Bowser Gazebo

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Bowser Gazebo
ReadingMA BowserGazebo.jpg
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Location Reading, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°31′27.84″N71°6′20.24″W / 42.5244000°N 71.1056222°W / 42.5244000; -71.1056222 Coordinates: 42°31′27.84″N71°6′20.24″W / 42.5244000°N 71.1056222°W / 42.5244000; -71.1056222
Built 1894
Architect Wadlin, Horace G.
MPS Reading MRA
NRHP reference # 84002514 [1]
Added to NRHP July 19, 1984

The Bowser Gazebo is a historic gazebo at 25 Linden Street in Reading, Massachusetts. It is an open octagonal wooden structure, measuring about 10 by 10 feet (3.0 m × 3.0 m). It has a low cross-hatched balustrade, above which piers rise to support the octagonal bell-cast roof. The piers are paneled, with circular holes in the paneling. Above the piers is a large area of diagonal cross-hatching, with small rounded arches at the non-entry openings and larger round-arch openings at the entrances. [2]

Gazebo pavilion structure built in a park, garden or public area

A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area.

Reading, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

Reading is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, 16 miles (26 km) north of central Boston. The population was 24,747 at the 2010 census.

The gazebo was designed by architect Horace G. Wadlin and built sometime before 1894. It is one of the only known surviving 19th century gazebos in Reading. It (and the house on the property) belonged to R. L. Bowser, owner of a local dry goods store. [2]

Horace G. Wadlin, of Reading, Massachusetts, was an American statistician, economist, librarian, and architect.

Dry goods term referring to supplies and manufactured goods

Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British colonial territories as a means of bringing supplies and manufactured goods out to the far-flung settlements and homesteads that were spreading around the globe. Starting in the mid-1700s, these stores began by selling supplies and textiles goods to remote communities, and many customized the products they carried to the area's needs. This continued to be the trend well into the early 1900s; but with the rise of the department stores and catalog sales, the decline of the dry goods stores began.

The gazebo was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1984. [1]

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.

See also

This is a list of properties and historic districts in Reading, Massachusetts, that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This is within Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Wikimedia list article

This is a listing of places in Middlesex County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. With more than 1,300 listings, the county has more listings than any other county in the United States.

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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. 1 2 "MACRIS inventory record, photos, and NRHP nomination for Bowser Gazebo". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-02-19.