Category: Springfield

State Armory, Springfield (1895)

by Dan//Military, Romanesque Revival, Springfield

One of the many historic buildings that were severely damaged by the June 1, 2011 Springfield tornado was the former Springfield State Armory on Howard Street. Also known as the Howard Street Armory, it was built in 1895 to the designs of Robert Wait and Amos Porter Cutting, Boston-based partners who designed many of the state armories throughout Massachusetts. In more recent years, the Armory served as the South End Community Center. The tornado destroyed the rear drill shed, but the castle-like head house, which faces Howard Street, survived. Now an endangered historic resource, preservationists are hoping the Romanesque Revival structure will be restored. UPDATE: In 2014, the Armory was acquired by MGM Springfield, which demolished the rear section and restored the building’s stone exterior. It now part of the MGM Springfield Casino complex, housing ROAR Comedy Club.

St. Peter and St. Paul Orthodox Church (1944)

by Dan//Byzantine, Churches, Romanesque Revival, Springfield

St. Peter & St. Paul Orthodox Church in Springfield was founded as St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in 1916. The congregation’s first church was a brick house on Carew Street in the city’s North End, which was purchased in 1917. The church was reorganized in 1928, when it took the name of St. Peter and St. Paul Russian Orthodox Church. The original church building was later replaced by the current church, built in 1944 and designed by Arthur A. Smith. The church, which is located at 118 Carew Street, won a Preservation Award from the Springfield Preservation Trust in 2008 for the re-gilding of its onion domes in gold leaf.

F.W. Lathrop House (1899)

by Dan//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//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.

South Congregational Church, Springfield (1875)

by Dan//Churches, Gothic, Springfield

Happy Easter!!! South Congregational Church in Springfield was organized in 1842. According to the “Historical Discourse” by Rev. S.G. Buckingham, published in The Fortieth Anniversary of the South Congregational Church of Springfield, Sunday, March 26, 1882:

The society proceeded at once to “purchase land for a Meeting House, and take all necessary measures for building said House;” also to “employ a minister and provide for public worship.” This was no trifling undertaking, for the number engaged in it was small, and they had none of the wealth now found here, and little of the means which any such enterprise could command now. There were only twenty persons organized into the parish, and forty made up the whole number of the original church. […] And when a lot was to be selected, it was taken upon a side street, and not upon Main street, rather than incur an additional indebtedness of $650—so careful were they about incurring a debt that might be burdensome, and yet so resolute in carrying forward their enterprise. That house of worship was located on Bliss street, a white wooden structure with a spire, and a chapel a little one side, with a study attached. It was a pleasant, comfortable church with galleries, seating about six hundred, and cost $9,463. […] The church was completed and dedicated January 12, 1843 […]

The time came, at length, when one more important step must be taken, before the church could be permanently established, and prosecute its work to best advantage. A new house of worship must be erected, and the location must be changed. Our people were moving away from the neighborhood of the old church, and the Protestant population in the vicinity was diminishing. Besides, we needed ampler and better accommodations. […] The site for the New Church, on the corner of Maple and High streets, was decided upon, and the work of building commenced, in the spring of 1873. The corner-stone was laid, with appropriate religious services, Saturday afternoon, July 19. […] This church was completed and dedicated, February 24, 1875[.]

The architect of the new church was William Appleton Potter. He had received his professional training in the office half-brother, the architect Edward Tuckerman Potter, who designed the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. William’s High Victorian Gothic-style South Congregational Church shares many similarities with Edward’s Church of the Good Shepherd in Hartford.