The Newton City Hall and War Memorial is a historic city hall and war memorial building located in the village of

Newton Centre Newton Centre is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The main commercial center of Newton Centre is a triangular area surrounding the intersections of Beacon Street, Centre St ...

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

. Built in 1932 in the

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archit ...

style, the building was designed by Allen and Collens, with landscaping by the renowned

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape architect Frederick Law O ...

. The building's purpose was to serve as a new city hall, and as a memorial to the city's soldiers of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. On February 16, 1990, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Description and history

Newton City Hall is located in central Newton, and occupies a large triangular lot bounded on the north by Commonwealth Avenue, on the southwest by Homer Street, and on the east by Walnut Street. Walnut Street and Commonwealth Avenue are major roadways providing access to other parts of the city, and Homer Street is a largely residential street that roughly parallels Commonwealth Avenue. The

Newton Free Library Newton Free Library, the public library of Newton, Massachusetts, provides an extensive collection of print, non-print, and electronic resources, a comprehensive reference service, and a wide array of educational and cultural programs for people of ...

is located across Homer Street to the south. The building is a monumental brick Georgian Revival structure, two stories in height, with a central north-south section, flanking wings that project forward (to the east) at either end, and a rear wing extending from the center to the west. Classical features are found all across the building, including two-story brick pilasters demarcating parts of the building, corner quoining in stone, and a Greek temple-style portico supported by four Corinthian columns. The western portion of the building, which serves as the war memorial, is crowned by an elaborate steeple. Newton was incorporated as a city (having previously been a town) in 1873, and adapted its then-existing town hall for use as city hall. This building was constructed in 1931, having a dedication of the war memorial on

Armistice Day Armistice Day, later known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth and Veterans Day in the United States, is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, Fran ...

(November 11), 1931, and a dedication of the combined functions on the same day the following year. The building was designed by the noted

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

architects Allen and Collens, who had designed many university buildings as well as Second Church in Newton (1916), Lindsey Chapel in Boston (1919) and the

Riverside Church Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Mornin ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

(1928–1930) and who later designed

The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a fo ...

in New York City.Lindsey Chapel: Its History & Architecture
/ref> The triangular parcel was landscaped by the

, specifically to soften the large scale of the building.

References

External links

City of Newton website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton City Hall And War Memorial National Register of Historic Places in Newton, Massachusetts City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Newton, Massachusetts Clock towers in Massachusetts Colonial Revival architecture in Massachusetts Government buildings completed in 1932 World War I memorials in the United States

Description and history

See also

References

External links