For nearly a century, the brick building at 41 Cochituate Road has adapted to Wayland’s shifting needs — first as a school, then as town offices, and now as a space under pressure.
In 1896, the Center High and Grammar School opened its doors at 41 Cochituate Road The $25,000 construction was funded through a donation from local resident Francis Shaw, town money, and proceeds from the sale of older schoolhouses.
For the next three decades, the Center School educated secondary students on Cochituate Road. Students from South Wayland attended high school at the brick Cochituate School on Main Street, which is now the Cochituate Village Apartments. By the 1930s, both schools were overcrowded, and the town needed something new — a consolidated high school.
With the help of a federal grant from the Roosevelt administration, Wayland built the new, brick-laden high school next to the old Center School, which was repurposed as junior high for grades 6-8 and affectionately called “the annex.” According to Wayland Historical Society records, Superintendent Frank Benedict called the site a lasting asset: ”The winding road, the grass plots and shrubs, the natural water way and attractive building will catch the eye of lovers of beauty for years to come.”
In 1948, a $370,000 renovation added a gym, wings for classrooms, a library, and a cafeteria. The facilities hosted 12 college preparatory classes, seven secretarial classes, five courses in arts and music, and nine for everyday living – general math, economics, home economics, and shop.
Students started up a school paper called the Chatterbox. In it, students published book reports, bits of gossip, and various articles, many of which were English papers. The name of the paper changed to Wayland Whispers in 1953.
In the 1950s, hordes of families moved into town due to the good reputation of the schools. The town’s public school population doubled from 728 in 1946 to 1,498 by 1955. The town had already built three brand-new elementary schools to meet that demand, and it became apparent that by the time those kids grew up, the existing buildings wouldn’t accommodate them. Then came the six-building Wayland High School campus, which opened on Old Connecticut Path in 1960 and drew the oldest students away from Cochituate Road. The Center School campus was now exclusively a middle school.
But in the mid-1960s, the population boomed again, and school officials looked again to build more space for students. Officials considered building an addition to the Center School, but the site couldn’t handle the leaching field for a larger building, so they looked again to Cochituate Village to host Wayland’s secondary students, opening Wayland Middle School on Main Street in 1972.
That began the 41 Cochituate Road’s life as the hub for town offices. In 1974, a Municipal Building Planning Committee recommended and eventually oversaw renovation of this building for town and school department use, creating the Town Building as we know it. The first floor of the high school building, in addition to one classroom wing, turned into offices, while the gym remained open for public use. The town demolished the annex or old Center School in 1978.
The remainder of the old school lay vacant for the next 27 years, acting as storage for old furniture and equipment. In 1999, the Boston Globe reported that the school department held a yard sale when cleaning the area out, profiting about $230 from all the forgotten items. A few years later, that stretch of the building opened as the Children’s Way preschool.
Town Building today
Today, the Town Building still hosts key town functions, including town departments, and the Children’s Way, as well as a gym and fields for recreational use. Its brick exterior and white paneling have remained largely unchanged since its renovation for municipal use close to 50 years ago.
Wayland resident Lois Toombs worked in the Town Building for 25 years, serving as the town clerk. She said she thinks the town has outgrown the building. “I’m an advocate for tearing the building down and building something else,” she said. “Whether that can be done, I don’t know.”
Wayland’s town administration is spreading outside of its hub at the Town Building. The Council on Aging, formerly housed in the Town Building, now has its own office in Wayland Town Center. The Select Board is considering the purchase of a building on West Plain Street that could be used as an administrative office, though no prospective use has been named for the property.
Kay Gardner-Westcott, Historical Society curator, worries that with even more growth in Wayland, the Town Building may grow outdated, and she encouraged the town to look toward the future.
“The problem is the town doesn’t look far enough ahead into the future to accommodate the needs,” Gardner-
Westcott said. “The town is growing and is still growing. The town really needs to look forward, not build for now, but look forward now.”
