Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy Historical Society
No. 29 - Spring 1993
Solomon Willard* By Dr. James R. Cameron**
Most people who have lived in
Quincy for much of their life or been
members of the Quincy Historical
Society for any length of time have
heard the name Solomon Willard.
Perhaps you associate him with the
Quincy City Hall, called simply Town
Hall when Willard designed it and
supervised its construction in 1844.
We all have a mental image of Park
Street Church at the Park Street stop
on the Red Line, or the memorial to
Ben Franklin's family in the Granary
Burial Ground, or even of St. Paul's
Cathedral just across Tremont Street
from the Park Street Station. Some
of us have even been called for jury
duty at the Court House in Dedham
or are familiar with the tall granite
column in the Hall Cemetery in West
Quincy, where Mr. Willard is buried.
All of these illustrate the craftsmanship
of Solomon Willard. Nearly every
American would recognize Willard's
greatest achievement - the design
and construction of Bunker Hill
Monument
in
Charlestown,
Massachusetts.
It was more than twenty years
ago that I first became seriously
interested in Solomon Willard. I was
invited to speak to the Willard Family
Association on August 5, 1 9 7 2 in
the United Methodist Church in
Wollaston on the topic of Solomon
Willard. Last spring, Alan Spooner,
the current president of the Willard
Family Association, again invited me
to speak to the annual gathering of
the clan on the same topic. He was
-unaware
. . of my previous experience.
Both, however, proved to be both
.
enlightening and delightful for me.
My first encounter with Solomon
Willard came in 1964. I had just
completed a manuscript for the
biography of another of Quincy's
famous sons, Josiah Quincy (18021882). While I was at the printer, he
.
This paper was the basis of a talk presented
before the Quincy Historical Society. bv- Dr.
Cameron on arch 25, 1993.
" Dr. Cameron is head of the Histoy Department
of Eastern Nazarene Colleae: Second Vice
President, Past President andupkt ~istorianthe Quincy Historical Society.
if
the enduring memorial to Solomon Willard
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Page 2 QUINCY HISTORY Spring 1993
Solomon WillardSolomon
Willard was born
Continued from page 1
showed me a publication which he
had just completed for the Willard
Family Association. Subsequently, I
had a n opportunity to examine the
extensive family genealogy which was
prepared by Stephen F. Willard, long
a member of the Quincy Historical
Society.
Solomon Willard moved to West
Quincy in 1 8 2 5 to take charge of
the Bunker Hill Quarry and the
furnishing of the stone for the Bunker
Hill Monument. He intended to remain
in Quincy for only a short time. In
1842, he wrote, "I have never
intended to remain permanently in
Quincy. The principal work - the
monument - that led me to this place
sixteen years ago is nearly finished. I
have made n o further arrangements.
But as the times are unfavorable to
dispose of what I have in Quincy, I
may be detained for some time to
come." He was to remain a resident
of West Quincy until his death in
1 8 6 1 . His house still stands on
Springfield Street.
Solomon Willard came to be
recognized a s the "Father of the
Granite Industry" and the founder of
and the father of West Quincy. He
was very much a citizen of the
community. H e opened the area for
quarrying and was responsible for
many of the residents settling there.
He took up land for farming as well as
for quarries. Physically, he was tall,
heavy and slow of speech and movement. He was thoughtful, studious,
intellectual, and industrious. H e was
reserved and humble to the extent
that some considered him an eccentric.
Although Willard never married,
nor reared a family, he was claimed
as "father" by the residents of West
Quincy and particularly by the school
children of that granite community.
He saw the need for a school for the
children of the quarrymen and donated
land on Copeland Street for the
school. H e designed the school and
did much of the work of framing it
himself. When the new school was
opened in 1855, the selectmen of
the town named it in his honor - the
Willard School. The original frame
building was extended several times
before it was destroyed by fire in
1899. When a new brick school was
erected, it continued to bear the name
of Willard.
in
Petersham, Massachusetts on June
26, 1783, the son of Deacon William
Willard of Biddeford, Maine, and
Katherine Wilder of Lancaster,
Massachusetts. Solomon's paternal
uncle, Joseph, was inaugurated the
fourteenth President of Harvard
College under Governor J o h n
Hancock in 1781. Solomon was the
next to youngest of eleven children.
He had a brother, Samuel, who
became known as the blind preacher
at Deerfield. As a child, Solomon
had only a n elementary school
education. H e worked on the farm,
except for the winter months, when
he assisted in the shop of his father
who was a carpenter and joiner. Very
early, Solomon displayed ingenuity
in conceiving, and skill in constructing
thing mechanical in nature.
In 1804, at the age of twentyone, Solomon left home for Boston.
In his first job, the setting of piles
for a wharf, he said that he learned
a lesson in the care of tools. During
his first year in Boston, he saved
over two hundred dollars which he
promptly invested. Three years later
while employed as a carpenter on
the famous Exchange Coffee House,
he designed and constructed a spiral
staircase which went from t h e
basement to the roof of this seven
story building. Probably no piece of
joiner's work in the country, at that
time, would compare with this in
spaciousness, architecture or finish.
This was undoubtedly important
preparation work for the later task
of constructing the winding stairs that
would lead to the top of the Bunker
Hill Monument.
While thus employed with his
hands, Solomon Willard purchased
books on architecture and perspective
drawing. He even attended a drawing
academy for two terms. Willard had
developed skill as a carver of wood.
In 1 8 0 9 his carvings were in such
demand, that he gave up carpentry
to devote full-time to carving. He
carved all of the capitals, both Ionic
and Corinthian for the steeple of
Park Street Church in Boston, for
which he received nearly four hundred
dollars. H e then hired assistants and
set up a shop in Somerset Place. For
the next three years, he worked with
the noted architect, Charles Bulfinch,
in making carvings for several churches
which were being erected in Boston.
In 1810 h e carved a spread eagle
of colossal size for the old custom
house in Boston. Since it was to be
placed sixty feet above the ground,
it had to be large enough to be in
proportion t o t h e building. H e
executed another eagle which adorned
the top of the Beacon Hill Monument
behind t h e statehouse until the
monument was taken down and the
hill removed to fill in the back bay.
This eagle was then suspended in
the Representative's Hall of the State
House. In 1813, Willard added ship
carving to his architectural work. His
masterpiece in this kind of work was
a huge bust of George Washington
completed for the U.S. 74-gun ship
of the same name which was built at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1816.
Mr. Willard adopted modeling as
an auxiliary to designing and drawing
buildings. In 1818 he was engaged
by his friend Charles Bulfinch to make
a model of the capitol building in
Washington, D.C. H e later made
plaster models of the Pantheon in
Rome and the Parthenon in Athens
for Edward Everett to be used in
illustrated lectures in 1 8 21-22. These
models were later deposited with the
Boston Athenaeum.
While working on the construction
of buildings, both public and private,
Willard gave thought to the most
adequate means of heating such
structures. Franklin stoves and other
cast iron stoves had replaced or at
least supplemented fireplaces as a
means of heating rooms in the winter.
When iron stoves were heated almost
red-hot they consumed most of the
oxygen in the room. This was not
conducive to good health. There was
also something unesthetic about black
stove pipes suspended from the
ceilings of rooms and halls. Willard
designed a hot air furnace which could
be kept in the basement, out of sight,
with hot air piped through walls and
between floors to the various rooms.
Fresh air could be brought in to the
furnace for heating before being
circulated through the building. Using
Willard's design, Daniel Safford of
Boston, made and installed furnaces
in Old South Church, St. Paul's
Cathedral and in the United States
Capitol at Washington. These were
designed to burn wood, since coal
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Spring 1993 QUINCY HI!3TORY Page 3
Continued from previous page
had not yet come into widespread
use. Willard did not secure a patent
for this invention.
These evidences of genius antedate
Solomon
Willard's
greatest
achievement - the design and erection
of the Bunker Hill Monument as a
national memorial to the beginning
of the Revolutionary War and to the
principles involved in that memorable
contest for liberty and the rights of
man. Until William Wheildon's Memoir
of Solomon Willard was published in
1865, few people realized how much
the nation was indebted to Solomon
Willard for the design and general
plan of the monument; for the massive
and durable character of its material;
for the excellence and accuracy of
the work; for its low cost and finally
for its completion.
In 1822, a movement was begun
for the erection of a monument to
commemorate the Battle of Bunker
Hill. The suggestion for the monument
came from William Tudor, first editor
of the North American Review in
November 1822. Dr. John C, Warren
purchased the site of the battle, and
held it until the Bunker Hill Monument
Association purchased it from him
for $26,000. The land was rented
for pasture until time for the
construction to begin.
On November 4, 1 8 2 4 Solomon
Willard was authorized to draw a plan
for a monument to be used to exhibit
to the legislature and to the citizens
of Boston and surrounding areas. In
January 1825, Willard's plan was
accepted for a n advertisement
announcing a competition for a prize
of $100 for the best design.
The committee debated whether
the monument should be in the form
of a column or an obelisk. Solomon
Willard wrote to George Ticknor
advocating an obelisk as illustrated
in his first drawing:
"The obelisk I have always
preferred for its severe cast and
its nearer approach to the
simplicity of nature ... T h e
column might be more splendid
but an obelisk would rank first
as a specimen of art and highly
credible to the taste of the age."
The committee accepted Willard's
suggestion that the monument be in
t h e form of a n obelisk. T h e
dimensions that were adopted were
thirty feet wide at the base and two
hundred and twenty feet high. There
were to be stairs reaching to the
top. Solomon Willard made both the
first sketch and the final design. the
one hundred dollar prize was never
awarded.
The ceremony for the laying of
the cornerstone was held on June
17, 1825. General Lafayette was the
most distinguished guest present for
the occasion. While in Boston,
Lafayette visited the home of Josiah
Quincy, on present Muirhead Street
in Wollaston, to repeat a visit he had
made nearly a half century earlier.
Curiously, Solomon Willard who had
designed the structure and who
supervised its construction had no
part in this ceremony. Nevertheless,
t h e true cornerstone of t h e
monument, upon which the structure
rests was laid by Solomon Willard at
a later date.
It was not until October 31, 1825,
that the building committee formally
appointed Willard as "Architect and
Superintendent" of the work. In a
letter t o Dr. J o h n C. Warren,
responding to the announcement of
his appointment, Willard wrote:
"If my whole time should be
thought necessary, the pay ought
to be about three dollars per
day. For many reasons, however,
I think t h e interest of the
Association would be best served
by having the services gratuitous,
and if it should be thought so
by the committee, I will agree
to it."
At the time of his appointment,
Willard was forty-two years old and
at the head of his profession. The
committee used good judgement in
selecting him. This monument was
to be national in its character and in
its purposes. Willard considered the
honor of the appointment a sufficient
reward for his services. T h e
committee, however, insisted that he
accept a salary of five hundred dollars
per year.
His first task as superintendent of
construction was to find enough
material suitable for use in this
structure. He proposed that the
outside stones should be ten feet
long, three feet wide, and one and a
half feet thick. Each stone would
contain forty-five cubic feet and weight
three and a half tons. At that time,
the use of stone for building purposes
was little known. Small pieces, or
blocks of moderate size, had been
used for cellar walls, underpinning,
posts and lintels, etc. A note on the
flyleaf of the record of the building
committee, dated 1849, attests that
Willard had walked three hundred
miles examining granite quarries
before approving of a site in West
Quincy where he found syenite of a
color and a durability that satisfied
him. (Syenite is composed of quartz,
felspar and hornblende. The difference
between syenite and granite is that,
t h e former contains hornblende
instead of mica.) Willard suggested
that because of the unusual size of
the stones which h e proposed that
transportation would be a problem,
and became involved in the
establishment of a railway to transport
them.
The site of the future Bunker Hill
Quarry was purchased on June 9,
1825 by Gridley Bryant from Frederick
Hardwick for $250. The area was
approximately four acres. T h e
following November, the Bunker Hill
Monument Association paid Mr.
Bryant $325 for "the privilege of
quarrying any quantity of stone which
may be wanted in erecting said
monument."
The opening of the Bunker Hill
Quarry led t o the discovery and
opening of other quarries and to the
construction of the first commercial
railway in America. Willard developed
techniques for working a building
material which has since been used
in many cities for the construction
of buildings both public and private.
The opening of the quarries added
millions of dollars t o the wealth of
individuals and to the Town of Quincy.
The petition to the General Court
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for permission to construct
a railway from "certain quarries in
the Town of Quincy to the tide
waters" was signed by Thomas H.
Perkins, William Sullivan, Amos
Lawrence, Solomon Willard, David
Moody and Gridley Bryant. The
charter was granted on March 4,
1826. The route was surveyed and
the railway completed by October 7,
1826. The Granite Railway's first
contract to carry stone was signed
March 27, 1827 with the Bunker
Hill Monument Association.
The use of large-sized blocks of
syenite such as Willard proposed for
the Bunker Hill Monument was not
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Page 4 QUINCY HISTORY Spring 1993
Continued from previous p a g e
known. There was only one building
in Boston which had been constructed
in this manner, the United States
Branch Bank, which had just been
completed by Mr. Willard himself.
This building had one-piece columns
twenty-four feet in height and four
feet in diameter which had been cut
from a granite boulder in Westford,
Massa-chusetts. When large blocks
were proposed for the Bunker Hill
Monument, no dealers in stone were
prepared to furnish them - nor to
quarry them, to manipulate or to
transport them. As a result, Solomon
Willard left t h e profession of
architecture, in which he had been
employed for ten years in Boston,
and moved to Quincy to take charge
of the quarrymen at the Bunker Hill
Quarry. The only bid to supply stone
had been for 62C per cubic foot;
Willard delivered stone to the wharf
in Charlestown for 1 3 C a cubic foot.
Willard's genius revolutionized the
granite industry. At every turn he
encountered a new obstacle which
required an invention to surmount.
He even had to invent a system to
raise the huge granite blocks as the
monument was being constructed.
The actual construction of the
monument did not begin until 1827.
By the following year, fourteen courses
of stone raised the height of the
walls to forty-four feet above the
foundation. Twice construction was
delayed for periods of years due to
lack of funds. By 6:00 a.m. on the
morning of July 23, 1841, several
hundred people had gathered at the
construction site to witness the laying
of the top stone upon the monument.
The celebration of the completion
of the project was deferred until the
anniversary of the Battle of Bunker
Hill, June 1 7 , 1 8 4 3 . The oration on
that occasion was delivered by Daniel
Webster. At least he mentioned
Solomon Willard in his address. As
in the ceremony marking the laying
of the cornerstone, Willard was once
again not included in the festivities
of the celebration. Knowing the
modest character and personality of
Solomon Willard, this omission was
probably the result of his decision,
rather than that of the planning
committee. The total cost of the
monument was $101,963.68.
Willard also furnished the plans
for the commemorative monument
at the Old North Bridge in Concord.
He designed the Franklin Monument
in the Granary Burial Ground in
Boston, and the second building of
Christ Church in Quincy. He furnished
the first granite paving stones ever
laid in Boston, laid in front of the
Tremont House. He furnished working
plans and stone to an astronomical
observatory in Cambridge. One of
the best specimens of his architecture
is the Norfolk County Court House
in Dedham. He also designed the
Suffolk County Court House erected
on Court Street in Boston. In 1836
Solomon Willard furnished t h e
columns for the New York Merchants
Exchange. This building required 18
fluted columns of over thirty tons
each. After one of the columns was
rejected, Willard erected it in the
center of the Hall Cemetery in West
Quincy where the Willard Family
Association later placed a plaque as
a memorial to him.
Solomon Willard was the first but
certainly not the last to use large
stones. The first large stone columns
quarried in Quincy are to be found
on the United First Parish Church in
Quincy Square. That building was
designed by Alexander Parris, a good
friend of Willard's. Across the street
from the church is the Town Hall
which was designed by Willard, who
also supervised its construction in
1844. In the same year, he furnished
the stone for a Saving's Bank building
in New York. These were among his
last contracts for construction. During
the last years of his life, he retired to
his farm in West Quincy where he
sold tools and farm implements.
The City of Quincy, and especially
those of us who know its history,
regard Solomon Willard as one of its
most famous citizens. Few if any have
had greater beneficial impact on
Quincy. Further, his works,
contributions and fame endure far
beyond the limits of the place that
was his home and the beneficiary of
so much of his labor.
Principal References
Wheildon, William W., Memoir of Solomon
Willard. Architect and Superintendent of the
Bunker Hill Monument, The Monument
Association, 1865.
Seaburg, Carl and Paterson, Stanley, Merchant
Prince of Boston Colonel T. H. Perkins 17641854,Harvard University Press, 197 1.
Warren, George Washington, The Historv of
the Bunker Hill Monument Association, Boston
1877.
Two Calendars -- Two Dates Reprinted from Quincy History,
Spring 1986
The 250th commemoration of the
birth of John Adams found many
people confused that the record shows
the birth date as October 19, 1735,
while the anniversary of that birth
falls on October 30, 1985. The answer
is a change in the calendar.
Prior to 1752 the British Colonies
in North America used the Julian
Calendar that was instituted in 4 6
BC. The years that followed were
figured, and still are, as 365% days
whereas the actual day is slightly less
than that. As a result over the years
that the Julian Calendar was in use,
an error of 11 days accumulated.
When the change was made to the
Gregorian Calendar, it was decided
to correct the error by dropping 11
days. Accordingly, September 3 ,
1752, old style, became September
1 4 , 1 7 5 2 new style. Thus a person
born on September 2, 1 7 5 2 would
have celebrated his two days old
birthday on September 15 new style,
and everyone older celebrated his
birthday anniversary 11 days later
according to the new calendar than
by the old.
A second change that took place
when the Gregorian Calendar was
adopted h a s also caused s o m e
confusion. Under the Julian Calendar
the year begins in March, actually
March 25th. Thus January 1 6 3 9
followed December 1639. When old
records referred to the 4th day of
the 5th month, the date was July
4th. To alleviate confusion, January,
February, and March dates through
the 24th are written with both the
Julian and Gregorian year shown;
for example, January 25, 1639/40,
or February 15, 1735/6. The names
of the last four months of our calendar
still reflect the old Julian Calendar.
Quincy History
Published by the Quincy Historical Society 8 Adams Street Quincy, MA 02169