{"nrhp_refnum":"81000112","name":"Intermediate Building","other_names":["First Wellesley High School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"324 Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wellesley Hills","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.31074288700006,"lon":-71.27436931599993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1981-08-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story red brick former high school at 324 Washington Street in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, built in 1894 to designs by Hartwell and Richardson. It now serves as an annex to the adjacent Town Hall.","why_significant":"The building was the town's first high school and one of only five schools built between 1896 and 1902. It is also considered a fine example of schoolhouse architecture by Hartwell and Richardson. It retains integrity of location, design, setting and materials.","narrative":"Built in 1894 at 324 Washington Street in Wellesley Hills, this red brick schoolhouse with terra cotta trim was Wellesley's first high school. It rises two stories from a raised basement under a slate hipped roof, with a shallow T plan and a symmetrical eleven-bay facade centered on a five-bay pavilion. Round arched openings with keystones mark the first-story wings, and three shingled dormers break the roofline. Town Meeting approved construction in 1893 and chose the Boston-area firm Hartwell and Richardson as designers. Henry Hartwell wrote on school design, arguing that schools should be shaped by their purpose, with good light, fireproofing and sensible layout. The building served as the high school until 1907, when a new school opened, and then remained in educational use for many years. Today it is owned by the town and serves as an annex to the neighboring Town Hall, housing town agencies. It was listed for its role in local education and its architecture.","period_of_significance":"1894","architect_builder":"Hartwell and Richardson","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Owned by the Town of Wellesley, occupied, and used as a Town Hall annex housing town agencies after years of educational use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.561317-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/7963/63796326/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/81000112.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000112/5e27dbfc9a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/81000112/5e27dbfc9a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jameslwoodward","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intermediate_Building_Wellesley_MA_01.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jameslwoodward</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Intermediate_Building_Wellesley_MA_01.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796326","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6047305"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/intermediate-building-81000112/"}