“This recommendation for the location of the new [Town Hall] building set off two months of uninterrupted squabbling.”
So writes Robert Anderson in his “Directions of a Town.” Anderson is talking about a debate that occurred in the year 1870, but with a couple of word changes, it sounds a lot like 2013, the conflicting voices heard in current discussions of the Town Hall renovation echoing those heard during planning for the construction of Town Hall itself in 1870.
Town Hall, circa 1872. (Courtesy photo from the archives of the Harvard Historical Society)
The original town hall was built in 1828 on the northeast portion of the Common (across from where the present Town Hall sits) and served the town well for 40 years. But the building was too small and poorly laid out for social uses, and in 1868 supporters began to agitate for a new building. Henry Nourse (“History of Harvard”) observes, “The suggestion that a new, much more capacious building for public meetings should take the place of the old one, excited the determined opposition of all the conservatives in town.” The not-insignificant town debt at the time was a further argument for delay.
Fireworks begin
According to Anderson, the “real fireworks” began at the March 1870 Town Meeting when the town spent nearly a whole day voting on the question of whether or not to build a new town hall. Opponents tried every tactic they could think of: claiming too many voters absent, advocating for the adjournment of the meeting, arguing the article should be postponed. In the end, proponents of a new building won the day by a narrow margin. (Nourse has a different account in which he says that the meeting was carried over to the next day, when the vote was taken and won 107 to 100.) A committee was chosen to recommend a location and draw up plans.
Over budget by $1,500
A month later the construction committee presented its report. They announced that the project would be over budget, costing $9,500 instead of the appropriated $8,000. The committee had visited other towns who had recently erected town halls, and it felt Harvard should model its building after Acton’s. The committee proposed that the site of the new building be west of the old town hall and north of the Unitarian Church (almost exactly the site of the present Town Hall.) It was this last item that set off the sparks and the constuction committee was asked to reconsider the site.
The committee members returned in two weeks, reporting that they and an engineer had investigated four new sites and found none acceptable. (An early example of proof of hardship?) They asked that the town accept their original site proposal, but the town would not agree and sent the committee out to try again. After another month the committee reported that the town hall could be built where Schoolhouse No. 1 stood—between the General Store and the Congregational Church. This would require moving the schoolhouse and either moving several graves or expanding onto part of the Common in order to accommodate so large a building. The next week the town voted not to move the schoolhouse and instructed the committee to come up with another idea. After another two weeks the whole subject was postponed, and no official action was taken on the issue for 10 months.
One can’t help wondering what kind of “unofficial” actions went on in town during that time because at the March 1871 town meeting the question of a new town hall was raised and there was no opposition. Anderson notes that an apparently routine series of votes was taken that determined the town would build a new town hall and would appoint a committee to study the project. A month later the committee reported that the new building would be modeled after the town hall in Westford and located on the site of the then-existing town hall. The report was accepted and $10,000 appropriated.
Mysterious turn of events
Things seemed to be going surprisingly well, but, sure enough, the town soon returned to its former indecisiveness. In another mysterious turn of events, three weeks later, without explanation, the town decided to change the location of the new town hall. And where did they recommend it go? Exactly on the spot the first committee had recommended 13 months before. Since the old town hall had already been sold, the selectmen had to lease it from its new owner in order to have a place to meet while the new building was being constructed. After a few months, the owner wanted his property for his own use, and town meetings were moved to the Center Schoolhouse No. 1.
The first meeting in the new town hall was held on April 1, 1872.
