Category: Town

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.

South Deerfield Congregational Church (1821)

by Dan//Churches, Deerfield, Federal

The Congregational Church in South Deerfield was organized in 1818 and services were held in a schoolhouse on North Main Street. The current church building was constructed in 1821 to the north of the schoolhouse. The church was moved to its present location, at 71 North Main Street, in 1848. That year, there was a split in the church and the Second, or “Monument,” Church was founded, but the two congregations reunited in 1865.

Dr. Ebenzer Ames House (1816)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Wayland

The house at 24 Cochituate Road in Wayland was built in 1816 by Dr. Ebenezer Ames. Born in Marlborough, Dr. Ames came to town (then called East Sudbury) in 1814, the same year he married Lucy Weeks. He had an extensive practice as a physician until his death in 1861. From 1831 to 1875, the house was the residence of Judge Edward Mellen, who was made Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas in 1855. Judge Mellen’s old law office still stands across the street.

Capt. Edward Pousland House (1866)

by Dan//Greek Revival, Houses, Wayland

The house at 43 Cochituate Road in Wayland was built in 1866 by Edward Pousland, a retired sea captain. It was acquired in 1907 by Jonathan Maynard Parmenter, a wealthy farmer, cattle dealer and generous local philanthropist, who donated it to the the First Parish in Wayland as a parsonage in memory of his brother and business partner, Henry Dana Parmenter. In 1955, the house was converted to become a parish house.

John M. Cook House (1884)

by Dan//Colonial Revival, Houses, Lenox, Shingle Style

Transitional in style between the Queen Anne/Shingle style and the Colonial Revival, the house at 120 Main Street in Lenox was built in 1884 by John M. Cook, a farmer and manager for E.J. Woolsey. He sold the house in 1886 and it became known as “The Willows,” a property rented out to summer visitors. In 1905 it was purchased by Father William F. Grace and in 1912 became the rectory for St. Ann Catholic Church. Later in the twentieth century, the house was sold and is now home to Roche Funeral Home.

Hall Judd House (1846)

by Dan//Houses, Northampton, Vernacular

The brick house at 21 Park Street in Florence in Northampton was built in 1846 by Hall Judd, a founder and last secretary of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. Part of the communitarian movement of the nineteenth century, the NAEI was a utopian community that was dissolved the same year that Judd was building his home. From 1851 to 1894, the house residence to (his widow?) Frances P. Judd. Dormer windows and a wraparound porch were added to the house around 1910. The house has a hidden staircase that suggests it was used in the Underground Railroad.

Rev. John Williams House (1760)

by Dan//Colonial, Deerfield, Houses

In 1877 a house on Deerfield‘s Town Common on the Old Albany Road was moved back to make way for a new main school building constructed by Deerfield Academy (and since demolished). The house was believed at the time to have been the one built in 1707 for Reverend John Williams. Survivor of the 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield and subsequent captivity in Canada, Rev. Williams wrote the book The Redeemed Captive about his experiences. His new house replaced the one destroyed in the raid. The current Williams House was actually built in 1760 on the site of the 1707 house by Rev. John Williams’ son, Elijah Williams, who was a shopkeeper and tavern-owner. When the house was in danger of being torn down in 1877, Deerfield historian George Sheldon wrote a series of articles (collected in the book The Rev. John Williams House, published in 1918) that raised awareness of the home’s importance and helped save it from destruction. Today the house is used by Deerfield Academy as the Elijah Williams Dormitory. The house’s original Connecticut River Valley doorway, crafted in 1760 by Samuel Partridge, a renowned joiner, was removed in 2001 to preserve and display it (the doorway is now in Historic Deerfield‘s Flynt Center of Early New England Life). The current doorway is a reproduction.