The Andover Preservation Awards Event earlier this year celebrated 20 years of recognizing individuals who have made "significant contributions to preserving the historic and scenic character of our community." The committee, composed of members of the Andover Preservation Commission, Ballardvale Historic District Commission and Andover Historical Society, selected 11 outstanding examples of preservation from the past 20 years of award winners to celebrate the milestone.
"This is the architecture and design that makes our town unique," the committee said at its Andover Preservation Awards Event earlier this year. "The projects completed by these owners, builders and architects represent the best examples of preservation work being done in our town."
Last week, the Townsman published information from Preservation Committee Chairwoman Karen Herman about three of the winners: 2 Chestnut St. also known as the Rose Cottage, 18-20 Summer St., and 20 Main St. also known as the Town House.
Below is a brief look at some other winners, with information from Herman.
George Abbott House and Barns: 56 Central St.
Central Street National Historic Register District
Built: 1796
Style: Federal
Owner: Kuni Suzuki Schmertzler
Some history: This grand 1796 Federal style house at 56 Central St., built by Andover proprietor, George Abbott, and lived in by 11 generations of Abbots, first received a preservation award in 1997. The house demonstrates a traditional Federal style construction with a hip roof, side chimneys, an ornate portico with fluted columns, pilasters and dentil molding. The roof cornice is emphasized with decorative dentil molding. All of this architectural detail has been carefully preserved over the centuries.
Third Railroad Station: 100 School St.
National Register of Historic Places
Built: 1906
Style: Shingle and Romanesque Revival
Owner: Mark Spencer
Some history: Built in 1906 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this attractive Shingle and Romanesque Revival style structure, was the second railroad station on this site to service the Boston & Maine line from Boston to Lawrence. The first depot was on Essex Street. It functioned until the 1960s. Since then, several commercial enterprises including a fish market and restaurant, coffee house and auto parts store shared space in the building until fire damage caused its complete closure.
Richard T. Marino, Andover resident and business owner, purchased the depot in 1994 and proposed a plan to preserve and restore the building. The Third Railroad Station was eventually purchased by Mark Spencer who operated Carriage House Photography and now runs his new company, Water Analytics, from this site.
David Gray Farm: 232 Salem St.
National Register of Historic Places
Built: 1812
Style: Federal
Owners: Frederick Taft, Nathalie Andrews and Eleanor Ethridge.
Builder: John H. Watson, The Gothic Builder
Some history: The David Gray Farm is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was recognized by the Awards Committee in 1991 for its unique importance to the town, both architecturally and historically,
This Federal styled farm house sits comfortably on a still large estate, oriented to the south. The Gray Farm continued as a working farm throughout the ownership of Henry Gray, son of Henry Jenkins Gray, until it was sold to Rev. and Mrs. Arthur Taft in 1932. In 1968, Rebekah Taft gave 25 acres of Gray Farm to AVIS as a memorial to her mother. This land became the Taft Reservation.
Arden: 276 North Main St.
National Register of Historic Places
Built: 1847 for John Dove
Style: Gothic Revival
Builder: Jacob Chickering
Owner: Roselyn Wood
Some history: Jacob Chickering built Arden in 1847 for flax mill owner, John Dove, in the Gothic Revival style. More rare than Greek Revival or Italianate styles, Gothic Revival is seen in only a handful of examples in Andover. Steeply pitched roofs, cross gables, and lacy gable trim called vergeboards are the signatures of Gothic Revival houses. Chickering's love of detail is also evident in the interior of the home, elaborately finished with an impressive mahogany staircase and interior wood paneling. At the time, the total cost of the home was $8,566.65.
William Madison Wood, who became president of the American Woolen Mill Company, bought the house from John Dove in 1894. Mr. Wood named his home Arden. From 1900-1910, he extensively altered and changed it, adding a crenellated Porte Cochere, a gothic greenhouse and large shed stable designed by Bullfinch, a millpond with a shingled building positioned on its banks that he called "The Casino" and expansive formal landscaping. The Casino had originally been Poor's carriage factory and was moved from North Main Street. In total, his estate included barns, greenhouses, stables, farm buildings, auto houses, hen houses, a shooting house and a superintendent's house on nearly 65 acres. Mr. Wood lived at Arden for 20 years before building Shawsheen Village, his model community for employees of the American Woolen Company. He and his wife, Ellen, lived at Arden only during the summer months, returning to Boston in the winter.
The Wood family legacy will remain intact with Arden for the foreseeable future as 55 acres of the property is entrusted to the Trustees of Reservations with a conservation restriction.
Ballardvale Mill and Dam: 204-206 Andover St.
Ballardvale National Register Historic and Local Historic District
Built: 1836, 1842
Style: Greek Revival
Owners: Shawsheen River Realty, LLP
Some history: John Marland, Abraham Gould and Mark N. Newman formed a corporation with stock in the amount of $64,000 on Feb. 25, 1836, in Ballardvale.
During 1836, they oversaw the construction of an impressive Greek Revival mill building behind the mill pond, with four stories of brick, a gable roof, tied-in walls and granite window sills and lintels. The Ballardvale Woolen Mills then began production of world renowned flannel and worsted goods. Across the river, the partners built the 1842 wooden mill specifically for the manufacture of worsted goods and later flannel. Two and a half stories high with a gable roof, the structure was constructed with a church-like steeple on the gable end. Now Shawsheen Coating and Converting, it is sheathed in asbestos. Several smaller mid to late 19th century brick and granite mill buildings complete the industrial site.
Brickstone Square: York and Haverhill Street
Shawsheen Village National Historic Register District
Built: 1919 as The Shawsheen Mill for the American Woolen Mill Company
Style: Georgian Revival
Owner: Transwestern Investment Company
Some history: The Shawsheen Mill was built by William Madison Wood in 1919, and designed in the Georgian Revival style by W.B. Knowlton of Boston. A five story structure, constructed in a "U" shaped plan, it measured nearly one million square feet and would employ 2,700 workers. Until it closed in 1957, the Shawsheen Mill was the American Woolen Mill Company's most profitable operation. The mill complex was purchased in 1956 by Raytheon, a leading producer of radar tubes and systems during World War II, which sold it in 1972 to Shetland Properties. In 1986, Andover Mills Realty Limited Partnership bought the buildings and developed Brickstone Square.
Today, Brickstone Square is owned by Transwestern Investment Company, a national real estate investment firm.
Phillips Academy
Academy Hill National Register Historic District
Built: 1778 to the present
Some history: "Situated on a hill somewhat removed from the town," the Academy Hill has often been described as "a small village within itself." Academy Hill once included three separate educational institutions with their associate residential buildings. Phillips Academy (1778) and Abbot Academy (1829) were established as independent residential secondary schools. Also, in place was the Andover Theological Seminary (1807), founded for the theological training of ministers. Unusually dynamic and influential, the schools have played an integral part in American educational history as well as in Andover's development, with an outstanding collection of architecture.
Today the Academy campus encloses hundreds of acres and buildings, including student and faculty houses and institutional buildings. It represents a blend of architectural styles - Georgian, Federal, Victorian, Colonial Revival and modern, spanning the full 232 years of the school's existence.
"The Hill" as it appears today is primarily the creation of Thomas Cochran and his architects, Charles Platt, Guy Lowell and the Olmsted Brothers, conceived and completed between 1921 and 1933.
West Parish Garden Cemetery, 1909
West Parish Center National Historic Register District
Caretakers: West Parish Garden Cemetery Committee
Some history: In 2009, the West Parish Garden Cemetery celebrated its 100th anniversary of the expansion of the once rural burial ground into the 54 acre garden cemetery in 1909. Once referred to as "God's Acre," the original land was set aside for burials in 1692. The oldest grave dates from 1707 with all other recorded burials dating from the 1790s and later. The burial ground was enlarged twice in the 19th century, first in 1849 and again in 1878 for a total of five acres.
In 1908 William M. Wood, president of the American Woolen Company, gave funds to restore the original grave yard and then purchased all the remaining 50 privately owned acres enclosed by the surrounding roads. Wood hired civil engineer John Franklin to design the layout and landscaping for the new garden style cemetery. Franklin created winding roads, cobble stone pathways, two ponds and an imposing stone wall to enclose the park like setting. Architect George G. Shattuck, an Andover native, with the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge designed the buildings and entrance gates. The grand memorial arch, cottage office, and magnificent Romanesque chapel with stain glass windows by Tiffany Studios make this cemetery the crown jewel of the West Parish Center National Historic Register District.
In 1994 The West Parish Garden Cemetery, Inc. was organized to oversee the operation and restoration of the entire cemetery. A seven member board composed of two members of the West Parish Church, two lot owners, two neighbors at large and one member of the Andover Historical Society have guided the ongoing operation these past 16 years. Nearly $1,000,000.00 has been raised to date for restoration. Their effort continues with construction of a new children's garden, dedicated to the late Gwen Hedrick, the former director of the West Parish Garden Cemetery Committee.
