Sept 1, 2021
The Medfield Public Library at the corner of Main and Pleasant Streets has been a treasured presence in our town since 1917. How did it come to be? Who designed it? In memory of his wife and daughter, Granville Daley, part owner of Medfield’s hat factory, made a gift of a library to the town, and Medfield resident and architect William Graves Perry drew up the plans. Perry lived at 190 North Street and commuted to his business in Boston, the architectural firm of Perry, Shaw and Hepburn. This was a small assignment for a man who later rose to such prominence as the original architect of Colonial Williamsburg.
This is not Medfield’s first library. “In 1786, the first public library in town was started. It was called at first ‘The Circulating Library’; afterward, ‘The Medfield Social Library’. Any person could become a proprietor by the payment of $1.00 annually, until the payments amounted to $4.00. There were proprietors in all the surrounding towns.”[1]
Our first library boasted upward of 700 volumes, including the 16-volume Encyclopedia Americana.
It is unknown if this library succumbed to fire—a very common occurrence during this period—but a second one was begun, using a store at the corner of North and Main Streets. This library, too, had proprietors, also known as “stockholders” at $4.00 per share, and contained “. . . about 1000 volumes. Many of the books, however, were bought at auction in Boston and were not of great value.”[2]
By way of comparison, today’s library contains 160,000 holdings including books, e-content, DVDs and CDs, films, recordings and sundry other items available for loan. We owe a debt of gratitude to Perry for his contribution to our town.
William Graves Perry was born on November 8, 1883, in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Charles French Perry and Georgianna West Graves. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Newburyport, MA, where William spent his youth. He was the second-youngest of six siblings.
After attending the Noble and Greenough School, William went on to Harvard and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1905. In 1907 he obtained a degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute Technology, and in 1908 married Eleanor Gray Bodine in Pennsylvania. They left for Paris where, in 1913, he received a diploma in architecture from the world-famous L’Ecole des Beaux Arts.
His early career found him working as a draftsman at the prestigious Boston architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge in 1914. Their history goes back to 1886 and boasts such commissions as the design of the Stanford University campus and the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This fair, which opened on May 1, 1893, was created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World and had a profound influence not only on American architecture and city planning, but it changed the life of the American consumer.
William and Eleanor brought three children into the world, daughter Eleanor, born in 1911, son William, Jr., 1913, and a second daughter, Louise, born in 1923. His son, William Graves Perry, Jr., went on to become a well-known educational psychologist and educator.
In 1915 Perry began as an instructor of architectural design at Harvard but left in 1916 to serve in the American Expeditionary Force. In Harvard’s Records of the Class for 1920. he describes his service during the war.
War record:
“Received commission of 1st Lieutenant Aviation Sec. Signal Corps, Nov. 1, 1917. Commanded the 447th Aero Squadron from Nov. 12, 1917 to Oct. 14, 1918, during which time the squadron build the airdromes of Autreville, Amanty, Biceueley, St. Mihiel (France) (after its arrival in France—on March 28, 1918). On Oct. 14, 1918, was appointed Equipment Officer of the Air Service, 1st Army, stationed at Souilly-Meuse, in charge of the airplane, fuel, and spare parts supply; the transportation supply and maintenance and the building, choosing and maintenance of all airdromes of the 1st Army including the movement of the units of the Air Service, 1st Army. On Aug. 1, 1918, commissioned Captain, Air Service.
As Equipment Officer of the 1st Army I had occasion often to make use of the squadrons of the Army Observation Group, making frequent flights to the lines for the purpose of selecting advanced landing places and inspection of German airdromes as they were uncovered by the advance of the troops. Was temporarily assigned to the 3rd Army for the purpose of receiving airplanes and equipment from the enemy, Nov., 1918. During the winter and spring took a number of lessons in flying, receiving recommendation for pilot’s test.”
His younger brother, Edward Hale Perry, also a soldier in the First World War, was killed on March 30, 1918, during the Battle of the Somme.
In 1922 Perry founded the firm of Perry, Shaw, and Hepburn and in 1925–26 they were asked to submit drawings for the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, which had been the capital of the Virginia Colony and one of the largest, wealthiest and most populous colonies in the Americas from 1699 to 1781. It was named in honor of King William, III, who was England’s reigning monarch at the time.
How Perry became involved with the restoration of Williamsburg is a fascinating tale of secrecy and obfuscation.
Will Molineux, writing in the Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Autumn, 2004, says: “William Graves Perry, had spent the better part of the past eleven months preparing schematic renderings of a small Virginia city as it might have been in the eighteenth century. Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. was deeply, but secretly, interested in the project and, though Perry had never heard Rockefeller’s name associated with the idea, it was now up to Perry’s sketches to attract his full financial commitment. In 1927, historic restoration was a radically new concept in architecture. If carried out, the Williamsburg project would have national significance.
Perry had brought his drawings to New York’s Vanderbilt hotel from the office in Boston on State Street that he shared with Thomas Mott Shaw, a space planner, and Andrew H. Hepburn, a designer.
Perry had difficulty carrying the cumbersome load of illustrations—one of his drawings was eight feet wide—on the train and in the taxi. The Williamsburg clergyman who had hired him—the Reverend Dr. William Archer Rutherford Goodwin—helped Perry arrange the drawings across beds. They pulled out bureau drawers for makeshift easels. But Goodwin wouldn’t permit Perry to be present when he would show the drawings to the person Goodwin described only as his ‘associate.’ Perry was, however, to be on call.
So Perry spent Monday, November 21, 1927, in the lounge on the hotel’s first floor and pacing the sidewalk of 33rd and 34th Streets, which flanked the Vanderbilt. It was a cool, cloudy day. Every hour on the hour he returned to his room to be available in case Goodwin or his associate telephoned. As the hours passed, Perry must have more than once thought back to the curious circumstance that led to his commission. In later years, it was a story he enjoyed telling—with minor variations.”
A quick walk-through Williamsburg had shown Perry that the town was in serious disrepair. He quickly recognized that it would require not only a Herculean effort on the part of those assigned the task of rebuilding, but astronomical sums of money as well. Restoration of buildings, originally built in the 18th century, that had been burned, rebuilt, added to and generally altered over time, would be a huge undertaking. His enthusiasm for the task rose in equal measure with the trepidation he was feeling at the thought of what lay ahead.
In 1927, Perry, Shaw and Hepburn were officially hired as the architects for the restoration. The firm retained its ties with the project until 1953 when the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation created its own architecture department. Their practice continues to be known for university and commercial buildings, including several on the Harvard campus and Colonial Williamsburg’s John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library.
To begin such a monumental project took stamina, courage and foresight characteristics with which Perry was mightily gifted.
“When he began the work, though a likable and social man, he encountered other parties who had their own ideas as to restoration. It was Perry’s insistence on authenticity and his intense desire to find historical data to reinforce his approach that began to set a pattern that would be replicated around the country. He enlisted his good friend from Ipswich, Arthur Shurcliffe who had worked on Crane’s Estate and Sturbridge Village to create a powerful blend of landscaping, building and street designs that were as authentic as possible for the time period of Colonial Williamsburg.
Many of the principles enshrined in the National Park Service’s Standards of Historic Preservation first were expounded by pioneer practices instituted and made popular by William Graves Perry.
His firm meticulously oversaw the creation of Williamsburg, Virginia until an in-house architectural department was created and took over in 1953 within the colonial preservation foundation.”[3]
Perry spent most of his leisure hours in the reclamation of an old farm at 190 North Street in Medfield, which he had purchased for a home. He commuted to his office in Boston while living there from 1914 to 1936. He designed the Georgian-styled library that was constructed in 1917 at its present location, the center of the town, on the corner of Main and Pleasant Streets, The land and building were given by Granville Dailey as a memorial to his wife and daughter.
While living in Medfield Perry was president of the Medfield Civic Association and a member of the Medfield Hunt Club.
Perry died in North Andover, MA, on 4 April 1975, at the age of 91, and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Newburyport, MA, a man of grace and great accomplishment.
____
[1] History of the Town of Medfield, 1650–1886, William S. Tilden, p. 104
[2] Tilden, p. 228
[3] Brick & Tree Word Press, Newburyport, MA