Trinitarian Congregational Church
HARRY B. LITTLE
C
All photos courtesy of the author
Colonial Revival Architecture in Concord BY HENRY MOSS
Concord Center is a remarkable setting where our lives are comforted by continuity to a past of early patriotism, radical thinking, and stories of remarkable local residents. That continuity was intentionally reinforced by one local architect whose vision and talent placed unusually welldesigned buildings in locations where Colonial Revival architecture informs the image of Concord as a place built on its mythic past. Evolution of the streetscape that we now take for granted as the image and surround of Concord Center was far from serene. The Milldam Company was formed in 1828 to drain the existing mill pond and create a continuous commercial zone that provided spaces for gunsmiths, harness repairmen, shoe stores, and other vital services of that day. A century later, the young architect, Harry Britton Little, watched physical changes unfold along the Milldam and Main Street that included telephone
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Discover CONCORD
| Spring 2022
poles lining both sides of the street, overhead wires and rails set in granite cobblestones for street railways, and the conversion of stables to car sales shops with garage workspaces. On Walden Street, he witnessed the Trinitarian Congregational Church burning to the ground. The resulting vacant sites on the Milldam were eyesores on the town he so admired. Helen’s
In 1914, Harry B. Little founded his own architecture firm. He married Miriam Barrett of Concord, and they moved into a house he designed on Simon Willard Road. This would be the start of a thirty-yearlong series of local buildings he completed while working as a partner in the firm that designed the National Cathedral in Washington and Trinity College Chapel in Hartford- both powerful examples of Gothic Revival ecclesiastical design. His vision for Concord was one of calmer grandeur. The Colonial Revival provided an architectural language that could be scaled for public spaces and fit well with street frontages and the civic landscape of Concord’s churches, library, banks, office buildings, and the comparative intimacy of shop windows. In sharp contrast, nationally recognized Concord architects Thomas Shaw and Andrew Hepburn (of the Boston firm that designed Colonial Williamsburg) sought to impose a far more aggressive renewal at the Milldam. They envisioned
