Register of Historic Places tabs city school
The city received the historic designation for the former Woonsocket High School and Junior High School building as a result of ‘the foresight and action of N. David Bouley,’ the city’s director of planning.
WOONSOCKET – The local high school building at 357 Park Place designed by city architect Walter Fontaine has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service, a step that could help its redevelopment with National Historic Tax Credits, according to Mayor Lisa Baldelli- Hunt’s administration.
The mayor reported on Friday that the city received the historic designation for the former Woonsocket High School and Junior High School building on Nov. 9 as a result of “the foresight and action of N. David Bouley,” the city’s director of planning.
Bouley used “his vision for the city and ‘planning’ talent to look ahead and see what would be beneficial to the city,” Baldelli-Hunt said.
Bouley, who is stepping down from his post due to a recent illness, had begun work on the development of a National Register plan as a long range goal to assist the city in finding a suitable redevelopment option for the circa 1914 high school. The school building, last used as the city’s middle school, was closed in 2009 when new middle school buildings were opened at Hamlet Avenue and Villa Nova Street.
Fontaine, who designed the high school in 1913, is also the architect of a number of other
well-known structures in the city and around the region, some already recognized on the National Register.
Fontaine designed the Mount St. Charles Academy school building constructed in 1922 and 1924, St. Ann Church at 84 Cumberland St., in 1916, the American Paper Tube Co. at 93 Hazel St. in 1916, The first Gov. Aram Pothier Elementary School at 1044 Social St. in 1909, the YMCA Building at 43 Federal St. in 1910 and 1911, the Commercial Block Building at 99 to 113 Main St. in 1902, the French Worsted Co. mills at 153 Hamlet Avenue in 1906, and the Central Police Station at 139 Front St. in 1903.
The French Worsted mills, like the former circa 1919 Blackstone High School at 86 Main St., Blackstone, are among the Fontaine designed buildings that have been demolished.
Fontaine designed the 1926-27 addition of a junior high wing attached to the high school at Park Place, the Union St. Jean the Baptiste Building at Monument Square and even his own home at 211 Glen Road.
Fontaine, who also designed St. James Church at 33 Division St., in Manville, completed his last design, the original St. Joseph Church at 1200 Mendon Road, 1938. He and his wife, Obeline, died during the Hurricane of 1938 while at their summer home in Charlestown.
Fontaine’s high school project at Park Place included stone and marble work highlights with fossils visible in some of the materials, a theater with a ticket office, wood panel and plaster hallways, and bas relief artwork of classical scenes in some classrooms.
Work on the historic designation application was begun in April of 2016 with request for proposal, according Baldelli-Hunt.
Following consultation with the city council, a contract for the application work was awarded to Public Archaeology Laboratory of Pawtucket for $9,271.
The work was completed while the city was still seeking proposals for redevelopment of the building and despite some arguments raised that the application could be completed by a developer acquiring the school from the city, according to Baldelli-Hunt.
Thanks to the work already done by Bouley, the historic designation has been obtained, she noted, and will now help the project to move forward.
The city has since selected the Tai-O Group of Central Falls to redevelop the middle school into 170-unit luxury apartment complex.