Quick History Stops: Topsfield, MA, Part 3

When I visited Topsfield Town Common District, part of the National Register of Historic Places, I found so many quick history stops that I divided them into three posts: the first on Monday, the second on Wednesday, and the third today. This final post describes the history of the former Methodist church and parsonage, the war memorials, the library, and public art. Once again, I found the book Houses and Buildings of Topsfield, Massachusetts to be helpful in my research.

On 4 North Common Street is a whitewashed Greek Revival style building now called The Common 1854 and serving as a wedding venue. As the name would suggest, the building was constructed in 1854 to serve as the Methodist Church. The original building had a variety of different steeples, from very tall and pointy to shorter and more practical, but the current building has been steeple-less since the 1950s. For about twenty years, between 1854 and 1873, the first floor or Union Hall also served as the Town Hall. The Methodist Church in Topsfield did not last, as the congregation joined the Congregational Church down the street to temporarily become a Federated Church in 1926.

Behind the former church building is a house built around 1808 for Billy Emerson, which replaced the former parsonage for the Congregational minister, his grandfather John Emerson, that had been built around 1733. Rather than leading a congregation, Billy became one of the wealthiest men in Topsfield as a cattle farmer. His house has been changed very little besides a porch being put on and taken off around 1900. As for this Emerson family, they were well-connected to other privileged families in town. Billy’s aunt and John’s oldest daughter, Elizabeth Emerson Gould, married Joseph Gould, the grandson of John Gould who built the 1710 barn now maintained by Topsfield Historical Society.

The Civil War Memorial was erected on the triangle of grass near the larger town common after a bequeath of local doctor Dr. Justin Allen, a Civil War veteran who had founded Topsfield Historical Society in 1894 and acted as its president until he died in 1908. It depicts a Union soldier stomping on a Confederate soldier while holding a battle flag and a gun. Other memorials in this area include plaques for the American Revolutionary War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam War era Marine pilot John David Lawson who died in action in 1970.

Topsfield Town Library stands across the street from the war memorials in the Colonial Brick Library Building. The town hired Harold Field Kellogg, Sr. to design the building and paint murals inside, which I unfortunately did not get to see since the library was closed. Among Kellogg's accomplishments was serving as the first chairman of Boston Housing Authority, which has become the largest housing provider in the city since its inception in 1935. Topsfield Town Library is well-connected, as it is the fourth library on the blog to be a part of Merrimack Valley Library Consortium, along with Amesbury Public Library, Newburyport Public Library, and Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library. In front of the building were three pieces of public art: Reflective Change by Martina Angela Müller, Nexus Double Orb by David Skora, and Luxus Camera by Peter Kirkiles. If you have several thousands of dollars to spare, you can even own of one of these sculptures.