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NPS Form 10-900 (Rev. 10-90) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service RECEIVED 2280 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form AUG 2 1989 This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts! Seelirf&tRittens i Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" In the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items 1.
Name of Property historic name Palmer Memorial Hall other names/site number Palmer Senior Center 2. Location street & number 1029 Central Street _ not for publication city or town Palmer _vicinity state Massachusetts code_MA county_ Hampden .code_013 _ zip code _ 01069 3. State/Federal Agency Certification & meets - does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significan ] nationally - statewide V2 locally. (- See continuation sheet for additional comments. sdte B.MiDonough Signature of certifying official/Title Judith BMcDonough, Executive Director Date Massachusetts Historical Commission, State Historic Preservation Officer State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property - meets - does not meet the National Register criteria.
(- See continuation sheet for additional Comments.) Signature of certifying official/Title Date State or Federal agency and bureau 4. Natjonal Park Service Certification 1, hereby certify that this property is: Dyentered in the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined eligible for the National Register - See continuation sheet. - determined not eligible for the National Register - removed from the National Register - other (explain): EdoonF. Beall a13199 Palmer Memorial Hall Name of Property 5.
Classification wnership of Propert Check as many boxes as apply _ private X public-local _ public-State _ public-Federal Hampden, MA County and State (Check only one box) X building(s) _ district _ site _ structure _ object Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing 1 building sites structures 1 2 objects Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.) n/a 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) Education: Library Social: Meeting Hall Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) Social: Civic 7.
Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) Late Victorian: Romanesque Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation_Granite walls Brick roof other Asphalt Terra Cotta Brownstone Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) ps Form 10-900-1 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approvel No. 1024-0018 Palmer Memorial Hall Palmer (Hampden Co.), Mass. Section number - 7 Page - Palmer Memorial Hall is located on a small flat lot at the southwest corner of Central and Pleasant Streets, one block north of the Main Street (Route 20) business district in Palmer, Massachusetts. The main block of the building measures 46x65 feet and is two and one-half stories high over a full basement.
The building is of solid masonry construction, built of dark red pressed brick, with matching mortar and terra cotta, and set upon a granite foundation. A granite cornerstone, dated 1890, is located at the northwest corner. A terra cotta egg and dart string course encircles the building between the first and second floors. The front facade faces west onto Central Street and is characterized by a two-story gabled pavilion that projects twelve feet out from the center of the main block. A central hipped roof is intersected by a gable dormer on each of the north and south facades. Two small eyebrow dormers are located on either side of the crest of the central hipped roof. Original slate shingles have been replaced with asphalt, first in 1952 and most recently in 1995. There is no formal landscaping on Memorial Hall's small lot.
The front yard is planted in grass, with a concrete walk leading up to the main entrance of the building. The rear of the lot is paved in asphalt as a parking lot. On the front lawn at the southwest corner of the building, there is a large granite boulder with a bronze plaque, erected in the 1920s to commemorate Palmer's World War I veterans. This memorial is considered to be a contributing object for the purposes of this National Register nomination. The front pavilion serves as the main entrance to the building, with four granite steps leading up to a double arched opening above the granite foundation at the gable end. Two pairs of unmatched metal railings have been installed at the front steps, probably in the 1970s. The wide brick double arch is composed of six courses of headers; it is banded by terra cotta and has foliated terra cotta imposts.
Piers to either side of the double arch are capped by terra cotta offsets. Each arched opening contains a separate entrance to the building. The archway on the left (facing the building) is enclosed by double six-panel wooden doors that lead to the great hall on the second floor; the doors are surmounted by a wooden panel in the tympanum on which are painted the words "Memorial Hall." The archway on the right is open, leading onto a porch in front of the entrance to the former library space on the first floor, which is entered through double half-glass wooden doors under a massive brownstone lintel. The south side of the pavilion is opened by another large archway that is spanned at the base by a short, brownstone-capped brick wall and at the spandrel by a decorative iron truss. On the north side of the pavilion is a small arched window opening with a 1/1 double hung wooden sash.
At the second floor of the gable end of the pavilion are three long narrow window openings above the terra cotta string course. The center window is taller than those to its side. Each of the three windows is in three parts: a long rectangular single pane sash, with a wooden transom above, and, above the transom, a single-pane sash at the arch. Three terra cotta emblems decorate the gable end of the front pavilion. Two of the emblems are directly above the crowns of the double arched entrance: the lower one is an open book with the Latin phrase Pro Bono Patria (for the good of the nation) inscribed on its (continued) MPS Form 10-900e (8-84) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 Palmer Memorial Hall Palmer (Hampden Co.), Mass.
Section number - - Page -< pages; the one above reads "Public Library." The third terra cotta emblem, located at the peak of the front gable, is a banner inscribed with the words "Memorial Hall." The gable wall projects above the roofline as a parapet and is capped with terra cotta coping. The terra cotta cornice is decorated with medallions and foliate. The front pavilion is flanked on either side by small hipped dormers projecting from the central hipped roof. A pair of narrow arched 1/1 double-hung sash windows with glass transoms is in each of these lormers on the plane of the main block of the building at the second floor; original 1/1 wooden have been replaced with aluminum sash of the same configuration. On the first floor on either side of the pavilion, directly below the dormers, is another pair of slightly wider arched windows, containing original 1/1 wooden windows.
The north and south elevations rise up to peak at the intersecting gables on either side of the central hipped roof. Each gable contains a triplet of narrow windows, with the central window in each triplet taller than those to either side. Each of these windows contains 1/1 single-hung sash, with a fully arched upper sash, with the exception that in the north gable, the window on the right is of stained glass. In the south gable, two of the original wood windows have been replaced by aluminum sash. A pair of high brick chimneys flanks each of the two side gables. The north elevation has four 1/1 wood sash arched windows on the first floor, a pair in the center under the gable flanked by one on either side near the corners of the building. The south elevation originally had six arched windows on the first floor.
At some point in time, a door with a transom replaced the second window from the left and the arch above the transom was bricked in. The third window from the left has been bricked in completely. In 1933 a small brick shed addition was built around this side door, with the rear of the shed addition left open for access to the door. The front of the shed addition is enclosed by a wooden door that provides access to a small storage room. A rectangular 1/1 wooden window is set into the south wall of the shed addition. The east (rear) elevation contains little decoration or detail. An original rear two-story ell projects 8 feet from the back of the building and extends for 32 feet along the length of the building. This ell contains the interior rear stairs. The east facade of the rear ell contains two arched windows at the first floor with a blank second story.
Although the terra cotta string course continues around the building onto the main block of the rear elevation it does not extend onto the rear ell. The ell has a hipped roof that projects from the main roof. A hipped dormer over the ell contains three small arched windows. The south elevation of the ell contains two small rectangular windows at the first floor and two above at the second floor. The north elevation of the ell contains an arched doorway with a single door that serves as a rear egress. A small shed roof covers this doorway. Two small rectangular windows are above at the second floor. A concrete switchback ramp, which appears to have been built in the early 1990s, is.set against the rear of the building for access to the rear entrance. Like the front elevation, the rear ell is flanked by two hipped dormers on the rear of the main block of the building.
Each dormer contains two arched windows (continued) MPSFom 10-900- United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OM8 Aoprovel Na. 1021-0018 7 Section number - 3 Palmer Memorial Hall Palmer (Hampden Co.), Mass. Page at the second floor; a pair of wider arched windows are below each dormer at the first floor. The interior of the building was designed to accommodate two distinct functions: a public library on the First floor and a meeting hall for the Grand Army of the Republic on the second floor. The layout and lecorative details of each floor are intact, although the building is now used as a senior citizens' center The original library space is divided into a vestibule and four rooms: the Main Reading Room, the Boys' Reading Room, a Reference Room, and a Stack Room.
All of the rooms and the vestibule have wainscoting and beaded moldings around windows and doors. The vestibule is entered from the porch at the southern side of the front pavilion. The Main Reading Room is entered directly from the vestibule through double half-glass wooden doors flanked by a pair of five-light sidelights. The Boys' Reading Room is entered from the Main Reading Room through a single half-glass door directly to the right of the vestibule, with a single five-light sidelight to the right of the door. A clerestory rises above the vestibule doors and the door into the Boys' Reading Room, bringing additional light into the southwest corner of the Main Reading Room.
The clerestory is divided into three sections above either entry: over the vestibule doors is one section of thirty-five lights flanked by five lights over either sidelight; over the door to the Boys' Reading Room is one section of twenty lights, flanked by a five-light section to the right over the sidelight and a fifteen-light section to the left. The various sections of the clerestory are divided by wide mullions. An original pressed metal ceiling is visible above the clerestory in the Main Reading Room, but is covered by a dropped ceiling in the rest of the room. The metal ceiling is fully exposed in the Boys' Reading Room. The Reference Room and the Stack Room are entered through solid wooden doors on the east wall of the Main Reading Room, with the door to the Stack Room on the right.
There are three original tiled fireplaces remaining in the building, one each in the Main Reading Room, the Boys' Reading Room, and the Reference Room. The tile mantels with egg and dart molding and decorative bronze and cast iron frames are original; an original tile hearth remains only in the Main Reading Room. Large floor- mounted wooden cabinets with glass doors line the west wall of the reference room. These cabinets were installed in 1893 to exhibit the natural history collection donated to the library by Dr. W. H. Stowe. The collection is no longer extant. Floors are covered with wall-to-wall carpeting in the Main Reading Room, Boys' Reading Room and foyer and with vinyl in the Reference Room and Stack Room.
There is evidence that original quartered oak and southern pine floors are extant under the carpeting and vinyl in the Main Reading Room, the Boys' Reading Room, and the Reference Room. The Stack Room was built to be as fireproof as possible, in order to better protect the library's collection: it has a concrete floor, brick-lined ceiling, and iron doors covered with wood. A safe has been installed in the Stack Room with its entrance through the wall in the Boys' Reading Room. The Grand Army of the Republic meeting hall is virtually untouched on the second floor. The G. A. R hall is entered through the foyer on the northern side of the front pavilion. A ticket booth ornamented with carved wooden pilasters is tucked under the front stairway. An ornate stair leads up to the meeting (continued) MPS Formm 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 Palmer Memorial Hall Palmer (Hampden Co.), Mass. Section number . Page. hall from the foyer. The stair contains wainscoting, decorative wood spindles, carved banister, and turned newel post. The wall of the stair is lined with eight commemorative marble tablets containing the names of Palmer's Civil War soldiers and a bronze tablet memorializing L. L. Merrick, the original namesake of the G. A. R. hall. At the top of the stairs is a vestibule leading into the hall through double five-paneled wooden doors. To the left of these doors is a forty-light clerestory over the stairhall, bringing additional light into the hall from the windows at the front gable.
A wooden staircase in the southwest corner of the second floor vestibule leads up to a small balcony overlooking the main hall. This balcony is enclosed by a wooden balustrade with turned balusters. The main hall is a large open auditorium rising one and one-half stories to a plaster ceiling. Two massive exposed wooden trusses span the ceiling from north to south to support the hipped roof. An anchor in commemoration of Palmer's Civil War naval veterans hangs from the truss closest to the west wall. A curved wooden stage is along the east wall of the hall, flanked by two small anterooms. The main hall contains wainscoting and quarter oak floors. Vaulted ceilings above the arched windows in the gables are covered with pressed metal, as is the ceiling above the stage. The window surrounds have beaded edging and wooden sills.
The stained glass window in the north gable is by an unknown artist and commemorates a local Civil War veteran. It is divided into three sections: the first bears a likeness of the veteran in a circle above a sheaf of olive branches; the second bears the caption "In memory of J. H. Smith," with a view of Palmer above the caption; and the third section contains three stacked rifles and a haversack. An elevator has been installed in the building, with its first floor entrance in the Stack Room and the second floor entrance in the anteroom to the right of the stage in the G. A. R. hall. Although the shaft extends slightly above the roof of the anteroom, it is relatively unobtrusive. Archaeological Description While no prehistoric resources are recorded on the nominated property, it is possible that sites are present.
One site is located in the general area (within one mile) approximately one mile southeast of the property on the Quaboag River floodplain. Current environmental characteristics of the Memorial Hall property do not represent favorable locational criteria for most types of prehistoric sites. Although the lot is flat, natural soil characteristics have been obscured by construction of the earlier 1875 Wales Building and Memorial Hall. The property is also presently located over 1000 feet from the nearest wetlands. These environmental conditions may have been different in the prehistoric past. Undisturbed soils prior to building construction were probably well drained and, although the property is currently over 1000 feet from the nearest wetlands, it does lie within that distance from the Quaboag River floodplain.
Since the river does meander in this area, it could have easily been located within 1000 feet of the property in the past. Thus, the property may have exhibited favorable locational criteria for prehistoric sites at some point in the past. In general, however, the potential for locating significant prehistoric resources on the property is low. Construction impacts from the Wales Building (1875), (continued) p23 Fom 10-900- United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet OMB Aaprovel No. 1024-0018 Palmer Memorial Hall Palmer (Hampden Co.), Mass. Section number _ 7 Page - Memorial Hall (1891), adjacent parking lot and related utilities have probably destroyed any resources that were present on the relatively small (less than one acre) lot.
There is a high potential for locating historic archaeological resources on the Memorial Hall property. Changes in natural soil stratigraphy and structural remains may be present from the earlier Wales Building, a commercial structure built on the lot in 1875. That structure was moved in 1889. Memorial Hall was reportedly built over the Wales Building basement. Construction features may be present associated with the Wales Building as well as portions of it's foundation and related utilities that were not incorporated into the Memorial Hall Building. Construction features may also exist related to Memorial Hall. (end) Palmer Memorial Hall Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance