Carr, Martin W., School

The Martin W. Carr School of 1898 is a handsome institutional example of Renaissance and Colonial Revival style architecture. The three-story brick building faces south on Atherton Street, two short blocks from the busy arterial of Somerville Avenue. At the north the school is bounded by Cleveland Street, and at the west by Harvard The freestanding building is situated on a level .68 acre site on the southern slope of Spring Hill, and is set back approximately 50 feet from Atherton Street. At present, the school is surrounded by an asphalt playground at the west. (Photo 1). To the east, along Atherton, is a densely-built block of one and two-family houses.

Immediately to the north, south and west is a relatively intact residential neighborhood with stylish mid-nineteenth century single-family houses and later two-family house and apartment buildings. From the school site and from inside the building there are excellent views of Cambridge to the south, particularly of the towers of Memorial Hall and the surrounding buildings at Harvard University. The H-shape plan is symmetrically organized with two classroom wings flanking a central hall and two-story grand staircase. Basement to third-story stairs are located at the north and south ends of the wing central hall. The south of the school faces the street and serves as the main facade.

The building rests on a rough faced granite sill and buttressed basement walls which rise to the first brick belt courses of the rusticated first story. The basement is lit by simple segmental-arched windows. The school is finished entirely with red brick laid in common running bond. Granite trim us used at the entrances, at window sills, and in one continous belt course between the second and third stories.

/Architect Aaron H. Gould, architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Martin W. Carr School possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship and association. It is a well-designed and preserved example of Renaissance and Colonial Revival institutional architecture, and is the only surviving work of local architect Aaron H. Gould in Somerville. Built on the site of the earlier Spring Hill Primary School (1850) and the First Baptist Church (1852), it has associations with the development of the Spring Hill area, one of Somerville's earliest residential subdivisions (1847). As an imposing public building, it reflects the expansion of City facilities to meet the strong population growth at the turn of, the century.

Thus, the Carr School meets criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places. The Carr School was opened in 1898 to serve as a 14-room grade school. Iwo additional rooms were devoted to manual training facilities used by upper grades. The Carr was the first H-plan school in Somerville. This modern plan allowed maximum light and air into the classrooms. Gould's Ellis School (1898) and the Kelley School (1902, razed) both in Cambridge, evidence the H-plan and similar exterior treatment. Although originally considered spacious, the School Report of 1901 noted that the building was already becoming seriously crowded. When opened, the Carr was one of 24 schools in the city and accomodated 700 pupils.

Somerville's schools served a population which rose from 40,152 in 1890 to 61,643 in 1900. Martin W. Carr (1892-1902), for whom the building is named, was president of M.W. Carr and Company, a Somerville jewelry manufacturing firm with a national market. Carr served as an alderman and as a member of the School Committee. He resided on Craigie Street, at the edge of the Spring Hill neighborhood.