The Andover / Post Office Building
Massachusetts personal injury lawyer Tom Kiley has always felt a passion for history and tradition. The responsibility he feels to honor and uphold the achievements of the past has inspired him to preserve the spirit of The Andover Building, which is an integral part of the history of Andover, Massachusetts and currently houses the offices of Kiley Law Group.
Description of the Building
The Andover Building, designed by Adden & Parker, was built in the early 1920s as part of the Shawsheen Village project. It is a gently and elegantly stretched flatiron building whose point is smoothed into a serene curve graced by Georgian-Colonial columns. Originally called the Post Office Building because it housed the first Shawsheen Village postal branch, the Andover Building is a masterfully designed two-and-a-half story edifice of brick and limestone, crowned with a clock-and-bell tower.
Shawsheen Village
Shawsheen Village was the brain-child of textile mogul William Madison Wood. American Woolen was the largest wool textile producer in its day, making Wood richer than Bill Gates. As a visionary – and a bit of a control freak – Wood was determined to build the ideal self-contained community. While it was not uncommon for large companies to build planned communities for their employees, Wood's vision was unique in many ways.
When Wood took over American Woolen in the early 1920s, he moved the company headquarters from New York to Andover. He bought up the land surrounding the small village of Frye, renamed it Shawsheen, and went to work. With the help of four architectural firms – Adden & Parker, Clifford Albright, Ripley & Le Boutillier, and James E. Allen – he designed his model community. The single-most unique aspect of Shawsheen Village was that it was not built for American Woolens laborers. The village housed only middle and upper management.
Shawsheen Village was divided into two sections separated by Shawsheen River and the commercial square: White Shawsheen and Brick Shawsheen. White Shawsheen consisted of white clapboard houses for middle managers, while Brick Shawsheen housed top managers in red brick homes. Wood's need for control seeped into every aspect of the Village. Driveways, garages, front porches, and fences were all forbidden to create a clean, uniform look. Managers lived close enough to their offices to walk, and a village garage quartered all cars. If a resident needed to travel, a valet would bring his car from the garage to his home.
Wood's vision expanded from the homes of his managers to a community that was completely self-sufficient. In his book Mills, Mansions, and Mergers: The Life of William M. Wood, Edward G. Roddy describes,
The self-containing aspect of Wood's overall concept of Shawsheen Village was most apparent in the commercial district, which was located primarily along Main Street in the vicinity of the square. Here were located the Post Office and Merchants' buildings, the Balmoral Spa, the Shawsheen Manor, and the community garage. Housed in these structures were such facilities as a first-class general store, retail shops, a bank, overnight and dining accommodations, a drug store, offices for business firms, and offices for doctors, dentists, lawyers, and architects. Additionally, there was a dairy and a laundry, together with barber, hairdressing, and tailor shops.
History of the Building
The Kiley Law Group building, now the Andover Building, originally housed the post office, offices of the Homestead Association (who, among other tasks, provided each Shawsheen house with approved flowers for their flower boxes), the general store, the legal offices of American Woolen, and a large meeting hall which provided for civic and social gatherings as well as housing the Village kindergarten.
Shawsheen Village as a cohesive mill town fell apart with the collapse of the New England textile industry. Surprisingly, most of the Village has survived intact. Some buildings have been altered, but few have been razed. Instead, discordant contemporary architecture has grown up around the original Georgian-Colonial style. Recently, Andover and Shawsheen Village residents and business owners have come together to re-envision Shawsheen back into a cohesive, coherent area.
Kiley Law Group Offices
Attorney Tom Kiley and his personal injury law team are proud to house their offices in one of the buildings that has been relatively unaltered over the decades. The Andover Building holds all of the beauty and design of the Post Office building, and you can look across the street to see the Garage Building that at one time quartered all of Shawsheen's cars.
Kiley's commitment to his environment equals his commitment to his clients. He and his team are proud to help carry on the tradition of a strong, vibrant, beautiful Shawsheen.
