Varnum School

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Varnum School

VarnumOld.jpg

The 1857 portion of the school
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Location Lowell, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°39′4″N71°17′58″W / 42.65111°N 71.29944°W / 42.65111; -71.29944 Coordinates: 42°39′4″N71°17′58″W / 42.65111°N 71.29944°W / 42.65111; -71.29944
Area 1.24 acres (0.50 ha)
Built 1857
Architect Unknown; Burtt, Arthur M.
Architectural style Greek Revival, Classical Revival
NRHP reference #

94001591

[1]
Added to NRHP January 24, 1995

The Varnum School is a historic former school building at 103 Sixth Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Greek Revival building was built in 1857, and was the first school built in the city's Centralville section after it was annexed to the city in 1851. The building was altered with a minor addition added in 1886, and a substantial Classical Revival addition was made in 1896. [2] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. [1] Vacant since the 2000s, it is now owned by a developer, and is slated for conversion to housing units.

Lowell, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts, United States

Lowell is a city in the U.S. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Located in Middlesex County, Lowell was a county seat until Massachusetts disbanded county government in 1999. With an estimated population of 109,945 in 2014, it is the fourth-largest city in Massachusetts, and the second-largest in the Boston metropolitan statistical area. The city is also part of a smaller Massachusetts statistical area called Greater Lowell, as well as New England's Merrimack Valley region.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

Description and history

The Varnum School building is set on the south side of Sixth Street, between Myrtle and Beech Streets in the city's Centralville neighborhood, located just across the Merrimack River from its central business district. It is a three-story brick structure, with two large sections joined by a smaller one. The section facing the street is a Classical Revival structure, three stories high, with a hip roof and a projecting gable-roofed center section. Its corners are articulated by brick pilasters with stone capitals, and its windows have granite sills and lintels. The third-floor windows are round-arched, while the others are regular sash. The cornice and the pedimented gable are modillioned. This section was built in 1896 to a design by Arthur M. Burtt. [3]

Merrimack River river in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, United States

The Merrimack River is a 117-mile-long (188 km) river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport. From Pawtucket Falls in Lowell, Massachusetts, onward, the Massachusetts–New Hampshire border is roughly calculated as the line three miles north of the river.

Behind this section is a narrow two-story section, which joins the front section to the school's original 1857 structure, a two-story gable-roofed structure with Greek Revival styling. The slate roof is pierced by several dormers, and is topped by a cupola. A south-facing entrance is sheltered by a flat-roof portico supported by square columns. The gabled side elevations are divided by pilasters at the corners and in the center, and the gable end is fully pedimented, with a half-round window at the center. [3]

The Centralville area was originally part of Dracut, but its proximity to Lowell's business and industrial centers brought it economically and socially closer to that community. In 1851 the area was annexed to the city. A school was built near this site in the 1830s by Joseph Bradley Varnum and his son, Benjamin Franklin Varnum, who owned a boarding house on the site of this building. When built in 1857, this school was the city's first elementary school in which students were separated by grade. Population growth in the area prompted the 1886 addition of two classrooms (now the center connecting section), and the eight-room 1897 addition, which is now the dominant part of the building. [3]

Dracut, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

Dracut is a town in Middlesex County. The town's population is 31,352.

Joseph Bradley Varnum American politician

Joseph Bradley Varnum was a U.S. politician of the Democratic-Republican Party from Massachusetts. He served as a U.S. Representative and United States Senator, and held leadership positions in both bodies.

The building was used as a school into the 2000s. The city sold it to a private developer, who is planning a residential conversion. [4]

See also

These are the National Registered Historic Places listings in Lowell, Massachusetts.

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. "Varnum School". City of Lowell Website. City of Lowell. 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 "NRHP nomination for Varnum School". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2015-05-24.
  4. "Lowell's Varnum School to house war veterans". Lowell Sun. December 11, 2012. Retrieved 2015-05-24.