Category: Westfield

Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Westfield (1910)

by Dan//Churches, Gothic, Renaissance Revival, Westfield

Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in Westfield was founded in 1903 by Polish immigrants, who first settled in the town in the 1890s. Bishop Thomas Daniel Beaven of Springfield had asked the Missionaries of La Salette to come to the aid of his Polish-speaking parishioners. As there were no Polish speaking La Salette Fathers at that time, five missionaries were sent at the Bishop’s expense to Poland to learn the Polish language. In 1906, the first La Salette Father arrived in Westfield to take charge of the new parish. Holy Trinity Catholic Church, on Elm Street in Westfield, was built in 1909-1910. A parish rectory was also built next to the church, followed by Holy Trinity School in 1921.

First Congregational Church of Westfield (1860)

by Dan//Churches, Italianate, Westfield

The First Congregational Church of Westfield, located on Broad Street across from Westfield Green, is an impressive Italianate edifice. It is the church’s fourth meeting house. The first was built around 1673 and the second around 1720. The latter building burned in 1803 and was replaced in 1805 by a new meeting house, called the Bulfinch Church because of its Charles Bulfinch-derived design. According to Vol. 2 of Lockwood’s Westfield and its Historic Influences (1922):

The old Bulfinch church building was purchased by Hon. William G. Bates, moved to a lot back of its old location, and, the steeple having been taken down, used for carriage making and other purposes for many years, until destroyed by fire.

The present church building was erected in 1860, with L. F. Thayer as architect and George Green as builder. The efficient work of the latter was so highly appreciated when completed that the society voted him a gift of $500.

The original steeple was damaged in a windstorm on February 27, 1886, when it was torn off and crashed into the church. It was replaced by an extremely elaborate second steeple, which was in turn replaced by the current steeple, erected in 1962. Continue reading “First Congregational Church of Westfield (1860)”

Merwin Loomis House (1845)

by Dan//Greek Revival, Houses, Westfield

The house at 51 Court Street in Westfield was built in 1845-1846 for Merwin Loomis, a prominent grocer, and his wife, Lydia. Later, the house was the residence of his granddaughter, Florence, and her husband, Harold Stevens, a former bank treasurer for the Hampden National Bank. Today, the house is home to Lydia’s Gathering Place, a by-reservation-only dining alternative for Small Group Gatherings named for Lydia Loomis.

Buschmann’s Block (1873)

by Dan//Commercial, Second Empire, Westfield

John C. Buschmann emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1852 and moved from Feeding Hills to Westfield in 1857. He established a wholesale tobacco business in 1860 and soon built the Railroad House Hotel (later replaced by the Bismarck Hotel) in Depot Square in Westfield. In 1873, he built Buschmann’s Block at 36 Union Avenue in Dept Square. He used the building as a warehouse and offices for his tobacco and other businesses, which included coal, wood and ice. Buschmann’s Block later became a whip manufacturing plant, a furniture store and then a flower shop. In 1995, the building became home to Pilgrim Candle, which expanded to include the Bismarck Hotel building next door in 2001.

State Normal Training School (1899)

by Dan//Romanesque Revival, Schools, Westfield

At 27 Washington Street in Westfield is a building constructed in 1899-1900 as the State Normal Training School, where student teachers gained experience from 1900 to 1956. Designed by the architectural firm of Gardner, Pyne & Gardner of Springfield, the building is one of only two nineteenth-century structures which survive from the State Normal School at Westfield, later called Westfield State Teachers College, which is today Westfield State University. This school was first established by Horace Mann in 1838 in Barre and became the first coeducational public training school in the nation. The school closed in 1841, but reopened in Westfield in 1844. In 1956, the training school building became a regular elementary school called the Washington Street School. It later was used by the Westfield District Court until 2002. The vacant building was reacquired by Westfield State University in 2006 and then sold to a developer in 2011 to become market-rate student housing.

Col. Lewis Fowler House (1825)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Westfield

The house at 35 West Silver Street in Westfield originally stood across the street. It was built, reputedly using ballast bricks from a Dutch ship, c.1825 by Colonel Lewis Fowler on the site of his family’s earlier homestead. The Fowler House was moved to its current site in 1875 by Cutler Laflin to make way for his new mansion. As related in The Westfield Jubilee (1870):

Another prominent citizen was Col. Lewis Fowler, son of Justus Fowler, brother of Alvin Fowler. He built the red brick house on the corner of Silver and South Maple streets, on the site of the old family mansion. He was never married. He was a farmer, a man of reading and information, a useful and faithful officer of the town, a representative, and died in the year 1849 at the age of fifty-one.

Continue reading “Col. Lewis Fowler House (1825)”

Sackett Tavern (1776)

by Dan//Colonial, Taverns, Westfield

At 1259 Western Avenue in Westfield is Sackett’s Tavern, a landmark of Connecticut River Valley Georgian architecture. It was built around 1776 for Stephen Sackett, who ran the tavern. In 1800 it was sold to Titus Atwater, who operated a posting house, and it remained in the Atwater family until 1900 until it was purchased at auction by Mathew Pitoniak. For a time it was known as the Washington Tavern because it was believed George Washington had slept there. Left vacant for a time, the tavern was purchased and restored by Mr. and Mrs. William A. Fuller in 1962.