LYNN — One of the city’s hidden gems shone brightly on Wednesday as city officials and history lovers celebrated the Grand Army of the Republic building and the Civil War veterans who built it.
Officially known as Gen. Frederick W. Lander Post 5, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the brick building at 58 Andrew St. is a rich historical collection of Civil War uniforms, weapons, flags, books, and a “grand hall” featuring elaborate woodwork and 1,243 photographs of Post members.
Glancing around the hall and pointing to the photographs and the massive, cylindrical capstan once mounted on the USS Kearsarge, Master of Ceremonies and GAR Board of Trustees member Dexter Bishop said: “It’s a memorial to all veterans.”
Built in 1885 and turned over to the city in 1919 through an act of the state legislature, the building and its museum-quality contents have been cared for by the trustees and Civil War history buffs.
Wednesday’s event brought some of that history to life with Bishop presenting Mayor Jared C. Nicholson with a photograph of Benjamin F. Peach Jr. — Nicholson’s great-great-grandfather and a Post member.
As a boy, Nicholson listened to his grandfather, a World War II combat veteran, talk about their family’s connection to the Civil War.
“This is a vivid reminder of how we need to take care of this space,” Nicholson said.
Bishop said the Post exerted influence over 19th-century Lynn’s economy and politics: Seven Post members served as Lynn mayors, with their terms in office spanning 1866 to 1888, and he said Post 5’s active tenure saw members donate the equivalent of $6.4 million to social causes.
“If you were a veteran who was unemployed, you came here, went home, and told your wife about your new job,” he said.
Descendants of two of those mayors attended the ceremony: Boxborough resident Carla Cochrane, who is related to former Mayor George Sanderson, and Thomas Bubier of Gloucester who said family members place flowers every year on former Mayor Samuel Bubier’s grave in Pine Grove Cemetery.
In the little more than a year she has overseen the building as GAR curator, Wendy Joseph has grasped its potential as a historical research and education resource and confronted the maintenance challenges looming over the building.
Nicholson said the city has taken over building maintenance responsibilities, but the GAR big-ticket repair list includes installing a system of pins to secure the building facade’s outer-brick wall now held up by scaffolding.
Joseph said a capital-needs plan has been drawn up and Nicholson said the city “has a great team looking at funding needs and options.”
“There are a lot of needs here,” he said.
