Location: 363 Main Street, West Newbury
Coordinates: 42°47’58.6″N 70°59’28.3″W
Date built: 1900 (dedication date is unknown…there might not have been one)
Architect/design: Henry Watson Gore, Jr., architect
The history of the West Newbury Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Building is carefully detailed by the comprehensive report prepared by historical consultant Timothy Orwig in the 2015 National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the building. The full document can be found on the Massachusetts Cultural Resources Information System website here. This, along with some newspaper articles from the period, tells a story of contention and controversy regarding funding, placement, and control of the building.
Moses Warren Edwards, a West Newbury shoe maker, died in 1895 and left a bequest for the purpose of “the erection of a memorial building to commemorate the services of the soldiers and sailors who went from this town to help suppress the rebellion of 1861 to 1865.”[1] Edwards apparently did not serve in the war and the reason for his bequest is not clear. In fact, the bequest seems to have been controversial from the start as Edwards was described, according to an 1896 Boston Globe article, as a “soldier hater.” Edwards had been drafted but was rejected due to the poor condition of his lungs. The Globe reporter alleged that Edwards “never was very friendly to the soldiers, and often argued that the war was unnecessary. He threw discredit upon the patriotism of many who went to the front.”[2] As Orwig points out in his report, whether this inflammatory account indicates that Edwards was a pacifist or simply bitter about his inability to serve is unclear. It may be that the reluctance of the local Grand Army of the Republic Major Boyd Post 151 to have anything to do with the building that came from this bequest stemmed from such perceptions about the donor’s attitude about the war.
The matter was further complicated by a personal feud between the two major players in the story. On one side, the executor of Edwards’s estate, Dr. Orin Warren, had full control of the roughly $3,000 and had some strong opinions as to the location and use of the building. He was a respected veteran of the Civil War who served as a surgeon with the 21st Massachusetts Infantry. On the other side was Colonel Eben Stanwood, commander of the local GAR post, former captain of a company he recruited in West Newbury for the 48th Massachusetts Infantry, and man with a distinguished war record. As Orwig points out, the exact origins of the animosity between the two men in not clear, however, when Warren initially offered to build a Memorial Hall for the GAR post in 1896 on land he had recently purchased, Stanwood and Warren argued over who would control the building and Warren rescinded his offer.[3]
This was just the beginning of a series of proposals, counter-proposals, public meetings, and arguments that dragged on for a number of years. The key issue (aside from personal enmity) seems to have been the location. The GAR post might have combined their funds (amounting to about $2000) with Edwards’s bequest if the hall were to be located in Post Office Square (about a half mile south on Main Street from Dr. Warren’s lot where the hall now stands). Multiple reasons were cited for the Post Office Square proposal but the key aim, according to Orwig, was likely to avoid building the hall on land controlled by Warren. A second matter of contention was Warren’s insistence on providing space for the West Newbury Natural History Club (of which Warren was president).[4]
In the end, Dr. Warren raised the additional funds needed for the hall on his own and forged ahead with construction of the building as he envisioned it—though there were attempts to stop the process and negotiate a compromise. Work began in 1900. Though space was offered to the GAR post, as Orwig points out, there is no evidence the post ever used it due to the animosity. The building first housed the Natural History Club. Then, in 1927, it became the home of the Charles L. Carr Post No. 240 of the American Legion, housing a younger generation of veterans. The town library also moved to the first floor of the building in 1927 and remained there until 1939. As the American Legion Hall, the building housed gatherings of West Newbury war veterans for decades.
The building has stood unused for years and its future is unclear. Restoration studies have been conducted, West Newbury residents voted to appropriate Community Preservation Funds to renovate the building, however without an agreed upon use for the building, the project has stalled. Town Meeting voters rejected a proposal to tear the building down and build a veterans memorial on the site.[5] Hopefully, the project will move forward and the building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be preserved.
[1] “Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building,” Massachusetts Historical Commission Inventory Form, MACRIS, 4.
[2] “Left by a War Hater. Bequest to Soldiers May Not Reach Them,” Boston Daily Globe, 1896, reprinted in Timothy Orwig, “West Newbury Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Building National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form,” MACRIS, 16.
[3] Orwig, 19.
[4] Orwig, 19-20.
[5] Jennifer Solis, “West Newbury residents continue fight to preserve aging hall,” The Daily News (Newburyport), July 28, 2022, Updated September 1, 2023.