town's commitment to the library evidently prompted Clark to make his gift. An official transfer of the deed to the Inhabitants of Hubbardston took place in 1884 with the conditions that the library remain free and public, that town offices be kept there, and that the town maintain and insure the building. 33 Along with the building Clark conveyed a rectangular lot with 108 feet of frontage that extended twenty feet behind the Library, twenty feet north, and twenty-eight feet south.
34 In the same deed, Clark gave the town the two rental houses on Elm Street to sustain a Library Fund.? The town accepted the gifts and conditions in Town Meeting on November 4, 1884. 36 In the original library room, stacks and a librarian's desk were separated from a reading room by an iron grating. The grating was removed after Lucy Clough became librarian in 1897.3 In 1929 a gift from Henry Huntting of Springfield enabled the library to construct a metal mezzanine with glass floor to expand bookshelf space. His gift also allowed the Library to install a furnace which took the place of former stoves.
About this time or during civic projects of Depression years upper windows of the library room were blocked, the ceiling was lowered, the roof' s iron cresting and polychrome slate were (continued) NPS Formn 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - 8 Page 4 removed, and the front doors were replaced. Interest from the Library Fund begun by Clark and proceeds of the town's dog tax supported the Library in the early decades of this century. "* When the building was completed in 1875, town officers moved in to occupy half the basement offices, and a rent-paying real estate office occupied the other half.
During the Depression a downstairs office was used by the local Emergency Relief Administration officer, and in the 1950s by the town's first financial institution, the Asnacomet Credit Union, organized by a group of Finnish-American residents. 40 The town post office in 1875 moved from a storefront setting to the south room of the main floor where it remained until a new post office was completed across Main Street in 1962. The library then expanded, converting the post office room into a childrens' reading room. In early years, town associations such as the Grange, Owls, and A.O.U.W. held meetings in the large second floor room. In 1964, the year the Hubbardston Historical Society organized, the organization took over the second floor room for its historical archives and collections.
Photographs of the Library circa 1900 show a magnificent double row of elms bordering an unpaved roadway, and the building standing in a spacious, park-like setting. Women of the town were responsible for planting the elms, and a women's civic organization, the Vesta Club, planted shrubbery on the Library grounds in 1916. 4' After Clark's death in 1900, the town bought the large piece of land Clark had owned surrounding the Library lot. 42 When need for a new school became acute during the Depression and government funding was available for civic improvements, the town built a brick one story Colonial Revival Center School building (1939) southwest of the library.
Later town-owned buildings erected on the plot were a brick school annex (1954), the Slade office building (c1980), a simple pitched-roof one-story structure, and a large two story post-modern brick addition to the Center School (1992). A World War Il and Korean war memorial was installed on the lawn south of the library (c1955). The Hubbardston Library gift was a prelude to Clark's more famous legacy, the founding of Clark University in 1887. Private universities, like libraries, were a visible form of educational philanthropy in decades after the Civil War, often the gifts of men, like Clark, who had no more than common school educations (other founders in this category were Ezra Cornell, Matthew Vassar, and Johns Hopkins).
Clark, who had felt disadvantaged by his own lack of formal education, was committed to making learning available to others whose families could not afford books or college tuition. Criterion B. The Library is the building in Hubbardston most significantly associated with Jonas Gilman Clark, the town's most important 19th century native son. Neither his boyhood home on Barre Road,*3 a Federal house built by his father, William S. Clark, nor his own home of several years on Main Street* represent as well Clark's taste, interests, and aspirations as the Library, his gift to his native town. The Library is also the most intact surviving building erected by Clark in any location.*S (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts 8 5 Section number. Page - Jonas Gilman Clark is best remembered for his educational gifts, but he also played a significant local role in Abolition before the Civil War. In California during the Civil War he was a leader in supporting the Union cause as a founder of the California Union League and a member of the Sanitary Commission. Biographical sketch of Jonas Gilman Clark (1815-1900).4 In Hubbardston, three generations of Clark's farmer-ancestors played civic roles as patriot soldiers, representatives in Provincial Congresses, and Selectmen. Jonas Clark was the fifth of eight children of William S. and Elizabeth Clark. He attended the local school during the winter and worked on his father's farm in the summer until apprenticing at age sixteen with a wheelwright.
When his training ended, he opened his own carriagemaking shop, and a few months before turning twenty-two, married Susan Wright (1816-1904) of Hubbardston. Clark's early career in Hubbardston demonstrated his aptitude for making money. Recognizing that local farmers could not afford carriages, he took payment from them in hardwood which he made into chairs and carted to Boston to sell for cash. Discovering the profitability of tinware manufacturing, he sold the woodworking business in 1845, opened a tinmaking shop, and sold his wares, along with hardware and building supplies, in a store he opened in Mechanics' Hall (not extant) on Main Street. He also sent peddlers into the countryside. The business grew, enabling him to open additional hardware stores in Milford and Lowell. While in Hubbardston, Clark was an active Unitarian, and promoted the growing cause of Abolition.
Leaders in the movement including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Wendell Phillips, S. S. Foster, and Abby Kelley came to Hubbardston to lecture; some of these stayed in the Clarks' home and became their good friends. Abolitionist debate successfully converted a number in town. Hubbardston had the second largest number of readers of the Liberator in the county, after Worcester, and in 1843 was the first Massachusetts town to send a Liberty party candidate to the state legislature. Clark is also said to have opposed the Mexican War and to have been a supporter of common school reform. In 1851, after selling the hardware business to his brothers and moving to Boston, Clark shifted his capital to the lucrative California trade.
After losing money with one partner, he took a second, and in 1853 he and Susan moved to San Francisco to reorganize the business, which sold miners' supplies, hardware, building materials, general merchandise, and furniture to the rapidly growing frontier population. In 1856 Clark took over a four story warehouse on Washington Street in San Francisco and began dealing exclusively in furniture, part of which was imported, and part of which he manufactured using native California and West Coast woods as well as imported rosewood and mahogany. Clark became the largest furniture dealer west of the Rockies, opening branch stores in Sacramento, Stockton, and San Jose; the firm won a prize for best furniture at the 1859 California State Fair. Jonas Clark habitually worked in his office until midnight, and suffered a collapse in 1861 from exhaustion.
(continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-85) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Piaces Continuation Sheet OMBApproval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts 8 6 Section number Page The Clarks then took the first of five trips to Europe, which allowed Jonas to rest and recover. He sold the furniture business and invested in San Francisco and Alameda County land, proving as astute in real estate as in the trade of goods. * Clark's support of Abolition and the Union cause led him to become one of five founders and the Treasurer of the California Union League, which aided the Union side in the Civil War, and he was asked to join the U. S. Sanitary Commission, for whom he also raised money. His investments in U. S. government bonds and gold proved immensely profitable after the war.
In California Clark knew Leland Stanford, another future university founder. Between trips to Europe in 1864 and 1866, the couple moved to New York City, where they built a house on Fifth Avenue and Forty-sixth Street and continued to invest in real estate. 48 On European trips Jonas collected books, which were valuable antique volumes, first editions, manuscripts, and others in the fields of history, art, and literature. In the early 1870s he began to give books to the Hubbardston Library. A charitable project for which Clark served as supervisor of construction was the Chapin Home for the Aged and Infirm in New York which opened in 1874; 4 on this project he gained experience for the undertaking in his home town. In the summer of 1874 Clark bought lots for the Library building in Hubbardston.
Plans may have been drawn in advance, because construction began nearly as soon as the lots were cleared. Clark oversaw remodelling of the Elm Street houses and completion of the Library building in 1875. For years after its completion, he continued to donate books to Hubbardston. In 1878, the Clarks left New York City for Worcester, at first intending to build a summer house, but in the end moving to Elm Street, where they demolished an existing house and replaced it with a large stone residence of Elbridge Boyden's design. During the early 1880s, Clark built two business blocks in Worcester, and served as director of a local bank and railroad. A reticent man who avoided public attention, Clark was persuaded in Worcester to become Director of the Free Public Library, his only public office.
Since the Clarks had visited European universities and inquired in some depth about their organization, it appears that the idea of founding an institution of higher learning occurred to them before their move to Worcester."' Clark cherished the idea that an institution could be founded to educate youths regardless of their means, and without religious, social, and political qualifications. In 1881 he began buying lots in a fashionable new suburb of the city, and in 1887 a Board of Trustees, leading citizens of Worcester chosen by Clark, were presented at their first meeting with plans for an initial university building and an endowment of one million dollars. At that date this gift was the largest single one made to education in New England. Clark's personally chosen university president, G.
Stanley Hall, shaped the character of the new institution in a way Clark had not foreseen, but which gave it visibility in the spectrum of American (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - Page _ higher education. Hall, an Ashfield, Massachusetts native who became a leader in the new field of psychology at Johns Hopkins, persuaded Clark to put his resources into graduate research and education, primarily in the sciences. " At this time, education beyond the bachelor's degree, aside from professional schools, was nearly always pursued by Americans in Europe, and few American institutions had adequate facilities to involve students in original scientific research.
After Clark had personally supervised the construction and furnishing of Clark Hall, and President Hall had selected a faculty, Clark University opened in 1889. Within the first few years it had departments of Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology and an international reputation. In 1899, when the institution celebrated its first decade, Sigmund Freud was among the luminaries in attendance. It had been Clark's understanding that the graduate institution would train teachers for an undergraduate branch that would open within a few years, but it was Hall's and the Trustees' opinion that Massachusetts did not need another undergraduate college. Clark therefore withdrew financial support in the early 1890s, bitterly disappointed, also disillusioned about the lack of contributions from other residents of Worcester.
To save the institution, Stanley Hall drew up plans for an undergraduate division in 1895 which led Clark to provide generously in his will for the university. S He died in Worcester in May of 1900, leaving his private book collection to the university and a small bequest to the Hubbardston Library. Criterion C. The Hubbardston Library is a fine example of Second Empire and Italianate architecture typical of the 1870s, and a sample of the work of architect Elbridge Boyden of Worcester. It is also the earliest and most intact example of a style the donor Jonas Clark used in constructing commercial and institutional buildings.
S4 The Library's materials (brick with granite trim) and architectural details (especially round-headed windows with bold stone voussoirs, stone stringcourses, a highly ornamented central pavilion, and round doorway) are typical of Clark's subsequent buildings, the plans for which were drawn by several architects. Elbridge Boyden (1810-1898) was a prominent architect in Worcester in the 1870s. After a childhood in Orange, Massachusetts, where he played in his father's sawmill, he apprenticed as a carpenter in Athol and in the evenings studied the builder's guides of Asher Benjamin, using his master's drawing tools. Arriving in Worcester in 1844, Boyden began to draw plans for the city's builders. Like most practitioners of the budding profession of architecture in these years, Boyden had no formal training. He became well-known as the designer of Mechanics' Hall in Worcester (1857).
In following years, his office planned schools, public buildings, and churches throughout New England, and undertook some projects as distant as Georgia and Kansas. Two of his larger buildings were the Taunton Insane Asylum and Saratoga's Congress Hall Hotel. Boyden considered himself an innovator in the use of terra cotta tiles and ornaments, though he was facile in the use of many materials and styles. He appears to have bowed to the requests of his patrons for buildings in different styles during this period, a time when the architectural vocabulary was rich with revival motifs from many sources. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - 8 Page .
8 It is not known whether Clark requested particular features from Boyden in the Library design or allowed Boyden to plan the building according to his inclinations. In any case, the Hubbardston Library seemed to be a model for later buildings whose plans were drawn by other architects. Clark's personal papers have not survived to clarify the dynamics of the design process. " His management style and experience support speculation that he dictated much of the design of buildings he erected. 58 The success of his business dealings has been attributed to a style of tight control (he seldom had a business partner)."' His early career as a craftsman (wheelwright, chairmaker, tinsmith, and later furniture manufacturer) accustomed him to making design decisions. Clark may have acquired his taste for Italianate features on several visits to Europe where he was particularly enamored of Florence.
He is known to have dictated much of the design of Clark University's first building, Clark Hall, in 1887. The commercial and institutional buildings contrast with the Clarks' residences (not extant, one at 560 Fifth Avenue, New York, and one at 39 Elm Street, Worcester designed by Elbridge Boyden), which were Victorian Gothic in character, and shared only a few features of roof design (steep-pitched tower, polychrome slate, and iron cresting) with the Library and Clark's later buildings. 6 Archaeological Significance Historic archaeological resources described above have the potential to provide detailed information on the development of Hubbardston's historic town center and the comparatively prosperous time in the town's history before the library was built.
Archaeological resources associated with the stable/barn can clarify whether this structure was moved or temporarily retained after library construction. This research may provide information on 19" century transportation technology, barn construction and the apparent use of this structure after it was scheduled to be demolished or moved. Evidence may be present indicating some type of adaptive reuse of the structure after construction of the library. The barn/stable may have survived for 25 years after the library was built. Detailed analysis of the contents of the well and other potential; occupational related features on the property can also contribute information on the 19th century development of the town center.
These features can contain evidence relating to the operation of the hotel across Main Street, domestic life on neighboring properties or activities associated with the library. (end) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page - OMB Approval No. 1021-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Notes, Sections 7 and 8. " Roof alterations were made sometime after 1930 and before 1968, according to available photographs. Changes may have been made as part of a civic improvements program during the Depression. Only recent building permits have been kept by town offices. LaPierre, 10. Window panels, like front door and roofalterations, appear in photographs after 1930 and before 1968.
* The idea for basement offices may have come from Mechanics' Hall in Hubbardston (not extant), a Greek Revival building on Main Street where Clark's hardware store occupied one of two street-facing stores in the 1840s. The site of Mechanics' Hall was similarly graded to reveal a full lower story with side entrances and windows. Engraving in Jonas Clark collection, Clark University Archives. 5 In 1929 a furnace and a library gallery floor were installed. It is likely that upper windows were blocked and the ceiling lowered as an attempt to conserve heat during the same remodelling. 6 Library records. 7 Stowe, 180. 8 Sullivan, 215. - Carnegie's first library was given to Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1886.
Clark's motivation was similar to that expressed by Carnegie in his Gospel of Wealth, first published in a journal in 1889, which stated the responsibility of the wealthy to give their fortunes back to society in beneficial ways. Carnegie regarded rich men as trustees, not owners of their wealth, which was earned by the labors of many in society. 10 James Lenox incorporated the Lenox Library in 1870 and gave it a lot on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st Streets, just south of a tract owned by Jonas Clark. " This term is found in Library records in the early 20th century. 12 Barber, 55. 13 Beers Atlas. 14 Worcester County Registry of Deeds, Book 493, Page 512. 15 Book 493, Pages 513, 519. 16 Book 941, Pages 139, 140. According to the Gardner News (8/22/1874), Ebenezer Mann bought the tinshop and moved it to land near the residence of Isaac Davis on Elm Street.
Part of it would become a dwelling and part of it would be used for his tin business. The former tinshop is today the Greek Revival front-gabled house with Victorian additions standing at 15 Elm Street. 1 Book 933, Page 213. The Gardner News (8/22/1874) related that Hunton would erect the barn on his own land behind the Crystal House. He sold the hotel the following summer. It was destroyed by fire in 1880. 18 Book 938, Page 376. Appleton sold the property to his brother for one dollar. 19 Book 905, Page 127. Appleton paid $2700 for the property. 20 Stowe, 166. 21 The school, formerly "Schoolhouse No. 1," present on maps of Hubbardston as early as 1831, was superceded by construction of a new Center School on Main Street in 1872. The front-gabled schoolhouse building is the present multifamily house at 14 Elm Street.
The Ephraim Mason house stands at 10-12 Elm Street, remodelled with a double doorway and semihexagonal bay windows. Stowe, 205. The doors on these two buildngs are similar and resemble one across the street on the former tinshop, 15 Elm Street, remodelled as a house by Ebenezer Mann at the same time. 22 "Mr. J. G. Clark has already commenced work upon his land, preparatory to the erection of buildings. What they are to be remains to be seen." Gardner News (8/22/1874). 23 Worcester Aegis and Gazette (9/26/1874). 24 Gardner News (10/17/1874). 25 On July 4, 1871, the first train of the Boston, Barre, and Gardner Railroad arrived in Hubbardston. 26 Eben and Thomas Coffin were brothers who came from Woburn in 1872 and 1873. The Coffins were associated with Queen Anne houses at 14 Main Street and 7 Brigham Street built after the Library.
The Coffin turning mill, off Evergreen Street, also postdated the Library. Eben Coffin lived for a period in the house north of the Library, at 9 Main Street. Stowe, NPS Formt 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - Page - 254. Sullivan, 287, 288. Another carpenter active in Hubbardston at this time was John Goodspeed of High Street. Since the architect was used to working with Worcester craftsmen, however, it is also reasonable to expect he imported woodworkers as well as masons from Worcester. 27 LaPierre, 10. 28 29 Gardner News (8/22/1874).
An exodus of youth to urban places, an example being Jonas Clark, depleted Hubbardston's population during these years, bemoaned by orators and writers of town history. Stowe, 205. The opinion that the library was "the handsomest and most costly of its size to be found in the state" was expressed in the Gardner News (5/8/1875). Stowe too believed the Library was "the finest structure in town... For thoroughness of construction and beauty of finish it will compare favorably with any building in the county." Stowe, 180 30 Catalogue of the Hubbardston Public Library, 1881. 31 Town Meeting in 1873 thanked Clark for his gifts of books. By 1881, Clark had given more than 2000 books to the library. Stowe, 161-163, 180. 32 Sarah E. Marean, a member of a local family. 33 Book 1185, Page 525.
34 Jonas Clark retained a large parcel behind the Library that extended to the southwest border of the Elm Street apartments' lot. The town bought the large lot surrounding the Library lot in 1903 from the Clark University Trustees. Town Meeting Minutes, 1903. 35 The houses were sold by the town c1909 after Clark's death. 36 See Town Meeting minutes for text of Article 3 and acceptance resolution in which Clark is thanked for his "generous 37 Sullivan, 214, 215. It is interesting to note in library records that most of the books purchased by the Library in the early 20th century were ordered from the Boston Store, occupant of Jonas Clark's Main Street block in Worcester. 38 Sullivan, 215. The library had discussed putting in steam heating in 1913. Whether this was done at that date is not known. Library records. Henry Huntting also gave childrens' books to the Library. Library records.
40 Sullivan, 195. 41 Library records. 42 Town Meeting minutes, December 1, 1903. The town paid $1500 to the Trustees of Clark University for the lot on which now stand several public buildings and playing fields for the Center School. 43 The Clark house at 12 Barre Road was the childhood home of Jonas Gilman Clark, but according to town tradition was not his place of birth. William Clark appears to have built the house sometime after buying the parcel in 1805. 44 15 Main Street, built c1840, and now significantly altered, once had a two-tier porch supported with square panelled posts. The doorway of the sidehall house has also been changed.
45 Two buildings at Clark University erected during Clark's lifetime survive, though both have been somewhat altered: Clark Hall (1887) once had a taller tower and different iron cresting, and the Chemistry building, an unadorned, austerely functional brick building (1888), has replaced windows. The Chemistry building is more closeely associated with Stanley Hall, who suggested its design. The New York and Worcester houses of Susan and Jonas Clark have been demolished Clark's business blocks have been radically altered or demolished 46 Biographical information has been compiled from the following sources: Autobiographical notes of J. G.
Clark, copy at the Hubbardston Historical Museum; Contemporary American Biography, Dictionary of American Biography, In Memoriam: Jonas Gilman Clark, Koelsch, LaPierre, National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, New York directories, Obituary in Boston Evening Transcript (5/24/1900), Stowe, Stebbins, and Wilson. 47 Clark bought the eastern 10,000 acres of Rancho Arroyo de la Alameda in the East Bay, comprising much of the present land of Hayward, Union City, and Fremont. His purchases within San Francisco also appreciated rapidly, to his great financial advantage. Koelsch research report in Clark University Archives. 48 This house, finished c1869, was sold in 1876 to Andrew Carnegie. The couple's next home, at 72nd and Fifth, was sold with eight adjacent lots to John D. Rockefeller in 1881.
NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - Page 49 The Chapin Home (not extant) first appears in NewYork directories in 1873/74 on East 66th near Third Avenue. Mrs. E. H. Chapin was president of the home. 50 Stebbins. 51 Their trips to Europe before founding the university took place in 1861, 1864, 1866, and 1872. German universities had an excellent reputation in the United States during this period, and many American students went there for graduate and professional study. Johns Hopkins had tried to create an exclusively graduate institution in 1876, but financial strains had compelled it to open to undergraduates. Wilson.
53 Before his death, Clark had already given two million dollars to the university. In Memoriam. Susan Wright Clark also endowed fellowships and scholarships before her death in 1904. The Clarks had no children. 54 The commercial buildings discussed post-date the Library. Clark's earliest store in Hubbardston was not erected by him. His buildings in Milford and Lowell have not been located, if they survive. In San Francisco, it is believed that his four story warehouse was standing before he became its occupant. The buildings architecturally resembling the Library were all located in Worcester. See note 58 for a list of these buildings. ss Only his own residences and the second of Clark University's buildings, an austere and functional laboratory building, are not in this style. Reminiscences of Elbridge Boyden. Elbridge Boyden collection, Worcester Historical Museum.
57 Susan Wright Clark ordered that her husband's personal papers be destroyed after her death. 58 Clark's other commerical and institutional buildings are or were located in Worcester. They include two business blocks and two university buildings: 1) At 500 Main Street the Boston Storeor Denholm and McKay Building (1882), now radically altered and refaced, was designed by Fuller and Delano. Clark is said to have supervised construction of the structure, which resembled the Library in its detailing 2) Plans for 94-102 Front Street (1883) were drawn by Stephen Earle; the building is now demolished. 3) Clark Hall of Clark University today resembles the Library in its brick and granite materials, granite voussoirs, round-headed windows and doors, and stone string courses. Like the Library, the building also prominently displays Clark's name and its date of construction.
Stephen Earle, a Worcester architect, is said to have drawn plans for the hall, but disclaimed responsibility for the design. The building's tower has been lowered and its iron cresting replaced. LaPierre, 10, 11, 16-18. Hall says Delano was involved in the design. Hall, 6. 4) the Chemistry building (1888) was built according to plans sent from Europe by G. Stanley Hall and differs in character from the other buildings erected by Clark. Information about the appearance of these other buildings erected by Clark is located in the Clark University Archives. 59 Stebbins. 60 LaPierre speculates that Peter Bonnet Wright may have designed the Clark's Fifth Avenue mansion (not extant) in 1866, which is said to have had polychrome windows, heavy cornice ornaments, gable screens, and a tower.
In Worcester in 1878, Elbridge Boyden designed the Clarks' Elm Street stone mansion (not extant), which is said to have been Ruskinian Gothic (end) : NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - 9 Page - 1 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY Maps and Atlases Atlas of Worcester County, Massachusetts. New York: F. W. Beers and Co., 1870. Map of Hubbardston Lot in the Estate of Jonas Gilman Clark. c1905. Hubbardston Historical Museum. New Topographical Atlas of the County of Worcester, Massachusetts. Philadelphia: L. J. Richards and Co., 1898. School District Map of Hubbardston. Philadelphia: Richard Clark, 1855. Hubbardston Historical Museum. Town of Hubbardston. Assessors' maps. 1994.
Walling, Henry F. Map of Worcester County. Boston: William E. Baker and Co., 1857. Published Material Aegis and Gazette. Worcester, Mass. (Sept. 26, 1874) Barber, John Warner. Historical Collections. Worcester, Ma.: Warren Lazell, 1848. Bobinski, George S. Carnegie Libraries. American Library Association. Chicago: 1969. Boston Evening Transcript. Boston, Mass. (May 24, 1900). Boyden, Elbridge. Reminiscences of Elbridge Boyden, Architect. Worcester, Mass. 1890. Contemporary American Biography. v 3. New York: Atlantic Publishing and Engraving Co., 1899. Dictionary of American Biography. v 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930. Gardner News. Gardner, Mass. (Aug. 24, Oct. 17, 1874; May 8, July 24, Sept. 25, 1875; Nov. 8, 1884). Hall, G. Stanley. Life and Confessions of a Psychologist. New York: Appleton & Co., 1923. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) OMB Approval No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number 9 Page - 2 Hamel, Suzanne M. "Fiat Universitas." Clark University. Clark Now (Winter 1977). Hubbardston, Massachusetts, Illustrated. Gardner, Ma.: Gardner News Co., 1899. Hubbardston, Massachusetts Pictorial: 1899-1982. Hubbardston Historical Society. Ma.: Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, 1982. Fitchburg, In Memoriam. Jonas Gilman Clark. New York: Atlantic Publishing and Engraving Co., 1900. Koelsch, William A. Clark University: A Narrative History. Clark University Press. 1987. ----. "A Portrait of Jonas Clark." Clark University. Clark Now. [n.d.] National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. v 9. James T. White and Co., 1899. New York City directories.
1860-1885. Stowe, Rev. J. M. History of the Town of Hubbardston. Gardner, Ma.: Bushnell and Co., 1881. Sullivan, Leo J. History of the Town of Hubbardston, 1881-1976. Westford, Ma.: Courier Corp., 1993. Stebbins, Rev. Calvin. Founder's Day Address. Publications of the Clark University Library 1, no. 6 (April 1905). Wilson, Louis N. "Some Recollections of Our Founder." Clark University Founders Day Address. Publications of the Clark University Library 8, no. 2 (February 1927). Unpublished Manuscripts and Collections Boyden, Elbridge, collection. Worcester Historical Museum Library. Clark University buildings collection. Clark University Archives. : Clough, Lucy Grimes. "Fifty Years a Librarian." Manuscript. [1947?] Hubbardston Historical Museum. House file. Hubbardston Historical Museum.
(continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number - Page - 3 Hubbardston collection. Worcester Historical Museum Library. Hubbardston postcard collection. Hubbardston Historical Museum. Jonas Gilman Clark collection. Clark University Archives. LaPierre, William C. "The Architecture of Jonas Clark." Typescript. 1978. Clark University Archives. Library file. Hubbardston Historical Museum. Residents file. Hubbardston Historical Museum. Government Documents Town of Hubbardston. Board of Assessors' records. Town of Hubbardston and Massachusetts Historical Commissions. Survey of Historic Cultural Resources. 1995. Hubbardston's Town of Hubbardston. Minutes of Town Meetings.
Worcester County Registry of Deeds. (end) Hubbardston Public Library Name of Property Worcester,MA County, State 10. Geographical Data Acreage of Property less than one acre UTM References See continuation sheet. (Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet) 1. 18 745980 4706640 Zone Easting Northing 2. Zone Easting Northing 3. Zone Easting 4. Zone Easting X See continuation sheet Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.) Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.) 11.
Form Prepared By name/title_Margaret Hepler, Preservation Consultant, with Betsy Friedberg, NR Director, MHC organization Massachusetts Historical Commission street & number_ 220 Morrissey Boulevard city or town Boston _ state_Massachusetts date_June 1998 _telephone617-727-8470 _zip code 02125-3314 Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form: Continuation Sheets Northing Northing A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location. A sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property.
Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items) Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.) name Town of Hubbardston, c/o Board of Selectmen street & number _ 7A Main Street city or town Hubbardston telephone _state MA 978-928-5735 _ zip code 04152-0206 Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information isbeingcollected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seg.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503. (PsSF 1:00-a United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number. 10 Page - 1 10. GEOGRAPHIC DATA Verbal Boundary Description.
The historic Library lot is a rectangle containing 10,260 square feet identified on the accompanying map with a heavy black line. According to the deed conveyed to the Town of Hubbardston in 1884 (Book 1185, Page 525), the lot has 108 feet of frontage on Main Street and extends twenty feet behind the Library, twenty feet to its north, and twenty-eight feet to its south. The lot donated to the town by Jonas Clark is now part of a larger lot owned by the Town of Hubbardston identified on Assessors' Maps as lot 8A/11. Boundary Justification. The boundary is the original Library lot boundary, delineating the land Jonas Clark bestowed upon the Town of Hubbardston in 1884. This Library lot remains undisturbed, while the surrounding lot of which it became a part after the town bought it from the Clark estate in 1903 is now developed with school and town buildings and a parking lot.
(end) MPS Forn 10-900-2 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB ApprovaiNo. 1024-0018 Hubbardston Public Library Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), Massachusetts Section number Photos Page _1 - Photographs taken by Margaret Hepler, January 1997, March 1998* - Negatives in possession of Hubbardston Historical Commission 1. Westward view from Main Street 2. Westward view from Main Street 3. Southwestward view from Main Street 4. Southwestward detail from Main Street 5. Southward view from Main Street 6. Southward view of rear of building 7. Looking west along Main Street* 8. Looking northwest from intersection of Main and Elm Streets* 9. Assessor's office, basement* 10. Main room of library, first floor* 11. Children's room, first floor* 12. Doors to children's room, first floor* 13. Second floor banister* 14.
Second floor stairwell* 15. Second floor, museum* 16. Second floor, museum* (end) page fifty-five Main Street, Hubbardston, c1848. (Library site on left.) ( Barber, John Warner. Historical Collections. Worcester, Mass.: Warren Lazell, 1848. ) Map of Library Setting 18 Rt.68) 2 3 1 15 014 13 -5 2 10:9 0:0 Elm Street 23 21 22 Brigham WoKrestex 24:25 Lot lines are drawn to scale: 1 inch = 145 feet (Buildings are not drawn to scale) 1 Hubbardston Public Library (1874) 2 Slade Building (c1980) 3 Center School and Annex (1939, 1954) 4 Center School (1992) 5 World War II and Korean War monument (c1955) 6 Abijah Clark H. (c1820) Wheeler General Store (1849) 8 S. Wheeler H. (c1856) 9 Ephraim Mason H. (1795, moved 1874) 10 Schoolhouse No.
1 (c1830, moved 1874) 11 Civil War monument (1885) 12 Unitarian Church (1774, 1842) 13 Old Burial Ground (c1770) Direction of view and number of accompanying photographs. 14 Elwin Wheeler H. (c1895) 15 Post Office (1962) 16 Bout Shop (c1850) 17 Augustus Morse H. (c1840) 18 Morse H. (c1820) 19 Samuel Swan H. (c1835) 20 Jonas Clark H. (c1839) 21 Ebenezer Mann H. (tinshop c1847, moved 1874) 22 Isaac Davis H. (c1840) 23 Jacob Waite Inn (c1803) 24 Dr. Shepherd Clark H (c1840) 25 A. Clark / J. M. Stowe H. (c1850) DOILER N 2IL MAHONWONGASSOCIATES:ARCHITECTS 395 CONCORO AVENUE CAMBRIDGE MA 02138 617.497.0303 FAX 617.497.6851 JONAS CLARK PUBLIC LIBRARY - HUBBARDSTON, MA BASEMENT FLOOR PLAN A.0 15 JANUARY 1997 NOTE: THIS DIG IS NOT PRAWH TO MEASURED DIMENSIONS, MAHON WONE AGSCIATES SHALLNOT HEL LIBLE FOR ALLURACTOF PLAN.
SHILDACH'S ROOM INTST AbLT READING MAHONWONGASSOCIATES:ARCHITECTS 395 CONCORO AVENUE CAMBRIOGE MA 02138617.497.0303FAX617.497.6851 JONAS CLARK PUBLIC LIBRARY HUBBARDSTON, MA FIRST FLOOR PLAN Ail 15 JANUARY 1997 NOTE: THIS DWE K.NOT BRAWN TO MEASURED DIMENSON MAHON WONG NAOCLATES SHALLNOT HELD LABLE FORACCURACY DF PLAN MIEUM AFTEROOM MAHONWONGASSOCIATES:ARCHITECTS 395 CONCORD AVENUE CAMBRIDGE MA 02138 617.497.0303 FAX617.497.6851 JONAS CLARK PUBLIC LIBRARY HUBBARDSTON, MA SECOND FLOOR PLAN A.2 I5 JANUANY 1997 N/TE: THIS PNE 1S NT PRAWN TO MEASURED DIMENSIONS.
MAHON WONE ASSOCLATES SHALL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR AEOURACT DF PLANA UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY NAME : Hubbardston Public Library MULTIPLE NAME: STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Worcester DATE RECEIVED: DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: 7/10/98 8/05/98 DATE OF PENDING LIST: DATE OF 45TH DAY: 7/20/98 8/24/98 REFERENCE NUMBER: 98000989 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: N DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: OTHER: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: PERIOD: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N N N SLR DRAFT: Y NATIONAL: N COMMENT WAIVER: N ACCEPT RETURN REJECT DATE ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS : Historially and arcitectually siquificant thcentery pultic library conotruited ly noted local philanthrgpios. RECOM.
/CRITERIA ALLePT A,B,C REVIEWER Patuck Andeus TELEPHONE DISCIPLINE Historian DATE 8/19/98 DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N @ Hubbardston Public Library, > Main st., Nubbardston Worcester Co. Massachusetts (Margavet Hepler, Jannary 1997, nepalives in Hubbaraston Historical Comm. files, Librony) westward view from Main Street. 0331 2) Hubbaraston Pablic Library, 7 Main St., Hubbardston worcesterCo. Massachusetis (MarcaretHepler, Jannary 947 nepative in Hubbardstoh Nistorical Comm.Jill, Library) westward view from Main Street. HUBBAROSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 Hubbavdston Public Libraly, 7 Main St., Hubbardston WorcesterCo. Massachusetts. Marcaret Hepler, Tannaxy 1997, necative in Nubbaraston Historicall Comm.file, Library) Sowthwestward view from Main Arees.
1874 SO SNOC @Nubbardston Publie Library, 7 Main St., lubardston WorcesterCo.: MassachuseHs (Margaret Hepler, January 1997, nerative in Hubbardston Historical comm.file, Library) southwestward view from Main Aroet. AS ECAR 1374 ©Hubbardston Public Library,> MainSt., Aubbardston WorcesterCo. Massachusetts (Margaret Hepler, Januaxy 1997, nerativein Nubbaraston'Historical Comm. Sile, Library) South view from Main Street. ©Hubbardston Public Library, > MainSte, Hubbardste Woycester Co Massachusetts (Margaret Hepler, January 1997, nepayivein Hubbardston Historical Comm. file, Library) South view from Main Areet. 7. Hubbardston Public Library 7 Main St. Hubbardston, Norcester Co., MA Marçaret Hepler March 1998 Files of Hubbardston Hist. Comm. Looking west from Main St. 8. Hubbardston PublicLibra 7 Mainft. Hubbaraston, Worcester V.
Hepler March 1998 Files of HHC Lookine n.w.from Main intersection = %. Hubbavdston Public Libra 7 Main S7 Hubbaraston, WercesterC M. Hepler March 1948 Files of HHC Looking se.in assessors'of basement. 10. Nubbardston Publie Library 7. Main St. Hubbardsion, WorcesterCo, MA rarch1798 Files of NHC Lookinge. in main room of libyary, sirst floor 11. Unbbardsdon Public Libvary 7 Main St Hubbaydrton, Worcestar Co., MA M.AYChPAS Files of HHC Zookinne. in childiens room, firstyl00x 12. Uubbardsten Public Library 7Mainst Umbbardston, Worresterco, MA March 1998 Files of HHC 2o0kingn.w.atdoors.in childrensroom, Cirstyloor 13. Hnbbaydston Publie Library 7 Mains. Hubbaydston, WorcesterCo, MA M. Heplel. Maxch 998 Files of HHC Lookin s.e. in stairwell to second Sloor 14. Iubbardston Public Libxary > Main+. Anbbardston, horcesterCoMA M. Mepler. Mardh 1770 FilesulN.H.C.
Lookine.insairwellto rocond SloDy FARMERS + HALL 15. Hubbardston PublicLibrax 7 Main St. Anbbardston, Worcester Co., M. Hepler March 1998 Flesot HHC LookN r n.e. in museum, se 1b. Unbbardston Dublic Library 7 Main St Hubbaxdston, Worcester Co., MA M. Hepler March 1998 Files of HHC Look or.e in museum, second 7 7 7-18 ROAR 107 106 105 I01 102 103 BARRE 113 104 7-50 98, 99/ 97 100 90 96 8 95 ELM 94 10 STREET 93 92 91 89 88 17 19a 21 18 19 20 43 22 23 42 37 130/39|380 36"ap) 40 35 24 12A 25 34 32 31 30 29 28 26 27 86A 83 84 8I 86 82 79A III 85 82-A 79 80 109 LINE THANSMISSION -i73A 72 87 108 -NOTF hieAl le Nlal lntandd » lsa ln Canvavanal 44 41 50 5l BRIGHAM 78 77 52 54 76 74 BRIGHAM 53 75 POND 68 8-C 55 56 67 69 66 EVERGREEN 7I 70 49 57 63 57A 58 60 62 64 A 65A 65 Revised To January 1, 1997 6I 64 8 REvICEOI a REPRINTED BY CARTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATES, INC LITTLE TON, NH.
03561 HUBBARDSTON 8-A gEVISED THRU EESEFETIT CHIAL The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Massachusetts Historical Commission July 8, 1998 Ms. Carol Shull National Register of Historic Places Department of the Interior National Park Service Mail Stop 2280, Suite 400 1Sashc.ston, DC 20240 Dear Ms. Shull: Enclosed please find the following nomination form: Hubbardston Public Library, 7 Main Street, Hubbardston (Worcester Co.), MA The nomination has been voted eligible by the State Review Board and has been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. The owners of the property were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30 to 45 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely, Betey Betsy Friedberg Friedkey National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission enclosure CC: Richard Lyon, Chair, Hubbardston Historical Commission Dennis O'Donnell, Chair, Hubbardston Board of Selectmen Edward Barker, Hubbardston Town Planner Margaret Hepler, Preservation Consultant 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125 - (617) 727-8470 Fax: (617) 727-5128 TDD: 1-800-392-6090 Website: www.magnet.state.ma.us/sec/mhc
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