The Chinese Historical Society of New England has partnered with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England (CCBA) to
Introduction
Comment on the Context Summary
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.
Listing of this property provides recognition of the community’s important historic resources and assures protective review of Federal properties that might adversely affect the character of the property. If the property is listed in the National Register, certain Federal investment tax credits for rehabilitation and other provisions may apply.
Listing in the National Register does not mean that limitations will be place don the property by the Federal government. Public visitation rights are not required of property owners. The Federal government will not attach restrictive covenants to the property or seek to acquire it. If a property is listed in the National Register, the owner may do anything with it that s/he wishes, unless state or federal historic rehabilitation tax credits, funds, permits, or licensing are used, or unless some other region and/or local ordinance of policy is in effect.
The first individual property being nominated for listing in the National Register under this context is the Quincy Grammar School, located 88-90 Tyler Street, and home of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. The brick building was completed in 1859, built in the same manner and on the foundation of a four-story gable-roofed building built in 1848 and destroyed by fire ten years later. In 1938 the gable roof of the main building collapsed during a hurricane, after which the roof and fourth floor were removed and the existing flat roof was created. Stair towers attached to the north and south walls also were lowered from four to three stories at that time; they are distinguished by front and rear Greek Revival-style entrances that reflect the design of the leading Boston architect of the time, Gridley J.S. Bryant, known for his many civic and commercial buildings in Boston and the region.
Quincy Grammar School, c. 1902-1904
The brick exterior of the building is supported on a granite basement, and includes a decorative band of granite above the first-story windows and marble window lintels and sills. There are four classrooms on each of the three stories, two on either side of a hallway connecting to stair towers. The original wood wainscot, doors, window and door trim and blackboards from 1859 all remain largely intact. Two rooms on the first story have been consolidated into one. In 1913, a two-story, technical training annex was added to the north side of the building. After the 1938 renovations, the Quincy Grammar School remained unchanged until its closing in 1976, when students were relocated to the Josiah Quincy Elementary School on Washington Street. In 1983, the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England (CCBA) acquired the former school from the City of Boston. CCBA rehabilitated and repurposed the building to serve a variety of Chinese American civic and cultural groups and activities.
The Quincy Grammar School is significant as a distinctive example of mid-19th century progressive school architecture that served as the model of educational reforms introduced by Horace Mann and other educators in Boston and beyond. It also is significant as a historic institutional property associated with Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans in the City of Boston.
The school was the first “graded” grammar school in Massachusetts and possibly in the United States. Built in 1848 during a wave of reform in schoolhouse architecture and construction, the Quincy Grammar School was the first to reflect the educational model promoted by Horace Mann, the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. It followed the Prussian practice of grouping students according to age and achievement. Prior to this, American students were typically taught in large, mixed-age classes run by two teachers. The Quincy School was organized into multiple graded classes grouped by age and ability, each headed by one teacher. Later in its history, the Quincy Grammar School was also the location in 1913 of one of the first classes in the United States taught following the educational theories of Maria Montessori.
CCBA / former Quincy Grammar School, 2016
With the changing population of the South Cove neighborhood, students at the Quincy School by the early 20th century represented a diversity of immigrant groups, and by the 1940s when many families in Chinatown were relocating south of Kneeland Street, over a third of the School’s students were Chinese or Chinese American. By the time it closed in 1976, over 90% of the school’s population was Chinese American. The Quincy School played a pivotal role in the education of Boston’s Chinese community, as well as teaching English as a second language and other immigrant skills during a period when large numbers of new Chinese families were arriving in Boston. Even though the school closed in 1976, it found renewed life in 1983 when it was acquired by the CCBA, a vitally important community organization, composed of many charitable and cultural Chinese groups, that operates a multifaceted program in the building. Under CCBA’s ownership, the significant era of preserving and presenting Chinese culture for the benefit of Boston’s Chinese American community has continued strongly into the present. Despite the loss of its upper story and roof, the Quincy School still represents an architectural and historic landmark dating from the mid-19th century and a significant educational and community institution historically serving the Chinese immigrant and Chinese American community of Boston.
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