Quincy, Mass. Historical and Architectural Survey

1218-1222 Hancock Street

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Quincy Massachusetts Lodge No. 943 B. P. O. E. Building at 1218 Hancock Street was erected just two decades after a committee of prominent Quincy citizens held several informal meetings and discused the need of an Elks Lodge from a social and benevolent standpoint. The first organizational meeting was held in 1904 in Grand Army Hall on Hancock Street and on February 23, 1905, the lodge was formally instituted in Colonial Hall of the Savings Bank Building. After meeting in a succession of different halls, the dedication of the Elks First Home on Foster Street took place in 1907. The jurisdiction of the Quincy Lodge in 1924 included the following places south of Boston: Milton, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham, Cohasset, Hull, Scituate, Randolph, Holbrook and Rockland.

The architectural firm for the $150,000 Elks Building was the well-known J. Williams Beal Sons of Boston, with the contractor being C. A. Batson of Brockton. Already a familiar firm in Quincy, J. William Beal Sons had previously designed the Adams Building, 1342-68 Hancock Street (National Register, 1880-85, 1889-1890); and would design the nearby Masonic Temple, 1170 Hancock Street (1926, also with C. A. Batson. contractors) and Bethany Congregational Church, 18 Spear Street (1927).

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Assessors Records.
Historical Sketch of the City of Quincy. Issued by the Quincy Lodge of Elks No 943, 1924, p. 3-12.
Quincy Patriot Ledger. 100th Anniversary. January 7, 1937, B-19.

ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Refinement of details, elegant proportions, fine rendering and an prominent location within the Quincy Center Local Historical District make the Elks Building one of the most important buildings of the district. Built by J. William Beal Sons in 1924 in the Colonial Revival style which was still a popular style for public buildings and residences, it evokes grand historic structures of the mid and late 18th century. It is a three story brick structure with limestone trim and limestone facing for the store fronts. The second floor, treated as a "piano nobile" is composed of four arched windows with fan motifs and a balconied Palladian window in the center. The third floor has five pairs of double sash smallpaned windows under a modillioned cornice over which rests a solid parapet with five sections of balustrades. The flat roof emphasizes the buildings's classicism and horizontality, desired qualities of a late Georgian inspired building. The recessed door with an elliptical fanlight recalls the entrances of some of the finest Back Bay town houses described by Bainbridge Bunting in Houses of Boston's Back Bay, p. 320-338. In 1983, the Massachusetts Historical Commission voted that the Elks Building "appears eligible for listing as an excellent and intact local example of Georgian Revival architecture designed by the prominent firm of J. W. Beal and Sons and therefore meets criterion C of the National Register." (Letter of June 28, 1983 to Mr. Robert Loungo, Department of Planning, Quincy from Virginia Fitch, Preservation Planner MHC). This recommendation is strongly reiterated in 1986.

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