{"nrhp_refnum":"83004108","name":"Bowers School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"411 Water St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Clinton","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.41942259100006,"lon":-71.67122974099993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-11-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story red brick school building at 411 Water Street in Clinton, Massachusetts. It began as a one-room frame schoolhouse in 1847 and was completely rebuilt in 1892 to designs by Joshua Thissell.","why_significant":"The 1892 building used brick rather than the usual wood for a small school and served as a model for later turn-of-the-century schools in Clinton. It also reflects the rapid industrial and population growth of 19th-century Clinton. The site held one of the town's five mid-19th-century schools, none of which survive.","narrative":"Bowers School is a two-story red brick schoolhouse on a half-acre lot on Water Street in Clinton, Massachusetts. It began in 1847 as a one-room frame school on land donated by Sidney Harris and was known as the Harris Hill School. Its early curriculum used a graded three-tier system with mandatory examinations, an idea that met resentment from factory families but later served as a model for nearby districts. By 1892 the district had outgrown the building, and local architect Joshua Thissell completely rebuilt it. The result has a slate-covered gable and hip roof, a brick cornice with corbelling and sawtooth bands, a projecting entrance pavilion, and two classrooms on each floor. Classrooms face south to gain light, which the School Committee praised. Brick construction set it above typical small schools, and it guided later Clinton school designs. It was listed for its link to the town's industrial growth and for its architecture. The school was later named for Rev. C.M. Bowers.","period_of_significance":"1847, 1892","architect_builder":"Joshua Thissell (1892 reconstruction)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed as vacant in the present-use section; condition marked excellent and altered, with the entry appearing to result from a 20th-century rebuilding.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.486547-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/72/7973/63797372/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83004108.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004108/1650882a2d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83004108/1650882a2d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bowers_School_Clinton_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bowers_School_Clinton_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797372","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowers_School_(Clinton,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4950908"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/bowers-school-83004108/"}