Category Archives: Italianate

William Cullen Bryant Homestead (1785)

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Daniel

William Cullen Bryant Homestead

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was a major poet and for 50 years was editor and publisher of The New York Evening Post. He was born in a log cabin in Cummington. When he was two, Bryant‘s father, Dr. Peter Bryant, moved the family to a house in Cummington that the doctor’s father-in-law had built in circa 1783-1785. The house became young William Cullen Bryant‘s boyhood home and is now called the William Cullen Bryant Homestead. In 1865, after the old farmhouse had been out of the family for 30 years, Bryant purchased and extensively altered it in to reflect Victorian stylistic tastes. He began by raising the original section of the house, creating a new ground floor. He also added a gambrel-roofed study, a replica of his father’s medical office, which projects from the front facade, and constructed an addition to the house’s original rear ell. The renovated house would serve as his summer home until his death. It is now owned by the Trustees of Reservations and can be toured by the public. (more…)

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Bray-Hoadley House (1873)

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Daniel

9 Park Street, Florence

The house at 9 Park Street in Florence (Northampton) was built circa 1871-1873 for Eliphalet Bray, a lather (lathe machinist), and his wife Sarah C. Tilton Bray. In the 1880s, the house was home to George Hoadley, principal of Florence High School.

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Putnam-Balch House (1871)

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Daniel

Putnam-Balch House, Salem

In 1871-1872, on the site of the Benjamin Marston House, James S. Putnam erected an elaborately and eclectically ornamented house, known as Greymoor, at 329 Essex Street in Salem. From 1881 to 1921, it was owned by Frank Balch and then the house served as the headquarters of American Legion Post 23. The house was restored in 1979-1981. The house was recently restored to its 1872 color scheme.

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Clovis Robert Block (1888)

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Daniel

The Clovis Robert Block, at 338-348 Main Street in Holyoke, is a stylistically Eclectic Victorian commercial structure, with apartment space on the upper floors, completed in 1888. The the building‘s front facade has a distinctive Queen Anne-style three-story projecting central bay made of copper. It was constructed during a period when many French-Canadians were immigrating to Holyoke and seeking housing. Main Street was being extensively developed at the time. The Clovis Robert Block, designed by G.P.B. Alderman, was constructed originally in 1881 and expanded in 1888. It was built by Clovis Robert, a French-Canadian, who came to Holyoke in 1872. He worked as a blacksmith and became wealthy in the real estate business, encouraging other French-Canadians to save their money and do the same.

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Hampden National Bank (1825)

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Daniel

The building at 6 Main Street in Westfield has gone through many changes over the years. It was built in 1825 as the Hampden National Bank on land provided by James Fowler, who served as the bank’s president until 1842. Originally, the building had a Federal or Greek Revival style facade with four freestanding columns supporting a large pediment. In 1853, the facade was completely altered to become an Italianate brownstone. The expanding bank moved to a new building next door in 1924. Since then, other businesses have occupied the original bank building. The building was damaged by fire in 1974. At some point, the facade on the first floor of the building was completely altered to its present appearance and the bank sign atop the building was removed. (more…)

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A.A. Burdett House (1852)

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Daniel

The house at 260 Church Street in Clinton was built in 1852 by Oliver Stone, a local contractor, for Henry Kellogg, director of the Clinton Gas Light Company. Alfred A. Burdett, a local druggist, bought the house in 1867. As related in The Spatula, An Illustrated Magazine for Pharmacists, Vol. VIII, No. 10, June 1902:

To Alfred A. Burdett belongs the distinction of having been the longest in business of any man in Clinton, Mass. Mr. Burdett, who recently passed his 75th mile-stone, opened the first drug store in Clinton in 1849, and still retains his connection with the business, which is carried on by his son Oscar A. Burdett at the old stand on High street. His son Henry is likewise a pharmacist, with a store on the same street. Mr. Burdett and his wife observed the 53d anniversary of their marriage not long ago. He has served a term in the Massachusetts Legislature, and has held many positions of trust in his own town, having been selectman, town treasurer and a member of the school committee. Mr. Burdett has carefully preserved the record of his very first day’s business, on Feb. 25, 1849. On that day his total sales were $1.08, divided as follows: candy, 14 cents; cigars, 9 cents; medicines, 31 cents; fancy goods, 44 cents; valentines, 10 cents. The profits were reckoned at 55 cents.

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Central Block, Waltham (1856)

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Daniel

The building at 627 Main Street in Waltham was built by George Miller in 1856 and was designed by his son-in-law, architect Henry Hartwell. The building was briefly the Waltham Hotel, but after the civil war the upper floors were remodeled for offices and club rooms with commercial shops continuing on the first floor. Called Miller’s Block, it originally had a central arched passageway leading to livery stables in the rear (the ground floor facade was much altered in the 1940s). In 1867, Miller sold the building to Samuel B. Whitney, who renamed it the Central Block. Alvin Jewell, a pioneering weathervane manufacturer, was killed while erecting a new sign on the building when the scaffolding collapsed. The selectmen of Waltham met in he building until 1875 and Waltham’s first telephone exchange was located on the first floor.

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