| The History of Old Town Hall |
| There
are a number of wonderful sources for learning about the
building at 30 South Main Street in Ipswich, MA that we
now refer to as "Old Town Hall".
We have included the
following, by Susan S. Nelson, which tells the building's history from 1830 to 2004. |
"History of the Old Ipswich Town Hall Building",
Susan S. Nelson
Our thanks to Susan S. Nelson for this Narrative History of the Old Ipswich Town Hall from her Report dated April 19, 2004
(repeated here in it's entirety. Note: Images have been
added to her original Report)
In April of 1830, fourteen members of the First Church in Ipswich withdrew from the parish to form "The Independent Congregational Society" or Unitarian Church. Historian Thomas Franklin Waters tells us that the new church prospered, so much, so that by 1833 the parishioners were able to build a brand new state-of-the-art church in Ipswich along South Main Street, at the
corner of Elm Street. The Unitarians must have been forward thinkers architecturally as well as religiously, because they built the first Greek Revival public building in Ipswich. That church building still exists, hidden inside the much larger Old Town Hall. As such, it is the oldest church in Ipswich, pre-dating the CA 1848 Linebrook Church.
1
The Unitarian Church was about sixty-three feet long by about forty-four feet wide. Three very tall shuttered windows marched along each side of the story-and-a-half church, which presented a temple front to South Main Street with a deep frieze band at the cornice. The comers of the building were protected by free-standing boxed pilasters that supported the frieze, while a pair of fluted Doric columns flanked the central opening into the recessed entry. Above the gabled roof peak a belfry gave the building some much needed height and called the faithful to
worship.2
While the Unitarian Church began its life with great energy in Ipswich, (and may well have served as inspiration architecturally for the South Parish which undertook a building campaign in 1838), it could not sustain itself. By 1843 the Unitarian Church was no more, and it sold its church building to the Town of Ipswich. The church pews were removed and sold to the Linebrook Church, where they are still
installed.3 Waters says of the new Town Hall that, "It was greatly enlarged and remodeled for the Town's
use.” 4
If so, it was certainly not for the last time. By 1866 the old Unitarian Church seemed to be inadequate for the needs of the townspeople for a social gathering place, in addition to town office space. The Town acquired more land adjacent to its existing site in 1866, but failed to move or improve the old building until matters came to a head in
1876.5 Ipswich historian and former Historical Commission member Alice Keenan quotes an unidentified reporter in 1876, |
“It's really young Ipswich against old Ipswich, but the progressive element is so far in the ascendancy that the matter has finally been brought before the people. To be sure, we already have a Town House, but... the steps are so stained with tobacco juice that a flood couldn't wash them... It is small, unventilated, its walls blackened by flaring lamps and heated by two ancient and rusty
stoves…” 6
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 Keenan reports that in an adjourned Town Meeting of 1876, the young "progressives" sought to demolish the old Town Hall and build a new one for $10,000. Instead they got snookered by a series of wily political moves on Town Meeting floor and, "the voters were surprised to discover the next day that they had voted, without discussion, to enlarge, move, and repair the old Town Hall for the sum of
$6,000.” 7
The contract to move and enlarge the Town Hall was awarded to the firm of Russell and Archer, and the Hall was moved twenty feet forward, the entirety of the old Town Hall building raised in the air, and a new first floor placed beneath it. In addition, a large addition was added to the rear (east) of the building. The building today retains this CA 1876 form, except for the section that housed the General Sutton Hook and Ladder Fire Company. |
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On the exterior, the Doric columns were removed from the front facade, and replaced with a pair of double-hung windows, and the recessed entry was thus enclosed, creating a flat front facade. The four boxed pilasters were retained, and were copied on the new first floor addition. A belt course band was added where the new first floor joined the old church/Town Hall, to disguise and decorate the joint. A 1906 postcard shows the addition of a columned portico to shade the entry.
On the inside of the building, the changes were even more dramatic. A new court room and town offices were installed and a second floor auditorium was created, seating 800 on the main level with another 100 in the balcony. The stage was forty-four feet wide with two dressing rooms.
8
Local historian Harold
D. Bowen reported that on October 9, 1920 a fire at the
Town Hall threatened to destroy the building but was
confined to the lower level, with losses set at $8200, a
significant amount for 1920. It seems probable that the
first floor interior finishes that are early twentieth
century in appearance may date from repairs following
this fire. For example there are several doors with two
light transoms above them, and one of the offices
retains a pressed tin ceiling. However, Alice Keenan
reports multiple revisions of the interior office spaces
of Town Hall, without assigning dates to them, so it is
impossible to be sure which elements of finish date to
which period without further study.
9
Historian Bowen also reported that, "The building
also had a belfry tower which was removed a few years
ago. I learned only recently that when this belfry was
removed the bell was stored and later given to the Greek
society for installation in their new church after the
first church had burned. It is there today at the Greek
church." 10
In the early 1980's a dire need for new office space led
Town Manager George Howe to hire the firm of Anderson
Nichols to oversee extensive renovations to Town Hall
between 1983-84. The old front entry to Town Hall on the
South Main Street side with its wide central stair and
second floor balcony was demolished and enclosed to
create additional second floor space and an elevator for
handicap accessibility. The first floor was thus
reconfigured to create a smaller single story front
lobby and one large office in the front southwest corner
of the building.
At this time the second floor was partitioned, a staircase to the balcony removed and replaced with a metal spiral stair, and an elevator shaft installed adjacent to the other staircase, effectively blocking it for access into the balcony area. A dropped ceiling was installed over the auditorium to close off the balcony area and create lower more soundproof and heat efficient offices on the second floor. This effectively disguised the original form of the auditorium space. There have been no substantive changes to the Old Town Hall since its last major renovation in the 1980's. |
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1
See Thomas Franklin Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 2 vols, (Ipswich, Mass.: Ipswich Historical Society) 1905, 1917, vol. 2, pps 642-646 for the formation of the Unitarian Church. Hereafter cited as Waters, followed by a volume number, a colon and a page number. See also, Waters 2:467 for information on the building date of Linebrook Church.
2 Information on the length and width of the original church is drawn from the assessor's card on record at the Ipswich Assessor's Office, a copy of which is attached with this report. The description of the original church building has been culled from a CA 1850 photograph of the then Ipswich Town Hall published by Alice Keenan in her article, "The Many Facelifts of Town Hall", in Ipswich Yesterday, (Ipswich, MA: Shanachie Publishing) 1991, p. 31. Hereafter cited as Keenan, followed by a colon and a page number.
3 See Waters 2:467
4 See Waters 2: 582. For information on the building campaign related to the South Parish see Waters 2: 482. The magnificent Greek Revival meeting house of the South Parish was constructed in 1838, five years after the Unitarian Church. The Greek Revival vestry for the church, built after 1853 (see Waters 1 :453) which was moved to Hammatt Street after 1885 obviously also postdated the Unitarian Church. Even "Locke's Folly", the Calvin Locke House, which still stands on County Road at the South Green with its gracious temple form was built in 1836, three years after the Unitarian Church. See Waters 1:470.
5 See Waters 1:450-451 for the land transfers involving the parcel that made up the Town Hall property.
6 See Keenan:32
7 Ibid
8 Despite the chopped up appearance of the present second floor of the old Town Hall, this auditorium space still exists remarkably intact. Were the dropped ceiling to be removed and the second floor partitions taken down, the old auditorium would be revealed. Even the stage, complete with stage floor is still in place in what we know as the second floor conference room.
9 See Harold D. Bowen, Tales of Olde Ipswich, Vols /, II, III, reprint, Bowen Family Trust (Rowley, MA: PDA Publications) n.d.,n.p. Bowen wrote a series of articles on Ipswich history for Ipswich Today. This information came from one on the old Town Hall. Printed with it was a 1906 postcard view of the Hall showing it with bell tower, windows, pilasters, portico etc.
10 Bowen, Op. Cit. |
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