Hose House No. 2

Hose House #2 is located on the southwestern corner of Rantoul and School Streets in the southern section of Beverly, six blocks north of the harbor and the Fish Flake Hill Historic District (NR pending). Rantoul Street (Route lA) is a major north/south artery through the city. Built in 1905, the hose house is a smal1, 2 1/2-story red brick structure, rectangular in plan. The building rests on a granite foundation, and is enclosed by a low-pitched slate-sheathed pyramidal roof with copper flashing and gutters. With its classical ornamentation, pyramidal roofline, and boxlike plan, the hose house is reminiscent of the Second Renaissance Revival style.

The building occupies virtually all of its5,000-square-foot lot in this densely built section of Beverly, whose building stock consists primarily of turn-of-the-century three- deckers. It faces east and is fronted by a broad, brick-covered drive. There is a smal1 1awn on the building's southern side. Thirty feet wide by forty-five feet long, the station is three bays wide on its main (eastern) facade, dominated by a wide central door (now glass, originally wood). The central bay is enframed by an architrave with alternating voussoirs and divided sash transom. Directly above the doorway, a Palladian-style triple window on the second story is set beneath a segmental arch accented with a console, and rests on a continuous sill with dentils.

The central bay is flanked by two monumental brick pilasters articulated with classical entablature and bases. These rest on brick pedestals featuring wooden tablets (now blank). The broad overhanging roof with exposed rafters is supported by a placqued cornice and heavy, paired carved brackets. The cornice encircles the building. On the frieze above the central bay, an inscription reads "Hose - 2 - B. F. D.".

/Architect Kilham & Hopkins, Architects Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) Constructed in 1905, Hose House #2 retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, feeling, workmanship, and association. The building was designed by the Boston architecture firm of Kilham and Hopkins, well known for their designs of schools and other public buildings in the first decades of the 20th century.The hose house is architecturally significant as a modest, well-preserved example of the Second Renaissance Revival style. Historically, the property is significant as a reflection of Beverly's sharp increase in both population and community services at the turn of the century. It thus fulfils Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places on the local level.

Originally part of Salem, Beverly was first settled ca. 1627. Settlement spread north from the shore of the Danvers River along the road to Wenham (now Cabot Street) and along the waterfront, where a flourishing fishing economy was located by the mid 18th century. After the Revolution, the activity at Beverly Harbor became centered on shipbuilding, and the prominence of maritime industries and the prosperity that accompanied them continued well into the 19th century. In 1839, the Boston and Maine Railroad arrived in Beverly, crossing the river westof Cabot Street and running up the hill to a depot 1/2 mile north of the shore. With the railroad, industrial and commercial development turned north to the depot.

Beverly s economy diversified, with shoe manufacturing gradually replacing maritime-related enterprises as the city's economic focus. Between ca.: 1845 and 1865, streets platted in the new "downtown" area increased fivefold; Rantoul Street, a new north/south avenue leading from the waterfront, west of the railroad tracks, was established during this period.