User:Polaron/Woodbridge Green

Woodbridge Green is the civic center of the town of Woodbridge, Connecticut. The area is a block bounded on the south by Center Road (Route 114), on the east by Newton Road, and on the north and west by Meetinghouse Lane. The area is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Woodbridge Green Historic District and includes 6 town buildings.

Center School
Center School faces the Town Green to the north across Meeting House Lane and occupies a large level site. It is one of four town-owned buildings in the area, all built prior to World War II.

Center School, built in 1929, is composed of several sections. A brick masonry building with a concrete foundation and watertable, it has a large ridge-to-street main section with projecting gabled wings on either end. Although there was a separate entrance for boys and girls at either end, the main entrance is located at the center of the facade. It is recessed within a projecting pavilion, which has a pediment and paired fluted pilasters. A clock is set within the pediment. There is a half-round fanlight over the door and a Greek fret pattern defines its outside arch. A four-pane window, with a cement keystone, and a bank of five windows are found on either side of the entrance pavilion. Above the entrance is a two-stage cupola with round windows in the lower stage and round-arched openings at the second level. It is topped by a gilded domical roof and a weathervane. The wings display triple corner pilasters of brick and recessed panels in the center of their facades. There are several flat-roofed additions at the rear, dating from 1949 and 1956, and the building was also remodeled in 1977 and 1981.

When it was built in 1929, this well-preserved Georgian Revival grammar school modernized and centralized the public educational system in Woodbridge. Except for the Warner School on Lucy Street, all the district schools closed at that time. Students attending high school went to New Haven on a tuition basis, an arrangement that had started in 1905. In 1952 a regional high school was proposed for Woodbridge, Bethany, and Orange and it was built in 1954 in Woodbridge on Newton Road. Though it contains a junior high wing, within a few years both Bethany and Orange built their own junior highs and after 1963, Woodbridge students in this age group attended the school in Bethany. By the 1970s Center School, which was expanded after the Warner School closed in 1956, was no longer adequate to meet the demands of a growing school population and new grammar schools (North and South Beecher) have been built since that time. At first Center School continued to be used for K-2, but in 1977 it was converted to a -:community center and the police station is also located there.

Memorial Hall
Facing generally east towards Meeting House Lane and the Town Green, Memorial Hall is one of a group of civic buildings constructed here between 1919 and 1940. The site slopes away from the road to the west.

Woodbridge Memorial Hall is composed of two sections: the original 1919 frame building 1 and a brick and wood addition, added at the rear in 1991. It has a broad pediments a facade with a columned porch. Cased beams in the ceiling Of the porch extend from columns to matching pilasters on the facade wall beneath the pediment; they frame a central doorway and two flanking windows. The doorway surround, composed of a pediment and pilasters, is detailed with dentils and has a multi-light transom. Centered in these clapboarded pediment is a large half-round fanlight with radial muntins and a key block and there is a dentil course in the entablature and along the molded rake.

The well-preserved Woodbridge Memorial Hall was the first of a group of civic buildings constructed in the vicinity of the Town Green in the early twentieth century. Land was purchased by the town for this building in 1919 from Chester C. Hitchcock, a prominent citizen who later was first selectman (1935-1947). Starting in 1921 more property was gradually acquired by the town to accomodate other buildings and create a cohesive town center composed of individually designed Colonial or Classical Revival buildings. This significant collection Of suburban civic architecture also includes the 1929 Cents ..tieSchool, the 1940 Clark Memorial Library, and the 1936 Woodbridge Fire Station.

Although reflecting and complementing the Greek Revival Congregational Church, the predominate stylistic influence displayed in Woodbridge Memorial Hall is Classical Revival, a style in which the classical orders and proportions are freely interpretated. There is also a liberal use of Federal-period motifs, especially the fanlight and dentil courses, a common theme in the Colonial Revival style.

Woodbridge Fire Station
Prominently sited at the intersection of Newton and Center roads, the fire station faces southeast

The Woodbridge Fire Station at 4 Newton Road is a Colonial Revival-style building with a terne roof of gambrel form. The gambrel end facing the intersection, displays a Palladian window in its flushboarded second story and there are two large garage doors below. MUtules and tryglyphs decorate the main frieze and there is a molded rake. Four gabled dormers on either side of the roof contain 10-over-15 sash. The cupola has an octagonal base and a firehorn installed in the open second level. It is capped by a pyramidal roof and a weathervane. Over time there have been several additions to the building to add space for more eguipment. One at the rear has a gambreled roof; the others have flat roofs.

The Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Association was organized in 1929 and its first headquarters was located in the old Southeast District School on Johnson Road. Following a disastrous house fire in 1930, more modern pumping equipment was purchased. But it became evident as the town continued to grow, that a larger and centrally located headquarters was needed. In 1938, during the tenure cf the first fire chief, George H. Knowlton (1930-1943), this modern firehouse was built and equipped. It was designed by Dwight E. Smith, a New Haven architect, who was noted particularly for his work in the Colonial Revival Style (see also 10 and 25 Fairgrounds Road). As originally constructed, the new firehouse only had space for two fire trucks. In 1969 two more truck bays were added, along with space for association meetings, a bunk room and kitchen. In 1976, with SO volunteers and 15 probationers, the association needed more space and an additional two truck bays were added at that time.

Clark Memorial Library
One of a group of town buildings constructed in the center in the early twentieth century, the library faces Newton Road from the west side of the street.

The Clark Memorial Library is a brick masonry building consisting of a 1940 main block with a rear intersecting modern addition, added in 1969. The original section is a ridge-to-street, three-bay structure with parapeted gables and integral end chimneys. The slate_ roof is capped by a balustrade at the ridge. The center recessed doorway has a five-pane overlight and panelled side walls. The flat pediment over the door, like the window lintels, the parapets, and the chimney caps, is made of molded concrete. Brick detailing is limited to quoining at the corners and brick is also used for the watertable. The facade and first-floor windows of the end elevations contain 15-over15 sash. Smaller windows at the second level on either side of the chimneys have a 2over-2 configuration.

Although there had been a library in Woodbridge since about 1825, this well-preserved Colonial Revival building was its first permanent home. It was the last of a group of four public buildings constructed in the town center between 1919 and 1940. Temporary quarters for the library were provided in two of these buildings. In 1925 it was located in the basement of the 1919 Town Hall and moved to the same location in Center School, when it was constructed in 1929. At that time Mary B. Mitchell became the first town librarian and.she served until 1937. A charitable trust. in her name provided the funds for the 1969 addition. Funding to build the library was provided by a bequest from Noyes Dwight Clark in memory of his parents, Dwight Noyes and Althea Bradley Clark. Although this branch of the Clark family lived in Bethany, they had many ties to Woodbridge. Dwight N. Clark, a wealthy cattle dealer, was a prominent member of the Woodbridge Congregational Church and owned several properties in town. Among them was the tavern built by his father, Elioenai Clark, at 1891 Litchfield Turnpike, which he inherited and passed down to his son, Noyes D.