Barre's Old Labor Hall

(Socialist Labor Party Hall)

Exterior Architectural Description

The Barre Socialist Labor Party Hall is a 50" x 108" rectangular brick structure arranged on a northwest axis. Built in 1900, the Hall reflects no specific architectural style. The entire building is constructed in a running bond and sits on an exposed half story brick basement with a granite foundation. The Hall is divided into two sections, the two-story flat-roofed front portion and the single story gambrel roofed rear projection. The gambrel roof is covered in asphalt shingles. A wide molded wood cornice wraps around the roofline of the building.

The front section of the Hall measures 50" x 25"with the primary facade of the facing northwest. The mass of this section above the basement level is arranged into seven bays, two piles deep and two stories high. The center entrance is reached by ascending eight granite steps and is composed of a double leaf, five panel wood door with a four pane segmental fanlight. The fanlight is set within a double coursed brick arch springing from corbeled brick imposts. Directly above this is a granite medallion with the symbol of the Socialist Labor Party, an arm bearing a hammer, carved in bas-relief. All of the fenestration along the first and second story level of the building is 1/1-sash windows with segmental arch windows and segmental brick lintels. The windows at the basement level are three-pane sash divided by vertical muntins with segmental arches.

At the basement level, near the outside walls are the remains of two openings, presently bricked in, one on each side of the building. Next to these bricked in spaces, to either side of the entrance steps, are steps that descend to doorways at the basement level. Between the basement doorway and the entrance stairway is a small, rectangular opening that has been boarded over.

The southwest side facade can be divided into two portions, the area located on the two story section of the building, and the rear gambrel roofed area that is divided evenly by a chimneystack. The southwest facade of the front portion of the building contains a pair of basement windows with two sets of sash widows above, one set at each story. Southeast of this area is a sheltered loading dock added some time after 1937 when the building was converted into a warehouse. The roof of the loading dock begins where the two story section of the front building ends and terminates at the chimneystack. The concrete loading platform stands about four feet off the ground and extends out about four feet. This platform is accessed by a set of steps located at the northwest end, which partially covers a basement window. Opening onto the platform are two wide wood doors. Each door has two rows of four lights at its upper section and a series of four vertically oriented panels below the lights. There are two window openings in this area, one located above the loading dock stairs and the other window next to the chimneystack.

To the far side of the chimneystack is a brick wall with two window openings that have been bricked in sometime after 1937. One of these openings is located approximately five feet from the chimneystack and the other is approximately five feet from the end of the building. Between these two areas is a boarded up doorway. At the basement level are two boarded over openings, one directly below the filled in end window and the other approximately two feet past the chimneystack.

The southeast elevation is the rear gambrel end of the building. In the gambrel area are centered two sash windows. At the first floor level are five, evenly spaced windows. The middle window is slightly off center to the northeast, the five basement windows are centered with the windows above.

The northeast facade is made up of a series of windows, some of which have been bricked up. The front area of the Hall is identical to its composition on the southwest elevation. There are seven evenly spaced windows on the gambrel portion of the building. The four southeast openings have been bricked in. The seven basement windows on this portion of the facade are located unevenly throughout the wall plane and fall just out of center with the windows above.

 

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