stood on the Green itself, in the space that the gazebo now occupies. The rapid growth of Naugatuck’s population during the American Industrial Revolution gave the town need for a new school building. John Howard Whittemore, made wealthy in the iron industry, commissioned the New York architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White to design Salem School. This world-renowned firm also created the plans for Hillside School, the Howard Whittemore Library, the Congregational Church, the Boston Public Library, New York’s Penn Station, and several Newport R.I. mansions.     William Rutherford Mead, the senior partner in the firm, broke with traditional institutional design in some important ways. First, he departed from the tall, castle-like Romantic design so popular in the Victorian era and opted for a Renaissance Italianate building that fit better with its hilly natural surronundings. Secondly, he had the building made from brick rather than the more popular limestone or granite of the day. The building was constructed at a cost of $71,290 by the H. Wales Lines Company.