Greek Revival – Page 2 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Old Methodist Church, Westfield (1843)

by Dan/December 11, 2016/Churches, Commercial, Greek Revival, Westfield

The building at 24-26 Elm Street in Westfield was erected as a Methodist Church (the congregation‘s second church building) in 1843. Commercial businesses were located on the ground floor of the building with the church above, a not unusual practice for urban churches of the time. When a new Methodist Church was completed on Court Street in 1875, the Elm Street building became exclusively commercial and the post office moved into the basement. The cupola, roof and third story were razed in the 1940s.

Dwight Kellogg House (1825)

by Dan/December 3, 2016December 3, 2016/Greek Revival, Houses, Westfield

The house at 14 Franklin Street in Westfield was built in 1825 for Wareham Sackett by Ephraim Crary. It passed to Sackett’s daughter, Henrietta, who married Capt. George Whipple. Their daughter, Julia, married Dwight Kellogg, for whose name the house was afterward known. The house is now used for offices and is in a commercial area.

South Congregational Church, Pittsfield (1850)

by Dan/November 13, 2016November 13, 2016/Churches, Greek Revival, Italianate, Pittsfield

Pittsfield’s South Congregational Church was formed in 1848 because of the enlarged membership of the First Congregational Church. Work soon began on the new church building at 110 South Street, but in September, 1849 a fire destroyed the partially completed structure. Work started over and the completed church was dedicated on November 13, 1850. The steeple has twice been blown down, in 1859 and in 1882.

Roland Ingersoll House (1840)

by Dan/April 8, 2016April 8, 2016/Greek Revival, Houses, Westfield

The Greek Revival house at 47 Court Street in Westfield was built in 1840 for Ronald Ingersoll and is the work of architect Chauncey Shepard. The Ingersoll Family owned the house into the 1930s, when it was purchased by the Baptist Church of Westfield for use as a parsonage. Later it was used by Dr. Kenneth Phillips as an office and residence.

Old Harvard Townhouse (1828)

by Dan/October 13, 2015October 13, 2015/Greek Revival, Harvard, Houses, Public Buildings

The origin of the Town of Harvard’s first Town Hall, or Townhouse, is described by Henry S. Nourse in his 1894 History of Harvard:

The earliest movement looking to the building of a hall especially adapted for the transaction of the town’s business was on April 7, 1807, when a committee was appointed to consider the proposition. The report of the committee was probably adverse, as no further action in the matter is recorded, and the town-meetings continued to be held in the meeting-house as they had been from the first. In 1827 the subject was again agitated, perhaps stirred by some natural objections on the part of the first parish to submit their place of worship to the defilement and injury incident to its frequent use by mixed and sometimes disorderly assemblies. A town-meeting debated the question of the town’s right to use the meeting-house, and finally referred it to a special committee for investigation. Samuel Hoar, Esq., was consulted, and advised the town that the edifice was the property of the first parish exclusively, and that a precisely similar case had already been decided by the supreme court in favor of the church in Medford. A for a new building for the town’s use, forty-four by thirty-four feet, estimated to cost seven hundred dollars, but the whole subject was dismissed at that time.

May 5, 1828, a town-meeting was called at the Baptist meeting-house in Still River, and then it was voted to proceed with the erection of a town house at once. The building was placed on the north-eastern portion of the common, across the highway from the present town hall, where E. W. Houghton’s barn now stands. It faced to the south, and had four Tuscan columns supporting the front gable. There was no provision for warming it until 1832, when a chimney was built and a stove purchased.

After a new Town Hall was built in 1871, the old Townhouse was moved slightly to the north (current address 14 Ayer Road) and converted into a residence by George L . Sawyer, who sold it to his father Arad Sawyer. Later in the nineteenth century it was owned by Sawyer’s daughter Sarah and her husband, Charles P. Atherton.

West Triple House (1834)

by Dan/July 4, 2015/Federal, Greek Revival, Houses, Salem

Erected circa 1833-1834 is a triple house at 5-9 Summer Street in Salem. It was built as an investment by Capt. Nathaniel West, who lived in one of the three units. The house is now part of The Salem Inn. Capt. West had been involved in an infamous scandal when he was divorced from his wife, Elizabeth Derby West, in 1806. In the trial he had lost to her his estate in Danvers, Oak Hill, but later reacquired part of it after her death. He moved it to Salem where it became the front section of the Philips House on Chestnut Street.

Foster House Hotel (1843)

by Dan/January 12, 2015/Greek Revival, Hotels, Westfield

The building at 50 North Elm Street in Westfield was built in 1843 as a hotel by Micajak Taylor. In the 1850s the building was known as the Pontoosic House Hotel and from the 1890s the hotel and tavern/restaurant was known as the Foster House. Thought to be the oldest continuously operated tavern in western Massachusetts, the Foster House has now been closed for several years.