Joseph Everett Chandler
The plans and specifications for the Library were developed in 1896 by
Joseph Everett Chandler, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1889)
trained 'antiquarian' or 'preservation architect.'
Chandler was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1864 of Mayflower descendants,
and was a leading advocate of the Colonial Revival style, believing that
architectural forms embodied the values of their builders, and that a
culture could not survive without preserving reminders of its origins
and character. In 1892 Chandler wrote The Colonial Architecture of
Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and in 1916, Chandler published
The Colonial House, a definitive work on the subject. The
Colonial House was dedicated "to the memory of the early builders
and architects of the Anglo-American Colonies who builded [sic] better
than they knew." Chandler was a colleague of William Sumner Appleton,
the founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities,
and Norman Morrison Isham, a professor of architecture at Brown University
and Rhode Island School of Design and author of several books on early
New England architecture and practicing architect.
Chandler was especially noted, and sometimes criticized, for his restoration
work on the Old State House (1907), the Paul Revere House (1906) and the
Old Corner Book Store in Boston, as well as the Rebecca Nurse House (1909)
and the House of Seven Gables (1917) in Salem, Massachusetts. His work
on the Paul Revere House involved the demolition of a third story that
Revere had occupied.
With Appleton, he "reinvented the house, both literally and figuratively.
With almost new materials, it was born anew to foster patriotism, Anglo-Saxonism,
and acceptable Yankee values." The Rebecca Nurse House was similarly
"damaged through over-restoration" to a perceived date of construction,
although the woman for whom the house had significance had lived there
some 60 years later." Yet Chandler was hailed as an architect who
combined an appreciation of the artistry of pre-industrial construction
with a knowledge of archeology. He also appreciated the importance of
setting: he noted that buildings were connected tot he history of their
neighborhoods and should not be moved for the sake of preservation.
Chandler also recognized that preservation work could become excessive,
believing that many of the buildings restored were "not worth the
cost of the match which might fire them." The construction on new,
Colonial Revival homes that would exhibit the artistry and good planning
of early buildings was much preferred. This philosophy was evidenced in
his design for the "Colonial Village," a housing project in
Springfield, Massachusetts.
Finally, Chandler was noted for his work in conjectural reconstruction.
Working with George Francis Dow, Chandler supervised the reproduction
of "Pioneer Village," a colonial hamlet built in Salem in 1930
to commemorate the arrival of John Winthrop and the Puritans to the area
in 1630.
According to Massachusetts Historical Commission records, most of Chandler's
documented projects are residential, and are located in Boston, the western
suburbs of Boston and southeastern Massachusetts. His identified commercial
buildings include two other libraries, the Western Memorial Library in
Sandwich and the Duxbury Library (currently used as a community center);
a church, in Plymouth; and a business office in Weston.
Joseph Everett Chandler died on August 19, 1945, at the age of 81.
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Frederic C. Adams Public Library Dedication photograph, 1898.
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