Palmer Memorial Hall

Palmer Memorial Hall
Memorial Hall
Location Palmer, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°9′23″N 72°19′39″W / 42.15639°N 72.32750°W / 42.15639; -72.32750Coordinates: 42°9′23″N 72°19′39″W / 42.15639°N 72.32750°W / 42.15639; -72.32750
Built 1890
Architect Robertson, Robert H.; Flynt Building and Construction Comp
Architectural style Romanesque
NRHP reference #

99001082

[1]
Added to NRHP September 3, 1999

Palmer Memorial Hall is a historic hall at 1029 Central Street in Palmer, Massachusetts. The Romanesque building was designed by New York City architect R. H. Robertson and constructed in 1890 as a memorial to the town's Civil War dead; it was also used as a meeting space by the local Grand Army of the Republic veterans society. The ground floor served as the town's public library until 1977.[2] It has since served as Palmer's Senior Center. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.[1]

Description and history

Palmer Memorial Hall is located one block off Palmer's downtown Main Street, at the southeast corner of Pleasant and Central Streets. it is a 1-1/2 story red brick building, with a red brick exterior, hip roof, and granite foundation. The front facade is dominated by a projecting gabled pavilion, which houses the main entrances in a pair of similar round-arch recesses with terra cotta decorative elements. Above these in the gable are three tall round-arch windows. The pavilion is flanked on each side by two round-arch windows, above which hip-roof wall dormers rise through the main roof. The building interior was designed for use as a library on the ground floor, and a meeting space on the second floor.[3]

The hall was designed by Robert H. Robertson of New York City, and was built in 1890-91 as a memorial to the city's Civil War dead, a meeting place for the Grand Army of the Republic, and to house the public library. It is the city's best example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style.[3]

Palmer's first library was founded in 1815 as a private subscription library, but it and subsequent attempts to maintain a library failed until 1878. In that year, the Young Men's Library Association purchased the collection of a recent failed association, and opened a public reading room in a commercial storefront on Central Street. Calls for a permanent collection and building began in the 1880s, as did calls for a war memorial. In 1890, Dr. W.H. Stowe donated land for the building, and the building was formally dedicated in April 1891.[3]

The library association relinquished control of the library to the city in 1963, and it moved into new premises in 1977. The library space now serves as a senior center, and the GAR hall serves as meeting space for the community.[3]


See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "MACRIS inventory record for Palmer Memorial Hall". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "NRHP nomination for Palmer Memorial Hall". National Archive. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
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