Norwood Memorial Municipal Building Explained

Norwood Memorial Municipal Building
Location:566 Washington Street
Norwood, Massachusetts
Coordinates:42.1947°N -71.2006°W
Built:1927
Architect:Upham, William G.; Miner, Edward, et al.
Architecture:Late Gothic Revival
Added:October 10, 1996
Refnum:96001086

Norwood Memorial Municipal Building (Norwood Town Hall) is a historic building located in Norwood, Massachusetts, United States.

The Late Gothic Revival building was built in 1927-28, and is made of Weymouth seamed-face granite. Visitors often mistake it for a church or believe it to have been a church, but it never was; its stained-glass windows depict not saints, but local patriot Aaron Guild.

"Guild", whose name appears in local street and building names, is pronounced with a long i, like the second syllable of the word "beguiled".

Guild's significance is explained by an inscription on the Aaron Guild Memorial Stone, dedicated in 1903, which stands outside the Norwood public library. The inscription reads:

NEAR THIS SPOT

CAPT. AARON GUILD

ON APRIL 19, 1775

LEFT PLOW IN FURROW, OXEN STANDING

AND DEPARTING FOR LEXINGTON

ARRIVED IN TIME TO FIRE UPON

THE RETREATING BRITISH.

Guild and his oxen are featured in the town seal.

The building includes a 50-bell[1] [2] [3] [4] carillon tower housing the Walter F. Tilton Memorial Carillon, one of nine carillons in Massachusetts and the seventh-largest in the United States.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. http://www.towerbells.org/data/MANORWOD.HTM Towerbells.org database
  2. http://www.carillon.org/eng/fs_carillon.htm World Carillon Federation
  3. http://norwoodlibrary.org/norwood-historical-records/municipal-department-records/ Norwood Library: Norwood Historical Records
  4. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2013/07/06/years-old-and-counting-historic-norwood-town-hall-keeps-running-gets-facelift/s8KGmNJ8ZlpTcFoNbkwRgM/story.html Boston Globe, South Regional edition 7/6/2013
  5. https://www.nps.gov/nr/listings/961018.htm Announcement of listing in 1996