Category: Houses

Nathaniel Parsons House (1719)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Northampton

About 1730 (now believed to be c.1719) Nathaniel Parsons built a single-chimney house on the homelot originally laid out by his grandfather, Joseph Parsons, in 1654. At one time the house was thought to have been built by Joseph Parsons, known as Cornet Joseph, one of the founders of Springfield and Northampton, whose wife, Mary Bliss Parsons, was famously found not guilty of witchcraft by a jury in 1675. The Parsons House was gradually remodeled and expanded over time by later owners. In 1941, the Parsons House was donated to Historic Northampton and became part of the organization’s collection of historic buildings. It has recently undergone restoration. Continue reading “Nathaniel Parsons House (1719)”

Joseph Dewey House (1735)

by Dan//Colonial, Houses, Westfield

The Joseph Dewey House, at 87 South Maple Street in Westfield, was built in 1735 as a saltbox house. Joseph Dewey was a prosperous farmer who also served as a militia sergeant and had been a town selectman in 1726. In 1756, Dewey sold the house to his son, also named Joseph. In the early nineteenth century, Benjamin Dewey made extensive interior and exterior alterations to the family home, replacing the roof, realigning the chimney and altering the front facade in the Federal style. The house was in the Dewey family until 1856 and then had a number of other owners over the years until 1972, when a developer sold it to the Western Hampden Historical Society. It was then moved 200 feet west, restored as much as possible to its colonial-era appearance and opened as a historic house museum.

Elizabeth Avery Talmadge House (1858)

by Dan//Houses, Italianate, Westfield

In 2007, the former residence at 85 Broad Street in Westfield began conversion into a branch of the Easthampton Savings Bank, earning an Historical Preservation Award for Adaptive Reuse in 2009. The Historical Commission website and a newspaper article from that year call the building the Elizabeth Avery Talmadge House and date it to the early twentieth century (c.1910). The house, though, is in the Italianate style, which was popular decades earlier and also has the dates 1858 and 1859 prominently displayed on the roof cornice. Additionally, Elizabeth Avery Talmadge, for whom the house was named, had died in 1904. Elisha Talmadge, her husband, however died in 1858, which further supports a construction date for a house named for his widow in 1858-1859.

Salem Towne House (1796)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Sturbridge

In the early nineteenth century, Salem Towne, Jr. was a businessman and a leader in public affairs in Charlton. In 1825, Towne inherited an impressive hipped-roof house, built for his father, Salem Towne, Sr., in 1796. The house had a ballroom on the second floor, later divided into bedchambers, that was used for Masonic meetings until 1806. The house’s builder was influenced by the illustrations in the 1792 American edition of William Pain’s Practical Builder, a guidebook of designs for English carpenters. The Salem Towne House was moved to Old Sturbridge Village in 1952 and the interior has recently been restored, with original colors and reproductions of period wallpapers.

Yin Yu Tang (1800)

by Dan//Houses, Salem, Vernacular

Yin Yu Tang (“Hall of Plentiful Shelter”) is a Qing Dynasty Chinese merchant’s house, built around 1800, which was moved to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem and reconstructed there in 1997-2002. The house was first built by a merchant of the Huang family in the village of Huang Cun, located in Xiuning County of the Huangshan Prefecture (a region traditionally known as Huizhou) in Anhui Province. Eight generations of the family lived in the house for nearly two centuries. By the 1980s, the house stood empty, as Huang family members had moved to other parts of the country. In 1996, family members decided to sell the house and the following year, Chinese authorities approved Yin Yu Tang’s move to the United States as part of a cultural exchange helping to protect and promote the architecture of the Huizhou region. It is now open to the public and contains original family furnishings. Also check out my post on the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden.

John Coburn House (1844)

by Dan//Boston, Federal, Houses

John P. Coburn (1811-1873), a free black resident of Beacon Hill in Boston, ran a clothing business and was a community activist. He was treasurer of the New England Freedom Association, which assisted fugitive slaves and, in 1852, he was a founder and captain of the Massasoit Guards, a black militia unit. In 1851, Coburn was arrested for his role in aiding Shadrach Minkins, a fugitive slave, in his escape from federal custody (he was later acquitted). John Coburn’s first house on Beacon Hill was located in a cul-de-sac off of Phillips Street at 3 Coburn Court. Dating to the 1830s, the house, now lost, was recognized in 2005 as one of Massachusetts’ most endangered historic resources. From 1844 until his death in 1873, Coburn lived in the house at 2 Phillips Street, which was designed for him by Asher Benjamin. The house is a site on the Black Heritage Trail.