The Wakefield Trust Company is a historic commercial building at 371 Main Street in
Wakefield, Massachusetts
Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offer ...
. Built in 1924, it is one of three buildings on the west side of Main Street (along with the library and
main post office) that give the town center a strong Classical Revival flavor. The building 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 ...
in 1989.
Description and history
The Wakefield Trust Company building stands on the west side of Main Street in downtown Wakefield, at the southwest corner of Chestnut Street. It is a two-story structure, built out of limestone. Its main facade has a projecting Greek temple pavilion, with four smooth round columns supporting an entablature and a fully pedimented and dentillated gable. The main entrance, accessed via a low set of steps between the central columns, is set in a tall round-arch opening. The bays of the front and north sides are separated by pilasters, and the windows on the north side, while rectangular sash, are set in panels that echo the rounded arch of the entrance.
The Wakefield Trust Company was founded in 1854 as the South Reading Bank (Wakefield then being called South Reading). After several reorganizations and mergers, it acquired that name in 1926. This building was constructed in 1924, when it was known as the Wakefield National Bank. It was built at a cost of $300,000 to a design by
Hutchins & French of
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 ...
.
[''Yearbook of the Boston Architectural Club''. 1925.] Its Classical Revival features followed those of the library, which stands one block north and was built in 1922, and precede those of the post office, which stands beyond the library and was built in 1936.
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See also
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References
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Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Neoclassical architecture in Massachusetts
Commercial buildings completed in 1924
Buildings and structures in Wakefield, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Wakefield, Massachusetts