Exchange Hall

exchange Hall, Acton, dominates Quimby Square in the southern part of this small 1ndustrial town 25 miles northwest of Boston. Built in 1860, it is a richly embellished Italianate-style building. The building faces south on a gently sloping site and is surrounded by a mixture of modest residential and commercial buildings whose construction dates vary from the mid 18th century into the 20th century. Most of the older buildings have been substantially altered or are quite neglected. Exchange Hall is set back about 15 feet from School Street to the south and 50 feet from Main Street to the west. Several hundred feet to the south, crossing Fort Pond Brook, run the tracks of the Boston & Maine Railroad.

The overall plan of the building is rectangular, measuring 38 by 70 feet, with porches on its southern and western sides. The building is 3 1/2 stories height and, due to the slope of the land, the basement is expressed as an additional full story on the south. Its slate-covered pitched roof, with south and north gable ends, is surmounted by a two-stage, hipped-roofed cupola at the south end. The chimney is at the north end of the west slope, and the east slope has a roof hatch leading from the attic. The building is sheathed with clapboards, except for the recessed portion of the south front and the cupola, which are flushboarded. The foundation is original, brick on the exposed south side and elsewhere dressed stone above grade and rubble stone.

The exterior of Exchange Hall displays a thoroughly realized interpretation of the bracketed Italianate style. The cornices at portico, piazza, and roof are composed of scrolled and panelled brackets, each with a turned drop. Corner pilasters, square piers, and columns have recessed, arched-top Italianate panels let into their sides.

/Architect unknown Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Exchange Hall, Acton, retalns integrity of location, design, materlals, workmanship, feeling, and association. The building is distinguished for its wel1-executed Italianate design and is the most elaborate example of this style in Acton. It was constructed in the mid 19th century at the core of Acton's increasingly prosperous commercial district by a group of successtul local entrepreneurs. Prominently sited above the railroad line, Exchange Hall served Acton well into the 20th century, playing both a mercantile and social role, and holds direct associations with the town's development. Exchange thus fulfils Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level.

Exchange Hall was built in South Acton in 1860 to serve a variety of functions, primarily commercial. South Acton, with small milling operations and an ironworks established along Fort Pond Brook, had been a locus of settlement since the earliest years of the 18th century. While the town's Village center evolved to the north (the location of the tirst meetinghouse, demolished, and other institutional buildings), South Acton remained the site for industrial and economic development into the 19th century, spurred by the arrival of the Fitchburg Railroad from Boston in 1844. With a direct link to Boston markets, South Acton's industrial enterprises flourished, and businesses prospered accordingly.

On the eve of the Civil War, South Acton supported a number of thriving businesses, most under the aegis of three men: James Tuttle (1818-1898), his brother Varnum Tuttle (1823-1904), and Elnathan Jones Jr. (1829-1904). latter was the great-grandson of Samuel Jones, who established a successful tavern and store across the road from the site of the nominated property in 1750 (extant and nominated to the National Register).