Category: Commercial

Anderson Market (1828)

by Dan//Commercial, Concord, Federal

The Concord Historic Buildings Website is a project of the Concord Free Public Library. It focuses on several buildings in town, providing a detailed history of each with links to related primary sources, many of which are held in the library’s William Munroe Special Collections. One of the buildings featured on the website is the former Anderson Market at 42-44 Main Street (listed as 32 Main Street in MACRIS). The website provides a detailed history of the building across 29 web pages with numerous links to primary material. The structure is one of the earliest of many commercial buildings erected by the Mill Dam Company, which developed Concord’s downtown starting in 1826. The building was surveyed by Henry David Thoreau in 1853. It was occupied by various businesses in the nineteenth century, including a hatter’s shop, a watch shop, a milliner, and eventually a succession of grocery stores. Lars Anderson and his son Leslie bought the business in 1913, establishing Anderson’s Market. Leslie married Esther Wheeler in 1920 and their son, David “Andy” Anderson, would become the third generation to run the market. In 1930 the building‘s facade was remodeled by architect Harry Britton Little. The market remained in business until 1978. The building is now owned by the fourth generation of the family, David Anderson and his wife Karen, who operate Main Streets Market & Cafe.

Mark Dewey Hat Shop (1816)

by Dan//Commercial, Greek Revival, Houses, Sheffield, Vernacular

On the grounds of the Sheffield Historical Society is a building, constructed about 1816, that once served as a hat and cap manufactory for Mark Dewey and his three apprentices. While conducting his business in the building, Dewey lived next door, in the Dan Raymond House, which is also owned by the Historical Society. He sold his hatter’s shop in 1828. In the 1980s, the building was restored by the Society to house the Mark Dewey Research Center, a collection of historical materials relating to Sheffield and surrounding towns. Continue reading “Mark Dewey Hat Shop (1816)”

Union Block, Concord (1881)

by Dan//Commercial, Concord, Second Empire

The Union Block is a long commercial structure erected in 1881 at 18-16 Main Street in Concord. It was built in a section of the street known as the Milldam, where a dam and mill pond had existed in colonial times. The Milldam Company, incorporated in 1828, had drained the pond and replaced the dam with a gravel road, beginning the process of erecting new buildings in the town’s commercial center. The Union Block replaced three former stores that had stood on the site, including that of George Hunt, which had just burned down. Hunt moved into the west section of the new building, eventually selling his store to Albert Vanderhoof in 1904. Vanderhoof’s Hardware Store, now run by the fourth generation of the family, continues to occupy the space to this day. Numerous other stores have occupied the middle and east sections over the years.

Bismark Hotel (1900)

by Dan//Commercial, Hotels, Italianate, Westfield

In the early 1860s, businessman John C. Buschmann established the Railroad House Hotel on Depot Square, near the train station, in Westfield. In 1899 his son, Thomas Buschmann, hired architect Augustus W. Holton to design a larger hotel to replace the existing one. Called the Bismarck Hotel, it opened in 1900. The building (16 Union Avenue) continued as a hotel until 1930, after which it housed a series of small industrial firms. In 2001 it was acquired by Pilgrim Candle, which already occupied Buschmann’s Block next door. Continue reading “Bismark Hotel (1900)”

Taber Block (1884)

by Dan//Commercial, Holyoke, Romanesque Revival

The commercial building at 281-283 (285) High Street in Holyoke, designed by George P. B. Alderman, was built c. 1884. By 1891 the building was owned by Frank L. Taber, a watchmaker and jeweler. Other businesses have occupied the building over the years, including, starting in 1965, the camera shop of Raymond D’Addario, a photographer who once headed the photography department at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.