Josiah Day built his house in West Springfield by 1754 on land he had purchased in 1746. The house is the only known solid brick saltbox house of it’s period in the United States. The home remained in the Day family until 1903, when it was sold to the Ramapogue Historical Society. It is now a house museum open to the public.
Built around 1810 in the Federal style, the North Center School is a one-room schoolhouse that originally stood in Whately. It was moved to the Eastern States Exposition grounds to become part of Storrowton. The entryway of the building was modified to resemble one in the Federal style, as seen on a schoolhouse in Vergennes, Vermont (since moved to the Shelburne Museum), by Storrowtown’s benefactor, Helen O. Storrow.
Captain John Potter built his house in North Brookfield, at the corner of South Main and Ward Streets, in 1776. Potter was a clockmaker and craftsman who also served as a captain in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. His mansion, which Potter built with his own hands, was started just before and completed just after the interruption of the war. It was constructed around Potter’s earlier house and features a faux-masonry exterior, actually made of wood. The house also had a large room for dancing on the second floor and a support pole was used in the dining room below whenever the upper room was used for dancing! Later, the Captain’s son, F.A. Potter, ran a shop attached to the house. In 1929, the Potter House, which had passed out of the Potter family’s hands in 1920, was moved to Storrowton, the recreation of a classic New England village, as imagined by benefactor Helen O. Storrow, at the Eastern States Exposition grounds in West Springfield. It is now open to the public for tours.
The first of the state pavilion buildings constructed as part of the Eastern States Exposition’s “Avenue of States” was the Massachusetts Building, dedicated in 1919 by then governor Calvin Coolidge. The building, designed by architect James H. Ritchie, is a replica of the Old State House in Boston.
The Eddy Law Office, originally built around 1810 in the town of Middleborough, was later moved to the Eastern States Exhibition grounds in West Springfield to become part of the historical Storrowton Village. The building was the law office of Zachariah Eddy, one of the foremost lawyers of his day. In Middleborough, it stood not far from the Eddy Family Homestead, built in 1803. In town is also the later Zachariah Eddy House of 1831, now a Bed & Breakfast.
The Levi Gilbert House was built in West Brookfield around 1794. It is one of the buildings to be moved in the twentieth century to the Eastern Stares Exposition grounds, in West Springfield, to form part of Storrowton Village, a recreation of a nineteenth century village. The Gilbert House displays for visitors the life of an eighteenth century farmer.
The Connecticut Building was the fifth New England state building to be constructed on the “Avenue of States” at the Eastern States Exposition fairgrounds in West Springfield. The cornerstone was laid by Governor Wilbur C. Cross on September 20, 1938 and the building, designed as a replica of the Old State House in Hartford, was completed the following year. Edit: I’ve taken a better quality image of the building; below is the old one… Continue reading “Connecticut Building (Eastern States Exposition) (1939)”