The District

The District. at 30 South Main Street. , From church to Town Hall and District Court to condominiums - the adaptive reuse of an historic building. , With its historic exterior largely intact, the former church that later became Town Hall and the District Court is now a residential building. That is the power of adaptive reuse: renovating and repurposing an obsolete historic building. Making something new of something old. , History , The original building on this site was built in 1833 as a Unitarian Church. The church was the first public building in Ipswich to be built in the Greek Revival style. , By 1843 the Unitarian Church had failed to establish itself within the Puritan heritage of Ipswich. The town bought the church building to serve as the Town Hall and a public gathering place. , By 1866 the building had become inadequate for its use as the Town Hall. Ten years later, in 1876, Town Meeting voted to move the building 20 feet forward and raise it up so that a new first story could be built underneath. A large extension was added to the rear. , The renovated building contained the Town Hall, the District Court and an auditorium. Since then, the interior was remodeled several times and the court room updated. , In the early 2000s the Town Hall moved to Green Street, and the District Court relocated to Newburyport. , The building remained unoccupied until 2017, when it was remodeled and converted into residences and an office. , Architecture , The Greek Revival church built in 1833 had a triangular pediment supported on four boxed columns in imitation of a Greek Temple. Above the pediment was a bell tower. The door, flanked by two Doric columns, was inset into the façade. , When the church was raised to the second story in 1876, the door and the Doric columns were replaced with two tall windows that matched the 1833 windows along each side. , The columns were continued down to ground level and a classical style door was set into the first story. In 1906 a portico was added, but was removed in the 1950s. , The building today looks much as it did in 1876, though without the bell tower. The basic form of the original Greek Revival church remains clearly visible as the front portion of the second story. , The bell tower was removed early in the twentieth century, and the bell was given to the Greek Society for their new church. , The 2017 adaptation into residences retains the historical style of the 1876 building. The additional windows in the second story were made to match those of the 1876 renovation. Other windows were also added to the side and read to match the existing historic ones.