Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Adams Free Library (1897)

by Dan/May 4, 2014May 4, 2014/Adams, Libraries, Neoclassical

In 1897, President Willian H. McKinley laid the cornerstone of of the Adams Free Library during his second visit to the town. The library, located at 92 Park Street in Adams, was built largely with funds provided by the Plunkett family, founders of the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company. It was built as both library and memorial to the veterans of the Civil War. The names Washington, Lincoln and Grant are listed on the building’s cornice. The building is constructed of buff-colored brick, trimmed by marble quarried at the former Adams Marble Company. The second floor was used as a meeting hall by Civil War veterans. An addition to the library was built in 1910.

Salem Athenaeum (1907)

by Dan/April 16, 2014April 16, 2014/Colonial Revival, Libraries, Salem

The Salem Athenaeum is a private library established in 1810 with the merger of two earlier organizations: the Social Library, founded in 1760, and the Salem Philosophical Library, founded in 1781. The Athenaeum’s first permanent building was Plummer Hall, built in 1856-1857. The building was sold in 1905 to the Essex Institute, now the Peabody Essex Museum. The Athenaeum moved to its current building at 337 Essex Street, built in 1906-1907. The Colonial Revival Building was designed by architect William G. Rantoul. It closely resembles Homewood, a residence built in 1801 and now on the campus of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Reuben Whitcomb House & Store (1825)

by Dan/April 1, 2014/Colonial Revival, Commercial, Federal, Harvard, Houses

The house at 11 Fairbank Street in Harvard was built between 1823 and 1831 by Reuben Whitcomb, who used it as both a residence (the south section) and a store (the north section). Whitcomb’s widow sold the building in 1865 to Alfred Farwell, who continued its use as a residence/store. For some years, the store section had been used by Gale and Dickson, owners of the town’s General Store, first for storing grain and then as a roller skating rink! In 1895, W.P. Farwell converted the former store area into a two-family residence. In 1946, Rachel and John McTigue bought the house from Gertrude Farwell Sawyer and restored the building to become the Harvard Inn, which had eight rooms for guests, three dining rooms and two sitting rooms. The Inn was converted to apartments in 1953 and from 1993 to 2012 served as affordable housing for the elderly.

Clarke/Benjamin Block (1884)

by Dan/March 2, 2014March 2, 2014/Colonial Revival, Commercial, Stockbridge

The Clarke Block in Stockbridge was built in 1884 by druggist William B. Clarke. It replaced an earlier drug store that had stood in front of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. When the old store burned down, the area where it stood was converted into a front yard for the church. Clarke built his new store on a lot east of the church. In addition to the store, the building housed the town’s post office. The building was later called the Benjamin Block for Eugene Benjamin, who ran the store and lived next door. In 1923, he moved the building to its present location, at 31 Main Street. It was soon after stuccoed and remodeled in the Colonial Revival style. Its original roof and many of its stylistic features, such as a Stick Style gable screen, modillions, and a hooded stained glass window, were replaced. Retained from the earlier facade are the angled second floor front bay windows and a stained glass segmental-arched window on the west side.

Joseph G. Harwood House (1800)

by Dan/February 4, 2014/Federal, Harvard, Houses

In the late eighteenth-century, a farming community developed along Still River Road in Harvard. The house at 200 Still River Road was built around 1800 by Joseph G. Harwood, who had obtained a license to sell alcohol. Around 1850 the house was acquired by William F. Bateman, who was postmaster of Still River (also a librarian). His widow, Louisa H. Bateman, took over his postmaster duties after his death in 1877. In the 1890s, the house was acquired by Amos H. Keyes and in 1907 by Arthur Hunter, an engineer with the Boston & Albany railroad. It was then owned by F. S. Savage, Sr., author of Memoirs of Old Harvard Days (1924). Savage also sold real estate. For many years it was a double house with a long garage addition on the northeast side. It has since been converted to a single-family home, with a new front entry molding and the old addition shortened.

D. Burt House (1894)

by Dan/February 4, 2014/Adams, Houses, Queen Anne

The D. Burt House is a Queen Anne residence, built in 1894 at 6 East Street in a section of Adams where many homes were built in the nineteenth century for the middle class employees of the local mills. The house is now the Mount Greylock Inn.

Ross Farm (1800)

by Dan/February 2, 2014/Federal, Houses, Northampton

The farmhouse at 123 Meadow Street in the Florence section of Northampton was built c. 1830 by Theodore Burt, or perhaps c. 1800 by his father, Gaius Burt, who had purchased the farm in 1798. Samuel Whitmarsh, a pioneer of silk cultivation in Northampton, purchased the property in 1835. Whitmarsh’s Northampton Silk Company ceased operation in 1840 owing to a decline in the industry and heavy debt. The property was acquired abolitionist Samuel Hill in 1841 to become part of the utopian community called the Northampton Association of Education and Industry (founded in 1842). Hill, who was active in the Underground Railroad, lived in the house, which is the only surviving NAEI building left today. In 1849, Hill sold the farm to Abel Ross. He lived in the house with his nephew, Austin Ross, who eventually bought the property himself in 1857. Austin Ross also used the house as a station on the Underground Railroad. The property is now called Freedom Farm.