Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 1907
In January, 1856, the Washington School opened in Neponset, combining the Stoughton and Neponset Schools, freeing up the name Stoughton. The school on River Street at the Lower Mills had been called the Winthrop School, but after a new building was opened in March, 1856, the name was changed to the Stoughton School in honor of Gov. William Stoughton, Dorchester’s most prominent citizen of the latter half of the seventeenth century.
The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Finances of the Town of Dorchester for the Year ending February 1, 1856 shows that G. J. F. Bryant was paid for drawings, working plans, etc. for this building. Architect Bryant also designed the Everett School, the old Mather School, the Neponset School and the Gibson School in the 1850s.
Wikipedia reports: Gridley James Fox Bryant was a 19th century Boston architect and builder. His work was seen in custom houses, government buildings, churches, schoolhouses, and private residences across the United States. He was a leading proponent of the Boston “Granite” style, and together with Arthur Gilman he devised the Back Bay’s gridiron pattern. Some idea of his popularity as an architect may be had from the fact that 152 buildings that he designed were destroyed in the Boston fire of 1872, and he received commissions to rebuild 110 of them.
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