Category Archives: Foursquare

Franklin Forbes House (1851)

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Daniel

The house pictured above (185 Chestnut Street in Clinton) has the look of an American Foursquare house (which were built in the 1890s-1910s), but it’s documented as having been built in 1851 for Franklin Forbes. He was the agent at Lancaster Mills, during which time it became the largest producer of gingham cloth in the world. He also served a term in the State Legislature in 1864 and was a member of the town’s school committee from 1852 to 1877, serving all that time, except for one year, as chairman.

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F. Nichols House (1896)

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Daniel

Located at 61 Washington Road, in the Forest Park Heights section of Springfield, is the F. Nichols House, a colonial revival-style residence, built in 1896. From 1905 to 1955, it was the home of Thornton W. Burgess (1874-1965). A conservationist and author, Burgess wrote Old Mother West Wind and many other children’s books.

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F.W. Lathrop House (1899)

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Daniel

F.W. Lathrop was a Springfield real estate dealer. In 1899, he supervised the construction of his own house at 188 Sumner Street from plans executed by Carroll H. Pratt, who was the assistant of architect Louis Frank Newman. The house has an American Foursquare form with Colonial Revival and Neoclassical architectural features. The house later became the first home of Sinai Temple, which moved to a new building at 1100 Dickinson Street in 1950. The house was next home to Lubavitcher Yeshiva Academy and then to an artist who ran “The Mansion House” art school in his home. For 17 years the house was owned by the Griffin family and most recently by an owner who in 2003 opened a bed-and-breakfast in the house called the Lathrop House B&B, which closed last year.

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