NRHP Reference # 83001129 Year built 1888 Added to NRHP 8 September 1983 | Area 3,200 m² Architectural style Romanesque architecture | |
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Location S. Main and Union Sts., Wolfeboro, New Hampshire Similar Lake Wentworth, Squam Lakes Natural S, White Mountains | ||
Brewster Memorial Hall is the town hall of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. It is located at the junction of South Main Street and Union Street in the town center. Its construction in 1880-90 was the result of a bequest from Wolfeboro native John W. Brewster, with terms stipulating that the building should resemble Sargent Hall in Merrimac, Massachusetts. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Description and history
Brewster Memorial Hall is prominently located in the center of Wolfeboro village, at the northeast corner of South Main and Union Streets. It is a roughly L-shaped brick building, with a two-story main block and a single-story ell projecting north. A two-story turreted section projects east of the main block, and the building's most prominent feature, a 101-foot (31 m) tower, projects from the southwest corner. The building's Romanesque styling includes round-arch windows on the second level of the Main Street facade and on tower windows, and open colonnades in the upper level of the tower below its clock faces. The clocks and colonnade are set in recessed round-arch panels, and the tower is topped by a pyramidal roof.
Boston architect James T. Kelley designed Brewster Hall to satisfy the terms of a bequest by John W. Brewster, a Wolfeboro native and philanthropist. Brewster, who also left major bequests for area private academies, stipulated that the building resemble a similar one in Merrimac, Massachusetts, and that it provided retail spaces, facilities for town offices, and a public library. Kelley met these terms, styling it in the Romanesque Revival rather than the more Gothic styling of Sargent Hall. It was completed at a cost reported to be about $50,000. In recent years, the retail spaces have been taken over by town offices, and the library space has been used for elementary school classrooms.