Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

8 Belmont Street (Montclair School)

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Montclair School was erected in 1912 in response to the population growth in the northwest section of the City of Quincy now known as Wollaston West/Montclair. This new "school was intended to relieve the overcrowding in the Wollaston School on Beale Street and to avoid having the children in the Montclair neighborhood make the long walk to the Quincy School in the Atlantic neighborhood.

The school takes its name from the section of the city in which it is located. "Montclair" was so designated in 1892 by the realtors who sold the land for development and a Montclair station on the Granite Branch Railroad was also established at that time.

James E. McLaughlin, was the architect of the $42.000 original structure of the Montclair School and a popular Quincy builder, Dennis F. Crowley, was the contractor. Mclaughlin was also the architect of the Thomas Pollard School, Fifth Avenue and Southern Artery (1919, now demolished) and in partnership with G. Houston Burr (McLaughlin & Burr) designed the Quincy Armory. 1000 Hancock Street (1924). The architect for the 1930 addition, William Chapman was also 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 the Merrymount School, 4 Agawam Street (1929).

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Original plans, Maintenance Department, Quincy Public Schools.
Original plans, Building Department, City of Quincy.
William Churchill Edwards, Historic Quincy, Massachusetts, 1957, p. 181.
"The Progress of Public School Education", Tercentenary Edition, Quincy Patriot Ledger, 1925.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
The Montclair School (1912) bears a strong resemblance to St. John's School ( 1909) in its massing, solidity and panel brick decorative ornamentation. Both schools' brick facades are composed of plain projecting pavilions at the sides and center, both have simple flat cornices and both have their floors separated by raised brick panels with recessed centers,giving textural interest to the wall. A year later, when the city of Quincy built the Adams School and the Wol1aston School, they were constructed as "sister schools"; they were identical in design. The same formula was followed in 1916 and 1917 when the Daniel Webster School and the Francis W. Parker School were erected. In the Montclair case, one can note clear references to the earlier building, but also, a more modern rendering in the design. Whereas St. John's School has its fenestration enclosed in a raised brick frame, the Montclair School windows are treated as vertical units. One above the other, separated by the brick panels, the windows are also framed on each side by a brick pilaster, creating an embrassure. All double units of windows (floors 1 and 2) are thus recessed, giving the structure a strong feeling of rhythmical verticality in spite of its flat roof over two stories and a high granite basement. The selective use of decorative motifs (lozenges in the corner pilaster capital, and the molded cornice), the subtle articulation of the long facades, the recessed window units all indicate a worthy Quincy school building of the second decade of the 20th century.

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