Story Grammar School

The Story Grammar School, built in 1880, is located at 140 E1m Street in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The building is 21/2 stories in height and rectangular in plan. A Colonial Revival red brick building with a central, pedimented pavilion and a hipped roof, the Story Schoolhas modest grey granite trim. The schoolis set back 60 feet from Elm Street, and is almost centered on its 25,100-square-foot lot, which is roughly rectangular. A hill rises behind the school. The former dirt or grass school yard in front and to the sides of the school has been paved. The Story School is located just outside the Marblehead Historic District (NR 1983),which encompasses the historic town center of Marblehead.

The Marblehead Historic District is primarily composed of free-standing, wood frame residences dating from the early 18th to mid 19th century. neighborhood around the Story School, however, has a mixture of late 19th century and 20th century properties,most in residential use. The school building is rectangular; it is 9 bays long by 7 bays wide. Constructed of red brick, the building is 2 1/2 stories tall. A 1/2 story basement level is topped by a rough-hewn granite water table. The school rises two full stories to the cornice level, where a classical cornice including architrave, frieze and dentillated entabl ature is worked out in brick. The shallow, hipped slate roof rises to a small central platform pierced by two chimneys. The main elevation of the Story School faces northeast.

The facade is symmetrically organized, composed of a central 2 1/2 story pedimented pavilion with 3 bays on either side. The pavilion is quite shallow, projecting only about one foot from the main facade. The first story of the pavilion includes a large, centered entrance reached by broad, granite steps.

(in one paragraph) The Story School has integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, and feeling, with associations with the educational history of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Built in 1880, the school represents the first significant financial commitment to public education in the town. The use of a restrained Colonial Revival style for the school is a relatively early use of the style that would be so popular in school architecture in the 20th century, and may reflect the design of the 1790 Marblehead Academy, an early private school. The Story School thus meets criteria A and C for listing to the National Register of Historic Places, with significance at the local level. The history of public education in the town of Marblehead closely parallels its commercial history.

Fishing, shipbuilding, rope and sail making and later, shoe manufacturing historically employed the town residents. Although as early as 1647 the Massachusetts Bay Colony had ordered the establishment of public schools based on population, it was not until 1767 that Marblehead established its first school committee and hence formally endorsed and funded In practice, however, school planning and budgets from the late 18th to the mid 19th century fluctuated according to the financial condition of the town. Public education was further hampered by the fact that most young boys went to sea at the age of 11 and that a high percentage of girls worked in home industries or domestic jobs. Therefore, it was not until 1802-3 that public primary schools (Grades 1-4) were formally established.

Up until 1840 the town of Marblehead had built only three schools. All three were one room buildings constructed of wood, for a total cost of $400. The 1849 Town Records indicate that only 671 pupils out of a possible 1582 even attended school in that year.