massachusetts-avenue_0735 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE-- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW _PREHISTORIC -ARCHEOLUGY-PREHISTORIC -COMMUNITY PLANNING _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE _RELIGION _1400-1499 __ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC -CONSERVATION _LAW -SCIENCE _1500-1599 _AGRICULTURE --ECONOMICS X-LITERATURE _SCULPTURE -1600-1699 X-ARCHITECTURE x_EDUCATION -MILITARY -SOCIAUHUMANITARIAN _1700-1799 -ART -ENGINEERING _MUSIC -THEATER X1800-1899 COMMERCE -EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT _PHILOSOPHY _TRANSPORTATION -1900- _COMMUNICATIONS -INDUSTRY -POLITICS/GOVERNMENT _OTHER(SPECIFY) _INVENTION SPECIFIC DATES 1833 BUILDER/ARCHITECT Isaac Melvin STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Stone Building is significant as one of the early centers of free-thinking and discussion for religious, philosophical and cultural groups in the East Village of Lexington. The building is also the most elaborate Greek Revival structure in East Lexington today. In 1832 Eli Robbins, a wealthy merchant and public spirited citizen of Lexington, saw the need for a public building in the town where lectures, preaching, and other meetings could be held and particularly where freedom of speech, including the current anti-slavery point of view, might be allowed. In the spring of 1833 Robbins engaged Mr, Isaac Melvin of Concord to design a suitable building located in the "East Village" of Lexington about two miles along the main road from the Battle Green. In the same year citizens of the East Village petitioned the Town Meeting -to provide a church and a minister in their awn part of town. When no help was given they formed the 'Religious Society of-the East Village" and in 1835 they began meeting in the building which Eli Robbins had commissioned. The pastor of the new religious- society was the Reverend Charles Follen who had been forced to flee his native Germany because of his radical political activities. In America he became an ardent abolitionist before such views were acceptable in New England, and as a result he lost his position as professor of German at Har- vard College" In order to give full expression to his religious , moral, and pol- itical opinions, Foden turned to the ministry" After six months of preaching to the Religious Society of the East Village, Follen was called to Watertown, and he sent as his replacement Ralph Waldo Emerson who preached in the hall about two years. Emerson was succeeded by other noted men such as the Reverend ,john Pierpont, the Reverend Theodore Parker, and the Reverend San-iel J, May, The building was also used as a gathering place for a number of other groups. Amos, Bronson Alcott held conversation meetings there, and Henry Thoreau was said to have considered it as a home for his private school. In 1851 the building was sold to Abner Stone who lived there with his family until his death in 1872, After the death of the widow Stone, her daughter, Miss Ellen A. Stone, offered the town the large house for use as a library. As an expression of its gratitude, the town voted to call the building the " Stone Building". It has been used ever since as a library and is today the East Lexington Branch Library CCary Memorial Library) .