MassachusettsMonson Memorial Town Hall is a large two-story granite building on Main Street in the town's commercial and civic center, designed in 1885 in the Victorian Gothic style by local architect George E. Potter. Roughly T-shaped in plan, it has a complex roofline with a four-story rectangular tower at its northwest corner, an octagonal turret topped by a statue of a Civil War soldier at its southwest corner, and a gabled entrance pavilion, and is built of rock-faced random-laid granite ashlar with decorative trim including alternating blue and white granite voussoirs forming Gothic arches. The idea for the hall originated at the 1884 town meeting, when the Reynolds family, prominent local industrialists, offered to donate a site and funds on the condition that the town contribute and that the building be a granite memorial to the town's patriot soldiers, completed before May 1, 1885. It was built of granite from the local Monson quarry, an important regional source, and dedicated on Memorial Day 1885. The building was listed under Criteria A, B, and C as the community's most important piece of public architecture and its enduring civic center.
Memorial Town Hall
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Memorial Town Hall is a landmark in Monson, Hampden County. It is one of 3,654 landmarks documented in Hampden County, among 3,815 historic sites cataloged across the county on MassRoam.
The site sits at 42.0973, -72.3127 near Monson. The nearest cataloged historic site is Monson Civil War Cannon (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Cushman, S. F. Memorial Fountain, Noble - Bergeron House, and Monson Cannon.
This record is drawn from public historical records. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
Monson's Memorial Town Hall on Main Street is a High Victorian Gothic building of locally quarried granite, built in 1885 to a design by architect George Potter. The project began at the 1884 town meeting when Rice M. Reynolds offered to donate the site, and he, his brother and their father Joseph Reynolds pledged funds on the condition the town add $20,000. Built as both a town hall and a memorial to Monson's Civil War soldiers, its front holds town offices and a former Grand Army of the Republic meeting room, with an auditorium and stage to the rear. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and is a contributing property in the Monson Center Historic District.
Sources: en.wikipedia.orgmonson-ma.gov
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