Citizens' Hall is the government office building and a community meeting place for the town of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire. Built in 1889 in the Stick–Eastlake Style, but one that is also heavily influenced by the Greek Revival, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its importance as a community/social center for the town. It is located on Citizens' Hall Road in the village of South Lyndeborough.
Origins
Citizens' Hall was constructed by the Town of Lyndeborough between September 1888 and January 1889 to house the Lafayette Artillery Company's armory and its annual February 22 Levee and Ball. Started in 1877, the Levee and Ball had become the town's most anticipated event, bringing hundreds of guests into the community. By 1888 the event had grown too large to be hosted by South Lyndeborough's three major events facilities, the Baptist Church, Tarbell's Hall (above Tarbell's Store), and Artillery Hall (above the depot). Therefore, the Lafayette Artillery raised $275 and purchased part of an apple orchard occupying a high point in the village along the road to Temple (now Citizens' Hall Road) with the intention of constructing a new headquarters and social facility.
However, the Artillery was unable to raise the funds to construct a headquarters. Therefore, the group petitioned the town to build the structure for it. At a town meeting in March 1888, after much discussion, the town voted in favor of spending $2,000 on the new building, but only if the structure would serve the community as a whole. The Artillery agreed to rent space in the building for its office and armory, and the town also voted to set aside space for a town library. (For some unknown reason, the library never was housed in Citizens' Hall despite the vote.)
Over the course of the next several months, construction of what would become Citizens' Hall was delayed as a group of townspeople petitioned the Hillsborough County Superior Court to overturn the town's March vote. When their petition was denied, the group was able to call a special town meeting to reconsider the issue. In September, after another lengthy discussion, the town voted to table the articles before them, and within days a granite foundation had been set in place.
Plan and construction
During the summer prior to construction, the Citizens' Hall building committee—composed of Civil War veterans and local politicians Jason Holt, B.G. Herrick, and Fred Richardson, as well as Lafayette Artillery members Andy Holt and Charles Henry Holt—designed a simple structure resembling the nearby Baptist Church. Like the church, the main body was designed in the Classical Revival style, with its pediment facing the road. The facade, however, was designed in the then-current Eastlakes/Stick style, a popular Victorian architectural style which originated in upstate New York. The facade includes a cross-gabled hip roof, and the front porch a decorative truss and diagonal support braces typical of this style.
After the town approved the project in September 1888, work proceeded rapidly on the structure. Artillery member D. C. Grant, through his company D. C. Grant and Sons, headed the construction effort, and the town purchased building materials from Whiting and Sons and other companies in nearby Wilton, New Hampshire. As a result, portions of the structure are vaguely similar to features on a storefront (now used as a restaurant) and an adjacent house on Wilton's Main Street.
People entering the building through the main (north) entrance were met with a floor plan that featured two staircases on either side of the entrance, both of which led to the second-floor grand hall. The first-floor lobby included a ticket window on the east wall, behind which was the Artillery's meeting room; as well as another small pass-through opening to the "clothes room" (or "cloak room") behind the west wall. The pine trim was painted an off-white color, in contrast to the medium-grey plaster walls, and the wainscotting and plank floor were stained brown.
Beyond the front hallway was the banquet hall, the walls of which were lined in horizontal painted wooden boards. In the southwest corner was the armory, where the Artillery kept its munitions and uniforms, while in the southeast corner was the kitchen (although this room remained unfinished until 1890). A passageway between the two rooms led to the connected outhouse, or "backhouse."
In the kitchen was another staircase, this one leading to the stage area in the second floor hall. North of the stage was the ballroom, with its 14-foot ceiling and large windows. Patrons accessed the second floor of the backhouse as well as the attic stairs from the backstage area.