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In 1820 he carved the Ionic capitals of Saint Paul’s and the wooden capitals of Park Street Church steeple. In conjunction with Alexander Parris he built Saint Paul’s Church on Tremont Street Boston. In 1825 he was selected by the Bunker Hill Monument Association as architect of the monument. Mr. Willard submitted a design for a shaft 220 feet in height which was adopted and carried out.
The U.S. Bank Building, State Street, Boston, the County Court House in Court Square built in 1834, St. Paul’s Church and the Monument were the chief works of Mr. Willard.
In 1810 Mr. Willard carved a colossal spread eagle which was placed upon the apex of the pediment of the Old Customs House at Boston.
To Mr. Willard belongs the credit of originating in this country the first step toward the modern hot air furnace for the heating of dwellings.
Mr. Willard was a charter member of the Boston Mechanics Association, incorporated 1827. Also, the designer of the monument at Old North Bridge, Concord, Norfolk County Court House, the Franklin Monument in the Granary Burying Ground, Harvard Monument (in the old Burying Ground in Charlestown) and numerous other memorials and monuments.
During and after the building of the Bunker Hill Monument, Mr. Willard resided in West Quincy and in1842 he, with Mr. Rogers, leased the Wigwam Quarry of Mr. Belknap the owner. The same year he gave the land on which the town erected the first school house in West Quincy....
.....and in 1844 designed and superintended the construction of the Town Hall (now City Hall) in Quincy.
Mr. Willard also laid out and publicly opened the Hall Cemetery. Here a few years later, he erected the rejected column. A suitable foundation was prepared for the shaft and Mr. Willard deposited at its base a complete set of stone cutters tools. These were placed in an iron box sealed with beeswax to preserve it. Mr. Willard designed this monument for the public, but some years after his decease, at his centennial the public dedicated it back to him.
On June 26, 1883 the people of West Quincy held a celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Solomon Willard. The business of the village was suspended and early in the afternoon the different organizations marched in front of the Willard School house and were formed in line under the direction of the Chief Marshall of the day James H. Elcock, and headed by the state Band of Boston followed by the Selectman, Chief of Police, Engineers of the Fire Department, delegates from the Bunker Hill Monument Association, and five hundred school children from the Willard School with their teachers.
The Procession marched through the principal streets and on Willard Street passed the home of Mr. Willard at the entrance of which was erected a beautiful archway of evergreens and flowers bearing the inscription “Home of Solomon Willard”. Arriving at Hall Cemetery, appropriate services were held. Mr. Seth Dewing, the veteran schoolmaster, was president of the day and introduced the orator of the occasion, Mr. Charles A Foster; after which followed addresses by Honorable C.F. Adams Jr., Mr. Weildon, Honorable Charles W. Slack and others. The expense of cutting the inscription on the shaft was defrayed by the Bunker Hill Monument Association.
Sometime later a fine polished granite tablet was placed by the citizens over the tomb in which the remains of Mr. Willard were placed.
During the last years of his life he made his home in the family of Mr. Samuel Ela. He died very suddenly February 27, 1861 in the 78th year of his age.
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