Methuen millionaire transformed 1820's building into imposing hotel
Edward F. Searles, Methuen's eccentric millionaire, loved to build and rebuild. About1900, he remodeled a good portion of Gaunt Square, turning this building into a hotel and calling it The Turnpike.
The turnpike had been cut north from Boston in the early 1800's. Its path was roughly along today's Route 28 except it crossed the Merrimack River at the Casey Bridge. From Broadway, Methuen, it continued on to Concord, NH and beyond.
Mr. Searles created his hotel in the image of an inn that might have served as a stage coach stop on the original turnpike. When he designed, he borrowed from whatever classic architectural forms he deemed appropriate. In this instance he used columns and pediments to transform a simple building into an imposing edifice. The original structure behind these additions is a square facade with regularly spaced windows probabaly dating from the 1820's. The Mansard, or curved, roof may have been added before the Civil War.
By adding the columns, triangular pediments over the windows and the cupola, Mr. Searles hid the 1800's facade. He stuccoed the building, attached a second bulding to the south side ( not visible in the photograph) and added the stone and wronght iron fence.
The new elements -the strong horizontal moulding line at the eaves and broad bands above the columns ( the entabulature) - dominate the building.
This picture was taken for the Methuen Bicentennial in 1926 when the main floor of the Turnpike, the ballroom, had become the Methuen First National Bank.
Today, the lower floors are offices and the upper ones apartments.
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