Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Elijah Northrup House (1790)

by Dan/September 15, 2012September 21, 2012/Federal, Houses, Lenox

Associated early on with the Cook family, the Elijah Northrup House in Lenox was built around 1790, when it was a tavern and farmhouse. Richard Sands Tucker of Brooklyn, NY purchased the house in 1866 and his widow later sold it to Henry Sedgwick. His son, Manton R. Sedgwick, sold the house to Caroline Katherine Carey, who purchased the property in 1928 so it could serve as the Lenox branch of the Berkshire County Home for Aged Women. In more recent years the house, located at 114 Main Street, has served as offices, most recently for Winstanley Partners.

F.W. Lathrop House (1899)

by Dan/September 14, 2012/Colonial Revival, Foursquare, Houses, Neoclassical, Springfield

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.

George W. Kyburg House (1929)

by Dan/September 13, 2012/Houses, Springfield, Tudor Revival

One of the houses that later became part of the MacDuffie School campus in Springfield was a Tudor Revival home built in 1929 for George W. Kyburg, a wealthy businessman. Located at 6 Ames Hill Drive, the house was designed by Max Westhof, who had moved his practice from New York to Springfield in 1917 and became one of the city’s premiere architects. The Kyburg House, along with the other MacDuffie School buildings, was sold in 2011 when the school relocated to a campus in Granby. While the sale of the old campus, including the Kyburg House, was underway, its buildings were severely damaged by the Springfield Tornado of June 1, 2011. The David Ames, Jr. House, also part of the campus and previously featured on this site, lost its roof and attic story and its front portico was damaged. The sale of the campus proceeded, despite the damage, to a new owner who will continue to use the property as a school, called Commonwealth Academy, a new urban-based private school. Tornado recovery was recently delayed due to an insurance dispute.

William May House (1911)

by Dan/September 12, 2012/Houses, Neoclassical, Springfield

Built in 1911, the William May House is a dramatic example of a Neoclassical Revival style residence. The house is located at 150-152 Sumner Avenue in Springfield.

George B. Blanchard House (1895)

by Dan/September 11, 2012/Houses, Queen Anne, Saugus

The Queen Anne house at 315 Central Street, at the intersection of Columbus Avenue, in Saugus was built around 1895. Its first owner was George B. Blanchard, a Boston real estate agent. The building is now home to Gustafson Physical Therapy.

A.K. McGinley House (1913)

by Dan/September 10, 2012/Craftsman, Houses, Springfield

At 17 Oxford Street in Springfield is a an Arts and Crafts-style house built in 1913. It was designed by G. Wood Taylor, the architect of many homes of the period in Springfield’s Forest Park, McKnight, and Ridgewood neighborhoods. The house was the residence of A.K. McGinley, who was assistant counsel for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Holyoke (1917)

by Dan/September 9, 2012/Byzantine, Churches, Holyoke

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom was celebrated for the first time in Holyoke in 1911 and Greek Orthodox services began to be regularly held in the city by 1914. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church was built in 1916-1917. Two decades later, the mortgage for the church was retired. The Consecration of the edifice, located at 410 Main Street, took place on November 30, 1938. The church was designed by the well known Greek architect, Kyriakos Kalfas of New York City. He modeled its Byzantine design on that of the Church of the Pantocrator in Patras, Greece. A fire on January 31, 1977 extensively damaged the church, but rebuilding process soon began. Services resumed in the church by July 1978 and the building was consecrated again on October 7, 1979.