Civic Center Historic District

Civic Center Historic District. The Core of Town Government. , Prince's Hill, the highest point of land in Barrington, was named for its original colonial owner, Governor Thomas Prince, or Prence, of Plymouth Plantation. Around 1728, the town bought a half-acre of land on this hill for Prince's Hill Cemetery. Twenty-six veterans of the American Revolution and 62 Civil War veterans are buried there., In the 1850s, a group of citizens began a movement to build a town hall, but efforts were defeated four times. Not until 1887 was a proposal passed to construct a building that would house town offices, the public library, and a high school with one classroom. The second floor included a meeting room for the Town Council (occasionally used for wedding receptions and dances) and the Town Museum, run by the Barrington Antiquarian Society., In 1917, Sarah Gould Peck donated land directly south of the Town Hall, as well as the funds to build a new school there, in memory of her husband. The Leander R. Peck School, constructed of Barrington bricks, opened in September 1917 for students in grades 7-12. It later served as a junior high and a school for grades 4-6, before closing in 1979. In 1984, it reopened as the Peck Center, the new home of the Barrington Public Library, various community services, and the Barrington Preservation Society Museum., The Barrington Civic Center Historic District, which includes Prince's Hill Cemetery, the Town Hall, the Leander R. Peck School, and Wood's Pond, was listed in the National and State Registers of Historic Places in 1976.,

Of the $15,000 set aside for the construction of the Town Hall, only $14,997.05 was spent; the $2.95 balance was returned to the town. , - from Bicknell, History of Barrington Rhode Island, 1898

, [Captions:] , The 1904 High School graduation in Barrington's Town Hall., The Town Hall was built in less than a year and was ready for occupancy in September 1888. The building, designed by architects Stone, Carpenter and Willson, is faced with fieldstones gathered by townspeople from their farms and estates. Photo circa 1890., Leander R. Peck (1843-1909) was President of Asa Peck and Company, which bought and sold wool and woolen wastes., When the public library was moved from the Town Hall into the Peck Center in 1984, citizens showed their community spirit by participating in a book brigade, in which they lined up between the buildings. Books were passed from person to person until placed on a shelf in the new library.