Eliot School


 Eliot School ca., 1867-1894 (Dan Keleher Collection)

 

Eliot School1

 

Following the sale and removal of the schoolhouse building at Washington and Randolph Streets to James Draper and George Frederic Sumner's factory complex on August 20, 1867, it was decided that a new schoolhouse should be built. According to Daniel Huntoon, "in place of [the old] schoolhouse was erected a two-story building, 30 by 14 feet, with a projection 20 by 14." In June 1867, the school "was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies". On January 5, 1882, the town "voted to remove this building to a location near the hall of the First Congregational Parish".

 

In 1975, following a renovation, the school system made the building its central office, and renamed it the John A. O'Connell School Administration Building. In November 1982, according to that year's town report, "because declining pupil enrollment had freed up space, and because the Town's Department of Public Works needed a new home (the Revere School having been sold), the school administration vacated the Eliot School". By 1997, both the Department of Public Works and the Planning Board were using it. In 2004, an addition was built, and the Police Department began to use the site as their station.

 

Resources1 

History of the Town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, by Daniel T. V. Huntoon. 135-136.

 

Town of Canton, "Annual Town Report, 1976," 32.

 

Town of Canton, "Annual Town Report, 1982," 39.