Quick History Stops: Middleboro, MA

On the same day I visited Middleborough Historical Museum and Robbins Museum of Archaeology, I took my customary history stops around the town, including the library, town hall, churches, and war memorials. Most of these important community buildings were located in Middleborough Center National Historic District, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2000. Unique features of this town are its incredibly tall town hall design, a historic bell, and signage commemorating American Revolutionary War hero Deborah Sampson. This is also an informal survey of who is on what side of the Middleborough/Middleboro naming divide.

The current iteration of First Unitarian Universalist Society of Middleboro formed around the late 1870s but became an official organization in 1889. Philanthropist Enoch Pratt donated land for the building, which opened the next year in 1890. The shingle style church, among the more popular styles to arise in New England during that time, has a fieldstone foundation, unpainted shingle siding, and many steps leading up to a bright red door. David Pratt, nephew of Enoch, donated more land around 1900. Besides a few interior renovations, the building seems unchanged from its initial construction.

Middleborough Town Hall was designed by Middleborough resident and Civil War veteran Solomon Keith Eaton and dedicated in 1873, the year after he died. The first floor of the building has brown-painted wood styled to look like stone or brick, while the second floor is made of yellow-painted wood. I especially liked the Neoclassical balcony over the main entrance and the elongated, eight-sided, two-story cupola. (Octagonal designs are no stranger to this blog between the octagon dining room at Governor John Langdon House in Portsmouth, MA; The Portsmouth Abbey Church in Portsmouth, RI; the Octagon Room at Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House in Gloucester, MA; Captain Rodney J. Baxter House in Hyannis, MA; and the stained glass ceiling window at Christmas Tree Shop Hyannis.) The top cupola nearly toppled in 2011; luckily, Structures North Consulting Engineers Inc. stabilized the tower before disaster struck. The original construction of the hall gave rise to a host of other public buildings throughout the late 19^th and early 20^th century, including schools, the library, a court house, and banks. The hall was intended to be a multipurpose facility, as an auditorium on the second floor served as an entertainment space, while it holds town offices today.

Middleborough Public Library is down the street. The town originally had a social library beginning in 1832, where patrons paid a subscription to check out books. The organization began in town hall as The Library Room in 1875. While the book collection moved to a bigger room in 1888, its increasing size meant a library would soon be needed, so Pratt donated ten thousand dollars to fund the project, while celebrity Lavinia Warren donated her late husband’s book collection. Not until 1904 was the library built after a bequeath by Thomas Sproat Peirce, as the building was constructed in his former garden. A cute statue of a man reading a book sits in front of the library and is engraved in his honor. Today, the library is a member of SAILS Library Network, along with other libraries featured on the blog, including Berkley Public Library, Soldiers’ Memorial Library in Mansfield, Norton Public Library, and New Bedford Free Public Library.

Central Congregational Church in Middleboro is a classic whitewashed New England church that has looked the same since its construction in 1892. This building replaced an older church dedicated in 1849, two years after the congregation formed in 1847, although a one hundredth anniversary packet about church history proclaimed that members of the founding congregation were descendants of Mayflower passengers. For the rate at which early colonists reproduced, this is highly likely. Besides repairs made to the building after fires in 1923 and 1930, this church appears unchanged.

Across the street from the town hall was MeetingHouse Church, Middleboro campus. Another campus of the same congregation is located in Mansfield. The building was formerly Central Baptist Church, which merged with MeetingHouse Church in 2015. According to fellow blogger Recollecting Nemasket, the church began in 1828 when the Levi and Sally Peirce family was excommunicated from Fourth Calvinist Church of Middleboro, which has since closed. Levi Peirce was the great-uncle of Thomas Peirce the library fund bequeather. The first church burned in a fire in 1888. Metal scraps from its bell were saved and recast as a bell that still stands on the church lawn. The second building was demolished in 1963 after years of deferred maintenance. The current red brick church was constructed by Broker, McKay & Associates, Inc. and dedicated in 1964.

Church of Our Savior, Middleboro is an Episcopalian church established in 1892 by journalist William Bayard Hale, whose ashes are interned in a crypt within the church. Initially a supporter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, Hale later joined German Kaiser Wilhelm II during World War I and spent the remainder of his life in Europe, as Americans believed he was a traitor. The building was designed by Ralph Adams Cram and completed in 1898. Prolific throughout the United States, Cram loved the Gothic Revival style, as seen in his many church and campus building designs, along with Neoclassical buildings. The original campus of Wheaton College, my alma mater, was designed by Cram.

I saw two other buildings of note on North Main Street. Directly across from the library was the former Peter Hoar Pierce, Sr. Store, a Greek Revival style building. In the years before Amazon or Sears, Pierce sold a little bit of everything and established a multigenerational business. He used his earnings to successfully invent in a wide range of industries. Additionally, he was the youngest brother of Levi Peirce the church founder and great-uncle of Thomas Peirce the library bequeather. For many years, the town used the building as police headquarters, and it has been on the National Register since 1976. Across Jackson Street, named by Pierce for his favorite political candidate, U.S. President Andrew Jackson, was a cute little red brick building currently housing a cafe, Main Ingredient, the perfect pun for Main Street. I have no further information on the structure except that is adorable.

Finally, Middleboro has a fair number of war memorials at Middleborough Veterans Memorial Park. A fancy circular brick paver pavilion contains commemorative bricks engraved with the names of veterans. At the center of the pavilion is a grey granite compass rose with a flagpole in the middle. Behind the pavilion is a stone memorial listing the names of veterans from World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and War on Terrorism. Two plaque-on-boulder memorials recognize soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, along with the site of the former Middleboro High School, later known as Bates School, which was extant from 1886 to 1954. The newest marker appears to be the polished black stone Korea Veterans of America Memorial. Further up on the lawn is the Middleborough Civil War Monument with a classic union soldier. His stance is unusual in that he holds a sword and a flag instead of a rifle.