Howe Library


AKA: Recreation Center, Southard Research Lab
Building #: 57
Campus: Center
Architect: Kendall, Taylor
Built: 1917
Square Footage: 8,030ft²
Architectual Style: Craftsman

Location

42.38929, -71.20769

History

Constructed between 1916 and 1917, this building was originally erected as a recreation center for visitors and employees, following repeated requests by the school for additional space. In May 1916, the State Legislature appropriated $23,700 for construction of the building. Opened over a decade before the Administration Building (1931) the center's location was likely chosen in order to greet visitors making their way to the original East and West Campuses.

The ground floor of building was ready for occupancy in 1917, by which time its proposed use as a visitor center had given way solely for use by employees. The Trustees' Report notes, “The splendid new recreation building for the employees is ready for occupancy, and will do much to make service in this school attractive and desirable to people, and thus increase the efficiency of the school.” Funds were expended for musical instruments as well as a pool table.

Despite near-continuous expansion of the school, sufficient space for medical treatment and research was scarce. From 1917-18, Superintendent Walter E. Fernald used surplus funds to re-purpose the basement of the building, for which no use had been designated. Clinical rooms were built, including, “a large room for the dental clinic, with dispensary for dental supplies; a room splendidly equipped with facilities for minor surgical operations and surgical dressings; a room for sterilization of dressings; a pharmacy and drug storeroom; an X-ray and photograph room; a room for autopsies; a clinical laboratory, and a large waiting room for patients, with toilets, etc.” Beginning in 1918, the Tufts College Dental School provided medical care in the clinic's dental offices at no expense to the school.

The basement continued to be used for medical and research science for the majority of the institution's history, but in the decades after the Recreation Center opened, the ground floor was steadily overtaken by Dr. Fernald's library of medical literature on developmental disability and mental illness. The building was ultimately renamed the Howe Library, in honor of founding superintendent Samuel Gridley Howe.  Until the closing of the school, the library was widely regarded as the most comprehensive collection of works on the subject of developmental disability in the United States. 

In 1970, the basement portion of the building was dedicated to the Southard Institute for Research in Normal and Pathological Anatomy and contained a unique collection of human an animal brains, amounting to 1,200 specimens. In 1971, it was combined with the Warren Anatomical Museum from Harvard. Interestingly, a vestige of this collection wound up being forgotten in the building's basement - two preserved heads of men executed during the Spanish Civil War. Known only as "Pedro" and "Sexto," they were found while installing an air-conditioning unit in 1986. The heads and their ceramic jars were buried in MetFern cemetery that year.1

The Southard collection was moved to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Maryland in 1974. The remnants of the Howe Library collection were disbursed to Brandeis University and the Massachusetts State Archives from 2013-15.

Architectural Description

This small rectangular-plan lab with Craftsman-style features is very similar to buildings constructed during the previous decade. It is a red brick structure that rises one story from a fieldstone foundation to an asphalt hip roof with interior chimneys that is extended on brackets. The entry is centered on the nine-bay east facade, where it is enclosed in a large glazed porch. Windows are segmentally arched and contain 8/8 sash. The building is an elegant example of Craftsman architecture with a high-vaulted central room and large fireplace. Smaller rooms surround the front hall, which opens to the porch.  The basement consists of a long hallway with expansive rooms of utilitarian design, opening on each side.

The building was designed by Kendall, Taylor & Co., a widely-noted firm whose partners, Bertrand E. Taylor and Henry H. Kendall were pioneers in hospital and institutional construction in Massachusetts during the late 19th and early 20th century.

The building is fully disability accessible, and was in use into the first decade of the 21st century.  The ground floor meets ADA compliance standards.  Prior documents note the presence of asbestos, but the use-life of the building suggests that abatement may have occurred.

Additional Notes

Previous documents, including the National Register Nomination, cite the construction date of this building as 1921, and describe it as the Southard Research Lab. Despite these inconsistencies, it should be noted that the building was originally constructed between 1916 and 1918 as the Recreation Center. The ground floor was later repurposed and named the Howe Library while the basement was renamed the Southard Research Lab, in honor of Walter Fernald’s medical research partner and co-author Dr. E.E. Southard.

1Lumsden, Carolyn. "Heads of Executed Men Used in Research Scheduled for Burial." AP News. June 18, 1986.


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