The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1916-12-27
The More Recent Structures
in Barre Show Permanent
cy and Purity in Design
FEDERAL BUILDING
LEADING EXAMPLE
Hotel Barre and City Hos
pital Also Give Promise
Barre Churches Mediocre

Climatic conditions, coupled with com
munity history, have until recently been
strong hold back upon architectural de-
velopment in and around Barre City. Up
to the present generation Barre was a
staid and somewhat sleepy New England
town. Situated as il is, in rather Sc
we're northerly climate, people thought
slttle of attempting to build artistic
Shomes, being content to provide them
eselves with practical structure" where
ain they could find comfort and protection
sfrom the elements. Other structures, ex-
Hcepting the village church. the general
3 store, and sehoolhouse, were lacking,
eand so any architectural leaning these
ogood people may have possessed had, OF
enecessity. to be expressed in their dwell
~ings Few of these remain, but OF those
Hthat are left, not one shows that fine APP
<preciation of classic details which forms
so large part of the late Colonial and
Searly Georgian architecture evidenced IN
= the dwellings, and public buildings OF
5 Massachusetts. and, further south, in
New York and New Jersey.
Such traces were to be found only in
the three above mentioned public build
ings, OF these the old Barre academy,
: erected in 1852 offered the best example.
4Simple in plan, it still managed to DIS
@play much of the best in late Colonial
Z style. The roof, plain pitched and two
%gabled, and the porch supported on four
well balanced columns surmounted by
. the architrave and pediment, We're con-
sstent throughout The first church was
inartistic in whole but in detail showed
some classic elements. The old brick
store located where the Aldrlch building
now stands at the corner of Elm and
North Main streets, was also extremely
poor in architectural structure. All these
buildings have given away to more mod
ern structures now and remain only in
memory.
There are however. two later buildings
still standing, that perhaps express the
Georgian style better than any others.
They are the Morrison homestead on the
west hill and the Phelps home on Acad-
envy street. Additions of porches and
other details have detracted from their
purity as types but they still retain the
main features of the Georgian Since
they were erected Barre has passed
through transition period, period OF
rapid growth, and from a small town has
grown a fair sized city. This rapid
growth kept ahead of art and only with
in the past five or ten years has Barre
had time to stop and consider with rea-
sonable care the development OF her
physical equipment. During the great
increase in population many structures
were built. but most of them lacked per-
manency and were but lackadaisical ex-
amples of architecture. OF the more
81 -, o.
serve mention. They are the Averill
house on North street, the Gordon home
on Richardson street, the Jackson home
on South Main street, and the Worthen
house on Keith avenue. All are examples
of the French chateau type of Renais-
sance architecture, but carry it out only
in details. One business block, the Cor
don block, Gothic in structure expresses
better than any other the prevalent type
in that sort of building during this pc
Rod.
This brings us up to the present and
leaves a large number of buildings still
to be considered. Barre's churches,
though several of them date back many
wears, may best be criticised here, as
they are more or less permanent struc-
lures. Two of them, the Catholic church
on Summer street and the Congregation
al church on Church street, stand out
above the Others in architectural perfec-
ton. The Catholic structure Is an ex-
ample of the decorated Gothic and is con
sistent throughout though not preten-
tious in size or design. The Congrega-
tional church is built along Gothic lines
also. but in its simplicity of structure
and its suggested sturdiness IL reminis-
cent of the Romanesque. The other
church structures are much less consist
ent and in each are found unhappy mix
lures of features of several pure styles:
The public school is development OF
the last century and all kinds OF archi-
tectural STYLES have been tried. with
VARYING success. Spaulding high school
IL Gothic in general structure and ex-
cepting the recent addition on the Wash
ineton street side, presents, with the
CONGREGATIONAL church, one OF the best
examples of this style found in the city.
Lincoln school is a cumbersome attempt
at Colonial and Mathewson school is a
mediocre example of schoolhouse Rem
naissance.
The remaining structures are mostly
in the Renaissance style. The best OF
these is the federal building, and 1t not
only leads in this style, but is by far
the purest example of architecture in the
city' Though small, all its details are
perfectly proportional and in no instance
overdone. The Aldrich library and the
Rowland block are attempts at this style,
but contain many decadent features.
Tho Hotel Rarre is an unpretentlous eN-