RESPECTING HISTORY, RESPECTING PEOPLE

In 1939, the Newtonville Branch Library opened as the largest of Newton’s local libraries, to serve Newtonville area residents, and the 2,600 Newton High School students whose library was considered inadequate. Built in the popular red brick Georgian style of Depression-era municipal buildings, much like Newton City Hall, the library represented a reassuring, solid, welcoming public place for people enduring the hardships of the time.

Its dedication was a celebration of the successful collaborative effort of Public Works Assistance funding and local generosity. More than 400 distinguished leaders joined local residents to hear Robert Frost say his poem "Mending Walls" at the dedication, lines of which are included in library’s stained glass windows designed and donated to Newton as a gift by the famous artist, Charles J. Connick. The building's architect. E. Donald Robb, a Newton resident along with Connick, helped design the National Cathedral in Washington, and St. John the Divine, in New York.

For decades, the library offered Newton students a range of educational and recreational books and other materials within walking and biking distance of their homes. Similarly, local adults benefitted from its programs. Then, as now, the Newtonville Library was place where people gathered, met others, or found comfort and solace.

When the building was repurposed as the Newton Senior Center, architects added a fully accessible entrance from the parking lot, which would be a requirement in any renovation and new construction. In fact, the current Senior Center is more accessible than Newton’s City Hall. While only two village branch libraries continue to function as libraries, all the others have been preserved and serve their communities in different ways. Only the Newtonville building, arguably the most architecturally significant, has been slated for demolition.

More recently, the building was "preferably preserved" by the Newton Historical Commission and given a demolition delay until March of 2022. The building has served Newtonville residents as well as the greater Newton community. On warmer days, Newton North High School students socialize in the pocket park in front of the building as they transition from school-to-home. People who live in the neighborhood are keenly aware that this park is the only green open space in Newtonville Center.

The Senior Center building - an anchor and amenity - much like the Masonic Hall, distinguishes Newtonville. For more information on history of the building and it's architectural details, we encourage you to read the 2010 “Newton Public Buildings Survey" and read the alternative preservation plans that we support in lieu of demolition.