Category: Romanesque Revival

Former First Baptist Church of Northampton (1904)

by Dan//Churches, Northampton, Romanesque Revival

In 1822, Benjamin Willard, an itinerant Baptist missionary, began preaching in Northampton. He soon organized a Baptist church, which was formally recognized by the Baptist Association Church Council in 1826. A church building was constructed by builder Isaac Damon on West Street in 1828-1829. A fire on December 29, 1863 damaged the building, and services were held in Northampton Town Hall for a year and a half while repairs were made. A new church, at the corner of Main and West Streets, was completed in May 1904 and dedicated May 22, 1904. In 1988, the First Baptist Church of Northampton joined the First Congregational Church to form the First Churches of Northampton, with worship continuing at the Congregational meeting house. In 1993, the former Baptist Church building was sold to Eric Suher of Holyoke. Restoration of the long vacant building has proceeded slowly, but Suher is continuing with plans to convert it into a conference and banqueting facility.

Hampshire County Courthouse (1887)

by Dan//Northampton, Public Buildings, Romanesque Revival

The Hampshire County Courthouse in downtown Northampton was built in 1886-1887. Designed by architect Henry F. Kilbourn in the Richardson Romanesque style (with similarities to the Richardson-designed Hampden County Courthouse in Springfield), the building is the fourth courthouse on the site. The first was built in 1739 and the second in 1767. Isaac Damon designed the third building, built in 1812, which burned in 1886. The current building’s courtroom is seldom used for court business today, although there is office and storage space and a law library used by the judges and staff at the neighboring court building. Much of the the structure‘s space is used as offices by the Hampshire Council of Governments, which owns the building. An architectural assessment of the Courthouse was recently completed and there are plans to completely renovate it. This project will involve replacing the slate roof, the tiles on the building‘s tower and the 1973 plate glass windows. There will also be major structural reinforcement.

First Congregational Church, South Hadley (1895)

by Dan//Churches, Romanesque Revival, South Hadley

While still a part of Hadley, South Hadley acquired its own minister and meeting house around 1733. When a new meeting house was built in 1761, a split occurred which eventually led to the erection of a separate meeting house in the eastern section of town, which became the town of Granby in 1768. A third church was built in 1815 and a fourth in 1875. This latter building was destroyed in the great fire of 1894. It was then replaced by the current building of the First Congregational Church.

Old Chapel, UMASS (1885)

by Dan//Amherst, Collegiate, Romanesque Revival

One of the most historic buildings on the campus of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst is the Old Chapel. This campus icon is a Richardsonian Romanesque structure, constructed of gray Pelham granite with Longmeadow brownstone trim. Designed by Stephen C. Earle, it was built in 1884-1886, when UMASS was the Massachusetts Agricultural College. It originally had a library on the first floor, a chapel above and a museum for the College’s natural history collection In 1935, the building was renovated by the WPA to house the History and English Departments. Later, it was home for the Department of Music and Performing Arts, and for the UMass Marching Band, which left the building in 1996. Since then, the interior has remained vacant, although the exterior of the Chapel was restored in 1997-1999. This included a complete re-building of the bell tower, with damaged stones being replaced by granite from the original Pelham quarry, which is still owned by Umass, and brownstone from a quarry in Utah. Continue reading “Old Chapel, UMASS (1885)”

Amherst Town Hall (1889)

by Dan//Amherst, Public Buildings, Romanesque Revival

On March 11, 1888, the Palmer Block, in downtown Amherst, burned down in the middle of a blizzard. Because town meetings had been held in the building, the town acquired the land and built a new Town Hall in 1889-1890. The building was designed by H.S. McKay of Boston in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. As described by Frederick H. Hitchcock in his Handbook of Amherst (1891):

The town hall is a picturesque building of brick, red sandstone, and granite. It was erected by the town in 1889 at a cost of $58,000, H. S. McKay of Boston being the designer. In addition to a handsome hall, seating eight hundred and fifty persons, there are rooms for the town officers, the district court, the town library, and several business men.

East Experiment Station, UMASS (1890)

by Dan//Amherst, Collegiate, Romanesque Revival

The East Experiment Station was constructed in Amherst on the campus of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, now the University of Massachusetts, in 1889-1890. It was built with funds made available due to the Hatch Act of 1887, which provided federal funding for the benefit of State agricultural experiment stations. The Richardsonian Romanesque structure was designed by architect Emory Ellsworth and was a companion to his 1889 West Experiment Station. At one time the East Experiment Station, also known as the Hatch Experiment Station, had an attached shed and an ornate Victorian greenhouse, which was later removed. The building, which was built to house the Department of Vegetable Pathology, has been altered for other uses and currently is home to the offices of the University of Massachusetts Press.

Wesley United Methodist Church, Salem (1888)

by Dan//Churches, Romanesque Revival, Salem

Wesley United Methodist Church, at 8 North Street in Salem, was designed by Lawrence B. Valk of New York and was constructed in 1888-1889. The local Salem contractors were J.F. Farrin, Joseph N. Parsons, and Joseph N. Peterson. As explained in the Visitor’s Guide to Salem of 1892, at that time Salem had two Methodist churches. One, the

“Lafayette St. Methodist Episcopal Church, at the corner of Harbor street, was built and dedicated in 1853. This society had previously occupied a smaller house of worship on Sewall street, which was again occupied in 1872, as Wesley Chapel, by members who withdrew from the Lafayette St. Society, and who, largely augmented in numbers, re-organized as […] The Wesley Church and, in 1888, erected the large brick and stone church edifice on North street a few doors from Essex. In construction this is quite different from any other church building in the city. By means of sliding doors, the seating capacity can be much increased by connecting the Sunday school rooms, which are on the street end of the building, with the large audience room. The windows of the church being of stained glass present a most beautiful appearance in the evening when services are being held, the brightly lighted interior reflecting attractively through the large gothic memorial window on North street.

The Lafayette Street United Methodist Church moved to a new building at 292 Lafayette Street in 1910 and in 1994 merged with the Wesley United Methodist Church. Since 2007, the Lafayette Street church building has been the First Baptist Church of Salem.