Ronan, Mary, T., School

The Mary T. Ronan School is a 2½ story brick building constructed in a Classical Revival style. The school occupies a half-acre lot in the Beachmont section of Revere, a dense hilltop neighborhood of houses dating from the turn of the century. The Ronan School was built in 1896 as a simple rectangular structure. A smaller T-shaped wing was added to the rear in 1914 and copies the original design. The main block is 2½ stories high plus basement. broken on the facade by a gabled pavilion and by polygonally-capped dormers on the side elevations. Three thin chimneys pierce the roofline. Several horizontal elements articulate the elevations of the Ronan School.

A granite foundation and granite stringcourse outline the basement level, while a brick stringcourse and bracketed wooden cornice cap the walls. Windows are often grauped in threes, a motif reinforced by continuous granite sills on the second story. All the windows have splayed lintels of gauged brick, and those on the first floor are further ornamented by granite keystones. The most striking design element of this building is its central frontispiece. Brick pilasters with plinths and Ionic capitals carved in granite support a gabled roof with dentillated cornice. This 3-story bay is entirely symmetrical. On the first floor, a round-arched doorway is flanked by narrow roundarched windows; a granite keystone ornaments the entrance arch.

On the second floor, oval windows with granite keystones flank a pair of rectangular windows which are joined by a continuous granite entablature, on which the original name and date of the school are inscribed (Bradstreet Avenue School,1896). A decorative iron balcony ispans the base. of these windows. In the gable field, a Palladian motif window features a granite sill, entablature, and keystone.

/Architect N/A Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Mary T. Ronan School retains integrity of design, materials, workmanship, setting, and location. The building is associated with the historical development of the Beachmont area of Revere and is a significant example of its architectural type and period; it meets criteria A and C of the National Register. The coastal highlands of Revere were increasingly developed as a summer resort from the mid-19th century on. Early in this period, Beachmont was occupied by tent-dwellers from the surrounding towns of Chelsea, Everett, and Malden during the hot season. By the late l9th century, however, more permanent residential subdivisions were platted.

The Boston Land Company had purchased most of the land here and chartered a narrow gauge railroad which connected Beachmont to Boston and Lynn in 1875. As an inducement to settlement, the Land Company offered to provide for five years a free pass to each property owner building a house worth $2,000.Aboom in both summer and year-round homes the Stick, Second Empire, and Queen Anne styles. B an ucen ame sfeyles. Fingle and mut t-fami ly hones buit in Prame chot houne miti eigile roeo an decae ia 5 two-room building which also housed the community's religious services. A new, wood pressures, however, soon demanded another schoolhouse. The Mary T. Ronan School was built in 1896 for $35,000.

This modern, eight-room brick building boasted an assembly hall on the top floor, electric lights, bells, and speaking tubes. Originally known as the Bradstreet Avenue School, the building has since been renamed for one of its early principals, Mary T. Ronan, who was named to the post in 1904.