The Ellen Stone Building, built in 1833, is an historic
Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
style building located at 735 Massachusetts Avenue in
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by ...
. It was originally a meeting hall and lyceum for East Lexington, which had its own civic identity and, later, its own church, the neighboring
Follen Community Church. Notable speakers at the Lyceum included
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
,
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American ...
,
Wendell Phillips
Wendell Phillips (November 29, 1811 – February 2, 1884) was an American abolitionist, labor reformer, temperance activist, advocate for Native Americans, orator, and attorney.
According to George Lewis Ruffin, a black attorney, Phillip ...
,
Theodore Parker
Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 – May 10, 1860) was an American transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church. A reformer and abolitionist, his words and popular quotations would later inspire speeches by Abraham Lincol ...
,
Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was an American orator, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and Suffrage, suffragist who was a vocal advocate for and organizer of promoting Women's rights, rights for women. In 1847, ...
,
Josiah Quincy Jr. and possibly
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading Transcendentalism, transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon sim ...
. Emerson notably served as a minister in the building for three years prior to the building of
Follen Community Church.
The building was deeded to the Trustees of the
Cary Memorial Library
__NOTOC__
The Cary Memorial Library (est.1869) is the main branch of the public library in Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown B ...
for $2,000 in 1891, by Ellen Stone, granddaughter of Eli Robbins, who built it, and it was named after her. After her death in 1944, she bequeathed $2,000 to the Town for a fund to aid needy and deserving girls in pursuit of education. The East Lexington branch library which had been established in 1883, occupied it until the building was closed for repairs in 2007.
In 1945 a demolition permit was issued for the building followed by several attempts to find a new site on which to locate it. Ultimately it was renovated as the East Branch of Cary Memorial Library in 1947.
It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1976.
Current status
A non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, Th
Lexington Lyceum Advocates was incorporated on March 3, 2023, to promote the restoration of the building and to return it to use as a modern-day lyceum as recommended in the 2022 Stone Building Feasibility/Re-Use Committee report.
On March 29, 2023, Lexington Town Meeting approved $400k to fund a design study to explore restoration of the building.
In August 2020, the Lexington Select Board revived the proposal for the Ad Hoc Stone Building Feasibility/Re-Use Committee to find a purpose for this historic building after being unused for 13 years.
In February 2009, the Cary Memorial Library Board of Trustees announced their decision to use the Stone Building as a Lexington Heritage Center which never came to fruition.
In August, 2007, the building suffered damage from burst pipes, and was closed for repairs.
Lexington weighs new role for Stone Building
/ref> The East Lexington Library never reopened.
See also
*
References
External links
History of Cary Memorial Library, including the East Lexington Library
Ellen Stone Building Preservation Study Documents
2009 Presentation on restoration progress noting history of the building with historic pictures.
Bradford Smith, “''History of the Stone Building'',” Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society Vol. II (Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Historical Society, 1900)
Gallery
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Buildings and structures completed in 1833
Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Lexington, Massachusetts
Libraries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts