Day: December 2, 2011

Kirby Memorial Theater (1938)

by Dan//Amherst, Collegiate, Colonial Revival, Theaters

Kirby Memorial Theater at Amherst College was built with funds from a charitable trust set up by Dr. Ellwood R. Kirby (1854-1920). Kirby, a Philadelphia physician, is depicted administering anesthetic to the surgery patient in Thomas Eakins 1889 painting The Agnew Clinic. The Theater was built in 1938-1939 and was designed by James Kellum Smith of McKim, Mead & White, with the help of S.R. McCandless, a theater designer. The James W. Boyden House, which had served as a college boarding house and cafeteria, was moved from the site in 1937 to 58 Woodside Street to make way for the Theater.

M. M. French House (1848)

by Dan//Greek Revival, Houses, Northampton

In 1847, Marvin Marcy French (1820-1896) was one of the first people to acquire a plot of land on the newly opened Pomeroy Terrace in Northampton. The original section of his house, 44 Pomeroy Terrace, was built in 1848. The house is architecturally notable for the extensive additions made to the structure for Mr. French in 1870 by architect William F. Pratt, who may or may not have designed the earlier part of the house. In an 1883-4 Directory, M.M. French is listed as a vice-president of the Northampton Institution for Savings.