Beverly Grammar School

Beverly Grammar School
Beverly Grammar School at 50 Essex
Location50 Essex St.,
Beverly, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°33′6″N 70°52′34″W / 42.55167°N 70.87611°W / 42.55167; -70.87611
Built1716 (1716)
Architectural styleColonial
MPSFirst Period Buildings of Eastern Massachusetts TR
NRHP reference No.90000198[1]
Added to NRHPMarch 9, 1990

The Beverly Grammar School is a rare historic First Period schoolhouse in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA. The building, now a modest private residence, contains internal evidence that part of it was built c. 1716 for use as a schoolhouse. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.[1]

Description and history

The former Beverly Grammar School building is located in a mainly residential area just north of downtown Beverly, on the west side of Essex Street between Charnock and Monroe Streets. It is a small single-story wood-frame structure, with a side gable roof, central chimney, and clapboarded exterior. It has a five-bay front facade, with narrow one-over-one sash windows in the outer bays, and a projecting entry vestibule at the center. The interior consists of two chambers, a larger one on the left and a smaller one to the right.[2]

The building's internal structure is consistent with documentary evidence that its left side was built about 1716 as a schoolhouse. It has no evidence that it was built with a chimney (the present one was added in the 19th century for a stove), and the right-side chamber is a later 18th-century addition. Portions of the lath on the right side are decorated with what appear to be drawings by children, a suggestion that they were originally part of pupils' desks.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. ^ a b "MACRIS inventory record and NRHP nomination for Beverly Grammar School". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved January 11, 2014.