The Sandra W. Evans Community Room is a space for the surrounding communities to use for meetings or other gatherings. But it often doubles as a gallery for art and photography exhibits. These change periodically. 

Currently on display in the Gallery:

Gayton Osgood: “A Good In-Land Town”

Gayton Osgood was a lifelong resident of North Andover, a descendant of one of the earliest settlers and the namesake of a 19th C.  representative to the US Congress. The ‘ultimate Townie’, he lived all his life on Osgood Street and was educated in local schools and the Pike School in Andover. He graduated from the Wentworth Institute in Boston with a degree in engineering, followed by a two-year tour in the Navy. He returned home and never left.

Osgood, an engineer, history buff and polymath, had a lifelong interest in both the artistic and scientific sides of photography and maintained a well-equipped darkroom where he carefully developed, enlarged and mounted his prints. The engineering side of him sought to capture crisp lines and ideal lighting conditions. The artist within waited patiently for the right lighting conditions in nature and coaxed subtle tones during the development process in the pre-digital age. His diligence and patience are evident as each structure is the star of its setting.

In 1976, inspired by the bicentennial celebrations around the nation, Gayton Osgood began to photograph the First Period homes of North Andover, documenting an architectural heritage that extended more than 100 years beyond the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In these images we see how Gayton controlled all the factors to present each house as if it had dressed in its Sunday best to have a formal portrait for the future. His stamp on the back of each print “photo by Gayton Osgood” reflects his pride in his work.

 In 2001, at the beginning of a new century, the North Andover Historical Society embarked on the publication of “A Good In-Land Town,” a book devoted to the early buildings and landscapes in North Andover and named from a passage in Judge Samuel Sewell’s diary about visiting Andover. These photographs and others played a chief role in illustrating this edition. The book remains popular, but it is also one of the only comprehensive histories of the town. Osgood’s photography greatly contributed to this success. The book is available for purchase in the 1646 Bookstore.