Around and Through the Common

 Produced for teachers, students and the general public was a joint project of Immigrant City Archives and Lawrence High School

Ertha Dengler, Director Immigrant City Archives

Andrew Reusch, History Department, Lawrence High School

 THE LAWRENCE COMMON

The Essex Company, founds of Lawrence in 1845, planed the “New City on the Merrimack”.  The dam, canals and factories were built, housing for the workers was provided, broad streets laid out and land set aside for parks throughout the community.  1848 the Essex Company donated 17 ½ acres of land in the center of the city for public use.  The land grant stipulated that the city expend at least $300 annually for 20 years for upkeep and beautification of the grounds.

The common soon became an example of a fine Victorian public garden.  Various kinds of trees, shrubs, and flowers adorned paths and walkways running within the granite curbing which is now the Common’s boundary.  In the past a fountain and wading pool provided youngsters with fun and relief from summer heat.  Today a new stage area dedicated to Lawrence native, Leonard Bernstein, has been constructed in the fountain area and retains the fountain shape.

Robert Frost, a graduate of Lawrence High School and America’s favorite poet, is remembered with the Frost Fountain and its babbling brook and grove of birch trees.

The Lawrence Common played host to Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Taft, Truman and Eisenhower. During the great strike of 1912, the Common saw assemblies of 30,000 workers listening to the speeches of Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. 

Robert Lee Frost 1874-1963

Graduated valedictorian in 1892 from Lawrence High School.  His first published poem was printed in the Lawrence High School Bulletin.  Robert Frost’s father was from Lawrence and the family lived in Lawrence from 1885-1895.  The fountain area across from City Hall is dedicated to Frost and was designed to capture the mood of Frost’s poem “brook in the City” while the birch trees surrounding the area symbolize another of the beloved poet’s work “Birches”.

 

            “I like to go climbing a Birch tree

            and climb black branches up a snow white trunk

            toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more

            but dipped its top and set me down again.

            That would be good both going and coming back.

            One could do worse than be a swinger of Birches.” 

 PROPERTIES SURROUNDING THE COMMON
 

GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

             This church on the Corner of Jackson and Common Streets was built in 1852 with granite left over from the building of the Great Stone Dam.  In 1895 it was enlarged.  Grace Church was founded in 1846 as the city’s first parish.  The Lawrence family, which gave the city its name, was associated wit this church and William Lawrence was a minister at this church before he became Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts in 1893.

 (still an active parish-MET)

 MASONIC TEMPLE

             At the time of its erection in 1923, the Masonic Temple was considered one of the finest and largest in New England.  Designed by Lawrence architect George G. Adams, it was constructed of granite in a neo-classical revival style.  The most prominent men in Lawrence’s history were members of this Masonic Lodge.

Located on Jackson Street, opposite the Common-MET

  

MORSE HOUSE

        This house at 57 Jackson Street was built in 1857 in Italian Villa style with interesting details  The original owner bought the lot from the Essex Company in 1855.  The deed included regulations about height, material, usage, and distance from the Common.  These rules were enforced for all buildings facing the Common.

(Still standing and maintained in the original style-MET)

 

THE ORDWAY HOUSE         At 59 Jackson Street stands a two and a half story structure with a unique combination of Italianate and Colonial Revival details.  The Ordway House was built by Dr. Aaron Ordway, a prosperous physician and druggist.  He lived in the house until his death in 1890.  The house remained in the Ordway family for many years afterwards.

(still standing and maintained in the original style-MET)

 

UNITARIAN CHURCH (PONTIAC CHARITABLE CLUB) This simple brick structure on the corner of Jackson and East Haverhill Street was erected in 1916 for the Unitarian Society.  Since 1959 the Pontiac Club has been housed there.

(still standing and maintained in the original style-MET)

 KELLY HOUSE

 This building was once maintained by the Pacific Mills as an official residence for mill agents. The original owner H. Kelly, erected the building in 1861.  It was designed with Italianate trim including brackets, flared window moldings and wood keystone details over windows and entrances.  In 1986 the city renovated this

building and it became a Senior Citizen Center. 

(in more recent years, it was taken over by the city and renovated back to some of its original insides.  The outside has been maintained in the original style-MET)

CAMPAGNONE MEMORIAL

       In 1946 Lawrence Common was named Campagnone Memorial Common and dedicated to the memory of three sons of Stephen and Maria Campagnone who lost their lives in defense of the United States in WWII.

 

It is fitting that this park, where the city remembers with monuments its fallen soldiers from all the wars, be named in honor of these three brothers, born of immigrant parents on Chestnut Street.  The monument was erected by the Italian-American community in Lawrence to remember the ideals of freedom and democracy.

 

Campagnone Common-- Memorial dedicated to three Campagnone Brothers who gave their lives in Germany in WWII.  Picture, names and dates.

WWII Memorial-Campagnone Common--In Commemoration of our honored dead of WWII. Dedicated 1949 -- names listed  WWII Memorial dedicated by the Boy Scouts of America-plaque Lord Memorial-Located Campagnone Common - Memorial to William Lord, only Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient from Lawrence. Photo

 

Soldier and Sailors Monument-Campagnone Common Dedicated to those who served in The Civil War.  Dedicated 1881 Names Korean War Memorial- Campagnone Common - Names Women Veterans-monument only Spanish American Memorial-Campagnone Common        This Memorial, dedicated in 1941 honors men of Lawrence who served in the U.S. Marine Corp during the Spanish American War.  The tablet is cast from metal recovered from the Battleship USS Maine, which was destroyed in Havana Harbor on Feb 15 1898. Names Desert Storm/Persian Gulf Memorial-Campagnone Common-picture only WWI and II Memorial-Reservoir Tower Hill -Reservoir Street Names Andy Callahan Memorial-location North side of the falls bridge, Broadway Lawrence  Andrew 'Andy' Callahan Waterway Memorial-Broadway-Lawrence Dam August 1910-November 1943.  Killed in action at Monti Cassino, Italy"A champion in the sports world of boxing" Veteran's Memorial Stadium-Winthrop Avenue Lawrence - Rededicated June 24 2006 Lebanese MemorialLebanese Memorial -- Lawrence Street behind St. Anthony's Church In Memory of All American Lebanese who have served their country.  Dedicated October 1971 Picture Memorial- Lawrence Boat Ramp-Merrimack River This Marina is dedicated to the Memory of PFC Paul D. Guimond USA 1947-1966 KIA Vietnam City Hall-Common Street Lawrence  Two Cannon Balls-  This shot placed here by order of the city council have each struck a blow in the cause of freedom. They now rest in peace, monuments of the genious of Ericsson and Administrative ability of the donor,our former fellow citizen.   This shot was hurled from the Monitor Fleet against Fort Sumter during the siege of Charleston 1863, in the cause of human freedom.  Found among the ruins and presented to the city of Lawrence by G.V Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1865 Marine Memorial-Immaculate Conception Cemetery  Dedicated to the Men and Women from the Merrimack Valley who proudly served their country as U.S. Marine and Navy Corpsmen- picture Civil War Memorial- Broadway-Lawrence Dam In Memory of the Sailor Dead 1861-1865Erected by Mrs. John E. Gilman Tent 38Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil WarAlderman Wm. J. Dolan- Director --picture only  Transcribed by MET January 16, 2006