The Carriage House at Lynch Park is an iconic image for North Shore residents. Yet, its familiar presence often renders it unnoticed by visitors to the Park, near-by residents and passing boaters. The Lynch Park Advisory Committee hopes to bring attention to this vestige of a long past era and create a facility to accommodate art and cultural events and functions. It would be a travesty to allow this treasure to be lost.

The Carriage House was constructed sometime between 1897 and 1903. Its construction was ordered by Robert and Marie Evans the owners of the estate formerly located on Woodbury Point at Lynch Park, named Dawson Hall. The Evans' purchased the estate in 1895 from the Edward Burgess family. Robert Evans was a self-made man, helping to found the American Rubber Company and eventually becoming President of the United States Rubber Company.

The Evans family had a distinct impact on what we now know as Lynch Park during their tenure. Stetson Cottage, once located in the area commonly referred to as the Rose Garden, was ordered dismantled by Mrs. Evans. President Taft had summered in Stetson Cottage for one season while in the White House. However, Mrs. Evans was so disturbed by the constant intrusion of the media that she informed the White House that President Taft was not welcome to return. Then she ordered the cottage bifurcated, loaded onto a barge and floated to Marblehead where it was reassembled. Mrs. Evans then had an Italianate Garden installed on the same spot. It is also important to note that Mr. Evans suffered an injury that would prove fatal the same day that President Taft arrived for his summer retreat.

Unfortunately, the architect who designed the Carriage House has never been identified. However, a carriage house virtually identical to it was designed by the well-known architectural firm of Little, Brown and Moore in 1896 for R.S. Bradley, Esquire of Prides Crossing, Massachusetts. The clock located in the pediment of the Lynch Park Carriage House was crafted by the well-respected clockmaker George Milton Stevens. His signature appears on the base of the clock. Mr. Stevens designed and installed many clocks both nationally and internationally. Few clocks with this lineage remain.

Upon Mrs. Evans' death her sisters, Belle and Abbie Hunt, inherited the estate. They were responsible for acquiring an adjacent property owned by the Sohiers. It was radically renovated by the Hunt sisters and was commonly referred to as the Monastery because the front doors were carved with the images of monks. The Hunt sisters bequeathed the estate to Beverly Hospital, which in turn sold it to the City of Beverly, which purchased it with funds left to the City by David S. Lynch. Dawson Hall proved too expensive for the City to maintain and was eventually demolished. The Monastery as well as several other homes located on this 15 acre parcel were destroyed by fire in the decades to come.

The only tangible remains of this history is the Carriage House. The tack room is in excellent condition with newly refurbished oak floors and the original oak bead board walls. It is an example of what the remainder of the carriage house could be and that is both the goal and the challenge assumed by the Lynch Park Advisory Committee.