Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

4 Agawan Road (Merry mount School)

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Merrymount is the name given to Quincy's first settlement of Mount Wollaston by Captain Thomas Morton, "a merry Englisliman", in 1627 and the derivation of the name of the Merrymount School. Morton, who had arrived in Quincy Bay in 1625 with Captain Richard Wollaston, stayed on until his arms trading with the Indians and his good times, usually around an eighty foot maypole which he had erected, so thoroughly offended the Pilgrim fathers that he was arrested and banished to England. The 600 acre tract of land, which became known as Mt. Wollaston Farm, was sold in 1640 to William Ting, one of Boston's richest merchants. In 1709 the area of Merrymount passed into the ownership of the Quincy family where it stayed for over 200 years. In 1917, the tract was sold by the heirs of John Quincy Adams II for development. During 1917-1923, more than one hundred houses were erected in this historical area.

The architect for the $200,000 Merrymount School, William Chapman, was well known in Quincy having previously designed the Court house, 12-24 Coddington Street (1911); the Quincy Point Junior High School, Edwards Street (1927) and whose firm would design the 1930 addition to the Montclair School, 8 Belmont Street, in 1930. Chapman unfortunately died before the completion of the Merrymount School but his daughter, Doris Chapman, "carried on" his plans

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records
Development brochure showing Merrymount as it was in the early 1920's.
Original plans, Maintenance Department, Quincy Public Schools.
William Churchill Edwards, Historic Quincy, Massachusetts, 1957, p. 153, 298.
Quincy Patriot Ledger, October 29, 1929, p.. 1, 12; September 1. 1965.
"The Progress of Public School Education", Tercentenary Edition, Quincy Patriot Ledger, 1925.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Two years before the construction of the Merrymount School, the architect William Chapman, had designed a large school on Edwards Street, replete with traditional detailing (classical elements and off white trim revealing the red brick) which gave the building a conservative look. In contrast, the Merrymount School seems severe, spartan and modern. In the Quincy Patriot Ledger, October 29, 1929 account of the opening, it was written , "The modern structure emphasized the advancement of educational facilities." The granite foundation of past schools is replaced by one of cement. Cement is also the material used for the string course and for the entrances: one with an arched Roman pediment and one with a plain entablature. The windows, symmetrically placed, are bare of trim yet clearly articulate their function as the source of lighting for the classrooms. To emphasize the horizontality of the school building, the architect placed a contrasting string course above the high basement, and a barely perceptible moulding atop the second floor windows which creates a brick parapet. The 1929 Chapman section of the Merrymount School is built in the shape of a wide U, a form often used by previous Quincy school architects. This configuration changed to a wide H in 1960 when the Coletti Brothers built a large handsome addition in the rear which juxtaposes well with the original structure. It is a fine early modern institutional building.

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