Martin W. Carr School

The Martin W. Carr School is located in Spring Hill, one of Somerville's oldest residential subdivisions, at the junction of Atherton and Beech Streets. Its lot extends northward to also abut Cleveland Street. It is a four-story H-shaped brick building, built in 1898 as an elementary school with fourteen classrooms. It was named in honor of Martin W. Carr, a successful Somerville manufacturer who was active in city government serving over the years as alderman, city councilor, and member of the school committee. Carr's factory, in buildings now converted to lofts in Davis Square, manufactured jewelry, novelties, and metal ware. The handsome school building was built of red brick in the Renaissance Revival style to a design by Aaron Gould. Gould was then a prominent local architect who designed a number of significant public buildings, of which none but this now survive.^[2]

The City of Somerville closed the Carr School in 1980. The building was sold to a developer who converted it to residential use in 1997. It was initially a rental building and subsequently converted to condos. Today there are 20 condominiums in the Carr School. There are studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedroom condos on three floors plus a lower level.

The Carr School is located across Atherton Street from one of Somerville's most unusual architectural landmarks, the Round House.^[3]

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Somerville, Massachusetts