Ellen Stone Building | |
Location | Lexington, Massachusetts |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°25′46″N71°12′26″W / 42.42944°N 71.20722°W |
Built | 1833 |
Architect | Isaac Melvin; Curtiss Capell |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 76000252 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 30, 1976 |
The Ellen Stone Building, built in 1833, is an historic Greek Revival style building located at 735 Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington, Massachusetts. It was originally a meeting hall and lyceum for East Lexington, which had its own civic identity and, later, its own church, the neighboring Follen Community Church. Notable speakers at the Lyceum included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Theodore Parker, Lucy Stone, Josiah Quincy Jr. and possibly Henry David Thoreau. Emerson notably served as a minister in the building for three years prior to the building of Follen Community Church.
The building was deeded to the Trustees of the Cary Memorial Library for $2,000 in 1891, by Ellen Stone, granddaughter of Eli Robbins, who built it, and it was named after her. [2] After her death in 1944, she bequeathed $2,000 to the Town for a fund to aid needy and deserving girls in pursuit of education. The East Lexington branch library which had been established in 1883, occupied it until the building was closed for repairs in 2007. [3]
In 1945 a demolition permit was issued for the building followed by several attempts to find a new site on which to locate it. [4] Ultimately it was renovated as the East Branch of Cary Memorial Library in 1947.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
A non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, The Lexington Lyceum Advocates, was incorporated on March 3, 2023, to promote the restoration of the building and to return it to use as a modern-day lyceum as recommended in the 2022 Stone Building Feasibility/Re-Use Committee report. [5]
On March 29, 2023, Lexington Town Meeting approved $400k to fund a design study to explore restoration of the building. [6]
In August 2020, the Lexington Select Board revived the proposal for the Ad Hoc Stone Building Feasibility/Re-Use Committee to find a purpose for this historic building after being unused for 13 years. [7]
In February 2009, the Cary Memorial Library Board of Trustees announced their decision to use the Stone Building as a Lexington Heritage Center [8] which never came to fruition.
In August, 2007, the building suffered damage from burst pipes, and was closed for repairs. [9] The East Lexington Library never reopened.
Acton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, approximately 21 miles (34 km) west-northwest of Boston along Massachusetts Route 2 west of Concord and about ten miles (16 km) southwest of Lowell. The population was 24,021 in April 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau. It is bordered by Westford and Littleton to the north, Concord and Carlisle to the east, Stow, Maynard, and Sudbury to the south and Boxborough to the west. Acton became an incorporated town in 1735. The town employs the Open Town Meeting form of government with a town manager and an elected, five-member select board. Acton was named the 11th Best Place To Live among small towns in the country by Money Magazine in 2015, and the 16th best in 2009 and in 2011. The local high school, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, was named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009.
Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was first settled by Europeans c. 1642 as a farming community. Lexington is well known as the site of the first shots of the American Revolutionary War, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, where the "Shot heard 'round the world" took place. It is home to Minute Man National Historical Park.
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Charles (Karl) Theodor Christian Friedrich Follen was a German poet and patriot, who later moved to the United States and became the first professor of German at Harvard University, a Unitarian minister, and a radical abolitionist. He was fired by Harvard for his abolitionist statements.
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This is an incomplete list of historic properties and districts at United States colleges and universities that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This includes National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) and other National Register of Historic Places listings. It includes listings at current and former educational institutions.
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The Frederic C. Adams Public Library is a historic library building at 33 Summer Street in Kingston, Massachusetts. Designed by Joseph Everett Chandler (1864–1945), a major proponent of the Colonial Revival style, the library was built in 1898 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The building ceased operation as a public library in December 1994, when the town opened the new Kingston Public Library at 6 Green Street.
The Cary Building is a commercial building located at 229 Gratiot Avenue in Downtown Detroit. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
War Memorial Plaza is a public square, small park and space in Downtown Baltimore between City Hall and the War Memorial Building, between Holliday Street on the west, East Fayette Street on the south, North Gay Street on the east, and East Lexington Street on the north.
Pemberton Square in the Government Center area of Boston, Massachusetts, was developed by P.T. Jackson in the 1830s as an architecturally uniform mixed-use enclave surrounding a small park. In the mid-19th century both private residences and businesses dwelt there. The construction in 1885 of the massive John Adams Courthouse changed the scale and character of the square, as did the Center Plaza building in the 1960s.
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Kilham & Hopkins was an architectural firm in Boston, Massachusetts formed in 1899 or 1900 by its founding members, Walter Harrington Kilham and James Cleveland Hopkins. The firm later became Kilham, Hopkins & Greeley after William Roger Greeley joined the firm in 1916, and Kilham Hopkins Greeley and Brodie after Walter S. (Steve) Brodie joined the firm in 1945.
Swampscott Cemetery is a historic cemetery at 400 Essex Street in Swampscott, Massachusetts. It is the town's only cemetery, and was established in 1852, not long after the town's incorporation. About 20 acres (8.1 ha) of the cemetery's 30 hectares have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its historic portion is a representative of the rural cemetery movement that was popular in the 19th century, with meandering lanes and natural landscaping.
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