You are here

Metropolitan Boston » Western Suburbs » Wellesley » Wellesley Town Hall and Library

Wellesley Town Hall and Library

-A A +A
1881 library, 1883 town hall addition, Shaw and Hunnewell. 525 Washington St.
  • Wellesley Town Hall and Library (Richard W. Longstreth)
  • Wellesley Town Hall and Library (Richard W. Longstreth)

The most picturesque of the town halls and libraries in Greater Boston, the Wellesley Town Hall complex, built of random ashlar pink granite and brownstone trim, was the gift of Horatio Hollis Hunnewell. The Wellesley Library was constructed in 1881, the year that Wellesley was incorporated. It was built on part of Etherton Cottage land, the country estate of Dr. William Morton, who in 1846 pioneered the use of ether during surgery. The town hall addition to the west was completed two years later. Shaw and Hunnewell (son-in-law and son of the donor) designed this polychromatic composition in rugged stone, using chateaux-inspired towers and stepped gables to create an animated skyline. Set on a hilltop and surrounded by generous grounds with specimen plantings and a duck pond, the entire building was converted to town offices in 1959, when the library moved to a new building. In 2003, the library relocated to a new structure (Best and Joslin, 530 Washington Street), a two-story brick and limestone building with hipped slate roof, directly across from the town offices.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
×

Data

What's Nearby

Wellesley Village Church
Dana Hall School
Cottage Street Workers' Houses
Science Center
Wellesley High School

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Wellesley Town Hall and Library", [Wellesley, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-WL7.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 515-515.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,