The Architect - J. Merrill Brown
John Merrill Brown was born in March 1853 on a farm in Conway, Massachusetts. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then secured what was, for any aspiring architect of that era, the most coveted position in the country: a place in the studio of Henry Hobson Richardson.
Richardson was the most celebrated American architect of the Victorian era — the creator of "Richardsonian Romanesque," the only major architectural style ever named after an American. His work included Trinity Church in Boston's Copley Square (1877), the Winn Memorial Library in Woburn itself, Sever Hall and Austin Hall at Harvard, and railroad stations across New England. When Richardson died in April 1886 at just 47, Brown and his fellow apprentices carried that Romanesque tradition forward. When Woburn commissioned its new Central Square School in 1891, Brown's design was a direct expression of that legacy: heavy masonry, rounded arched entryways, conical tower roofs, and steeply-pitched gabled rooflines conveying the overwhelming civic permanence that Richardson had made famous.
J. Merrill Brown worked within a professional era that emphasized:
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fireproof civic construction
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Romanesque Revival design language
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standardized public school planning
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integration of building systems with architecture
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Brown’s design approach reflected the belief that schools should function as: civic monuments of permanence, discipline, and public identity.
The Massachusetts Historical Commission's official description of the result captures it precisely: "massive and irregular in silhouette despite its overall symmetry."
The two conical-roof towers earned the building its beloved nickname — The Castle — from the day it opened.
The Massachusetts Historical Commission describes it this way: "The overall effect is a building which is massive and irregular in silhouette despite its overall symmetry." Constructed in 1892, the original portion consists of a two-story block capped by a steeply-pitched gable roof sheathed in slate with copper finials. The architect, J. Merrill Brown, was a former apprentice of famed American architect H.H. Richardson — meaning Woburn hired a designer operating in one of the most celebrated architectural traditions of the era. That was not a casual choice; it suggests the city wanted to make a civic statement. Homenewshere.comHomenewshere.com