Wilder Memorial Hall, 1879

666 Main Street
Wilder Memorial Hall, 1879

Home to the Wilder Nursery School since 1924, Wilder Memorial Hall is Hingham’s premiere example of Second Empire architecture with a slate mansard roof featuring oculus dormers. The symmetrical facade includes decorated panels on the first floor, tall double windows on the second and a detailed balustrade over the entrance. Designed by Boston architect Gridley J.F. Bryant, who also designed Boston’s original city hall, Wilder Hall was built as a memorial to generous Hingham philanthropist Martin Wilder (1790-1854.) The twelfth of twenty-one brothers and sisters, Martin Wilder was a skilled mechanic and blacksmith who became a successful Boston carriage smith. His will included several provisions such as the award of his library and bookcases to the Third Social Library in South Hingham, for an evening school, a charitable fund, and monies to purchase coal and wood for the South Hingham poor. The trustees of the estate found it impractical to carry out all of these instructions and finally, in 1878 , a court decree allowed them to erect the Wilder Memorial. Wilder Memorial Trust is still managed by three trustees. In 1900, a rear two story ell was designed by J. Sumner Fowler, Hingham architect who designed the cemetery chapels of the High Street Cemetery and the Hingham Cemetery. The Fowler addition “encompassed a fine stage” for the main hall on the second floor as reported in the Hingham Journal on June 22, 1900. Today the Wilder Nursery School hosts an annual popular Spring fair.