National Register of Historic Places

Chapel of St. Anne

Arlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Listed
April 17, 1985
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
85001026

About this property

The Chapel of St. Anne is a historic Episcopal chapel on Claremont Avenue in Arlington, Massachusetts. Built in 1915, it is the town's only work of the architect Ralph Adams Cram, and is an example of Norman Gothic architecture. The chapel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The chapel is set on the east side of Claremont Avenue in a residential part of Arlington Heights, on the grounds of the Youth Villages-Germaine Lawrence Campus. This property was, at the time of the chapel's construction in 1915, part of an Episcopalian orphanage. Ralph Adams Cram designed the chapel, although it is done in Norman style rather than Cram's more well-known Gothic Victorian. Its stained-glass windows are by a frequent Cram collaborator, Charles Connick. The chapel is a two-story roughly rectangular stone structure, oriented east–west, with a gabled roof. The stone used in its construction was locally gathered, and integrates a number of unusual features, including a paving stone from the Cambridge sewer system, a 16th-century madonna and child figure executed in Carrara marble, and ecclesiastical wood carvings. It has a gracefully curved apse, and a rose window in the gable at the western end. The Society of St. John the Evangelist (Cowley Fathers) established an orphanage on this property in 1910, and initially held its religious services in a small wood-frame chapel. The present chapel was built to replace that structure. In 1928 the property was repurposed to become the St. Anne's School for Girls, named for the order of nuns who ran the facility. In 1978 the nuns began to separate the religious aspect from the school, which had come to serve predominantly emotionally troubled children. This resulted in the creation in 1980 of the Germaine Lawrence School, since merged with the Youth Villages organization. National Register of Historic Places listings in Arlington, Massachusetts "NRHP Document for Arlington, Massachusetts MRA". National Park Service. 1985. Retrieved December 18, 2009. Cram, Ralph Adams (December 1922). "Three Small Chapels, Cram & Ferguson, Architects (Illustrated)". Architecture. XLVI (6): 363–369.

Location

Arlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
42.42345, -71.18376

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Arlington Coal & Lumber
Industrial
0.1 mi
Milestone
Early Republic
0.1 mi
Hill, Addison, House
Industrial
0.2 mi
Robinson-Lewis-G. F. Fessenden House
Industrial
0.3 mi
Old Schwamb Mill
Industrial
0.3 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Menotomy
1775Revolutionary War
1.5 mi
Skirmish at Menotomy (Arlington)
1775Revolutionary War
1.5 mi
Battle of Lancaster (King Philip's War)
1676Colonial
2.3 mi
Lexington Green — Parker's Stand
1775Revolutionary War
2.9 mi

Questions about this property

When was Chapel of St. Anne listed on the National Register?

Chapel of St. Anne was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 17, 1985.

What type of historic resource is Chapel of St. Anne?

Chapel of St. Anne is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Chapel of St. Anne?

The period of significance for Chapel of St. Anne is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Chapel of St. Anne?

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