The GAR Hall

According to GAR Hall Restoration Project Director David Corbin, "In 1825 the Baptist Society contracted Zeba Cushing to build a meeting house on land purchased by the Society from Nehemiah Curtis." The building is now the oldest public building in Scituate.

What is today regarded as Scituate Center was in the 1820's known as "Christian Hill" because of the close proximity of the Baptist meeting house and the nearby Congregational Church. By 1866 the forty-one year old structure could no longer accommodate the Baptist Society's growing flock. As plans were underway to build a new church at North Scituate, the Society sold the earlier building to Joshua Jenkins of Scituate for $600.

Jenkins converted the former meeting house into a hall, enlarging the building and constructing a stage for meetings and entertainments. Jenkins rented the hall out to various social and benevolent groups. In 1875 local veterans who had served in the Civil War formed George W. Perry Post #31 Grand Army of the Republic. With 120 members the Post began meeting at Jenkins Hall. In 1883, two years after the death of Mr. Jenkins, the Post purchased the hall from the Jenkins family for $300. The veterans promptly renamed it the Grand Army Hall.

Throughout the late 19th and into the first quarter of the 20th century the Grand Army Hall was the scene for many town gatherings. Patriotic speeches echoed from its walls on Memorial Day, July 4th, and later on Armistice/Veterans Day. Many an old soldier, who had shouldered a musket in Mr. Lincoln's Army as a young man recounted stories of the mud of old Virginia within its walls. The Women's Relief Corps organized events to raise money for disabled veterans and their families, and the Charles E. Bates Camp, Sons of Union Veterans raised money for the care of veterans’ graves in the Hall as well. In addition the Hall witnessed high school recitals and dances, minstrel shows, lectures, debates, liberty loan drives, holiday pageants, auctions, whist parties, suppers and numerous other events. With the passing of Scituate's last Civil War Veteran, Francis M. Litchfield, in 1936, the hall continued to be managed by the Women's Relief Corps and the Sons of Union Veterans.

In 1953 the town of Scituate purchased the Hall for $1.00. Through the early 1990s various organizations used the Hall regularly. Unfortunately the ravages of time and neglect began to take their toll on the aging structure. In 1995, in response to a threat of demolition, the Scituate Historical Society petitioned the Town to turn the building and property over to its care. In October of 1996 the Society put a new roof on the hall to stop water damage to the interior from continuing. In the summer of 1997 the Town officially turned the building over to the Historical Society for $1.00 with the agreement that the Society restore and maintain the structure. To date the Society has received one $15,000 grant from the state of Massachusetts, two grants from private donors to the amount of $50,000 and raised an additional $20,000 through the sale of Images of America: Scituate. Currently the Society is pursuing other grants.

The Society plans to make the Hall into a museum of Civil War memorabilia and also to honor those who made sacrifices for their country in other wars. It will also be used as a meeting space for the residents of Scituate, much as it always was during its early years. The building is undergoing considerable restoration and is not yet open to the public.