Memorial Hall

Memorial Hall, a three-story, hipped roof, granite building in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, is situated in the center of the suburban-industrial hill town of Milford, in south-central Massachusetts. The building is placed at an angle on an irregularly shaped lot. Set on a low rise, the building fronts on School Street on the east, while Spruce Street bounds the property on the north. The building is set back about thirty feet from School Street and is surrounded by a spacious 1awn planted with several trees and bushes. A low concrete retaining wall encompasses the property. Memorial Hall's grounds also include four cannon (three dating from the Civil War and one from the First World War) and a flagpole.

Typical of the eclectic Richardsonian Romanesque style, Memorial Hall is essentially rectangular in plan, but with asymmetrical projections on three sides in the form of a cross gable with entry porch (main east facade) half-round tower (north facade), and single-story porch (south facade). Rough-faced ashlar pink granite, locally quarried, is the structure's primary building material; red Longmeadow sandstone serves as the building's trim. The building rises three stories from a full granite foundation, topped by a sandstone water table. A central chimney with polychromatic detailing is located just in front of the ridge. The hipped roof is sheathed with slate and is punctuated on the south and west by gable dormers.

The main elevation of the building, with an asymmetrical two-bay facade, is dominated by the three-story projecting gable pavilion that contains the entrance and comprises the facade's right half. The entrance porch, set within the gable, is framed by a wide, low, sandstone arch resting on squat, polished-granite columns. Six steps lead from grade level beneath the arch and up to the door (a modern replacement of the original oak door).

(in one paragraph) Builder Architect Fred Swasey Memorial Hall, located in the center of Milford, was built in 1884 as a monument to Milford's Civil War veterans. The building is a fine example of 1ate-19th century buildings. Memorial Hal1 retains integrity of settiesigned Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, and is one of the town's finest design, location, materials, feeling, workmanship, and association. by a local architect, Fred Swasey, and built of a local material, pink granite, Memorial Hall fulfills Criterion C of the National Register of Historic Places. Memorial Hall is located in the center of Milford, a suburban-industrial hill town 30 miles southwest of Boston and 22 miles southeast of Worcester in Worcester County.

Incorporated in 1780, Milford remained largely agricultural into the early 19th century. By the time of the nominated property's construction (1884), the town's role as an industrial center was firmly established. Chief among its industries were boot and shoe manufacturing and granite quarrying. Built of the local stone, Memorial Hall is one of several monumental granites structures erected in the town's center during the second half of the 19th century. In 1848, a branch of the Boston & Albany Railroad, the Framingham-Milford Branch, was established throughto Milford. The, railroad brought with it major industrial and commercial expansion, and the role of agriculture in Milford's economy diminished.

Milford's greatest period of demographic and economic development came between 1830 and the close of the Civil War. The town's population increased from 1,360 in 1830 to over 9,000 in 1865, and a nearly homogeneous, native Yankee population was equalled and then outnumbered by immigrants, primarily Irish. Capital invested in manufacturing also soared during this period, rising from $100,000 to nearly $1,000,000 by war's end. Much of this investment was related to the shoe industry.