The Peirce School (also known as Old Peirce School) is a historic school building at 88 Chestnut Street, corner of Austin Street, in

West Newton, Massachusetts West Newton is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Among the oldest of the thirteen Newton villages, the West Newton Village Center is a National Register Historic District. ...

. The brick building was built in 1895 and operated by the

Newton Public Schools Newton Public Schools is a school district in Newton, Massachusetts, United States. The district features four middle schools that lead into two high schools. Schools The Newton Public Schools are organized into an elementary school (K–5), m ...

as an elementary school from 1895 until June 1951. It originally served grades one through eight, but at the time of its closing, it was a kindergarten through sixth grade (K–6) school. It was listed on 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 v ...

on December 6, 1979.

Origin of name

Peirce School, (originally pronounced as if it were spelled "Purse" but now usually pronounced as if it were spelled "Pierce"), was named for

Cyrus Peirce Cyrus Peirce (1790–1860), American educator and Unitarian minister, was the founding president of the first American public normal school, which evolved into Framingham State University.

, (1790–1860), a Unitarian minister and educator, who was the first principal (or president) of the first

Normal School A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

opened in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in Lexington and served as such from 1839 until 1842 when he retired because of poor health. In 1844 the Normal School was moved to West Newton and located on Washington Street on the site now occupied by the First Unitarian Society in Newton, which is also on the National Register. Peirce moved to Newton that year and resumed his leadership of the school and served until 1849, when he again retired because of ill health. Peirce lived the rest of his life in West Newton. The Normal School he headed is now

Framingham State College Framingham State University (Framingham State or FSU) is a public university in Framingham, Massachusetts. It offers undergraduate programs as well as graduate programs, including MBA, MEd, and MS. History As the first secretary of the newly ...

, in

Framingham Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popul ...

, which considers him as its first president. Now Peirce moved to temple street.

Description of building

The Peirce School building was designed by Stickney & Austin, architects, in the style described as ''Colonial Revival'', although today it might be described as ''Late 19th Century Public School''. The exterior was built of granite, brick and sandstone with a slate roof. Although it is numbered 88 Chestnut Street, the building actually faces on Austin Street. The imposing entrance facing Austin Street was largely ceremonial and served as the place for taking class pictures. The plainer entrances at either end of the building were the ones used for ingress and egress.

Present use

The City of Newton assessment rolls show the building as vacant, but recent aerial photos show a paved parking lot with cars parked in it on the south side of the building. The building is called Peirce House and offers subsidized housing for seniors and disabled people.Newton Seniors – Pierce House (misspelled)
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New Peirce School

A new, more modern Peirce School was built at 170 Temple Street, corner of Berkeley Street in West Newton and opened in September, 1951 to replace the old Peirce School. Ann L. Caldwell, last principal of the old school, continued as principal of the new school. The new Peirce School is still in operation as a K-5 school.

References

External links