Category: Commercial

Pottery, Old Sturbridge Village (1819)

by Dan//Commercial, Industrial, Outbuildings, Sturbridge, Vernacular

Harvey Brooks (1779-1873), of Goshen, Connecticut, began work at the age of sixteen as an apprentice potter. After 1819, he worked for himself as a rural farmer-potter, producing 26 different varieties and sizes of redware pots, pans and jugs. He had a pottery shop and an adjacent kiln, where he burned his last batch of ware in 1864, long after most other redware potters had given up practicing their craft. Brooks‘ pottery shop, built around 1819, was moved to Old Sturbridge Village in 1961 and a replica kiln was built in 1979.

Asa Knight Store (1838)

by Dan//Commercial, Greek Revival, Sturbridge

In the early nineteenth century, Asa Knight operated a general store in the village center of Dummerston, Vermont. In 1826, Knight bought the store, the oldest section of which had been built around 1810, and added a storekeeper’s office. He further expanded the building with a new main wing in 1838-1839. The older section became an ell, attached to the new two-and-a-half story building. By the 1870s, the building ended its period as a store and remained mostly vacant and unmodernized for the next century. In 1972, it was moved to Old Sturbridge Village, restored and restocked to represent a village store of the 1830s. The earliest section, built in 1810, had been removed in 1909 and was reconstructed, based on old photographs and archaeological research.

Phoenix Row (1838)

by Dan//Amherst, Commercial, Italianate

The first great fire in Amherst swept through the center of town in February 1838. Out of the ashes was built a new commercial block with the appropriate name: Phoenix Row. The building, located at 4-16 Main Street, survived another fire in 1872, which started in the outbuildings to its rear. It soon underwent renovations that significantly altered its appearance, most notably with the addition of a new flat Italianate style roof with decorative brackets and gable. Phoenix Row has survived other fires in 1883 and 1989 and continues as a business block today.

Mugford Building (1880)

by Dan//Commercial, Marblehead, Organizations, Queen Anne

Captain James Mugford of the Continental Navy is a Marblehead hero of the American Revolution. The Mugford Association, named in honor of Capt. Mugford, built the prominent Mugford Building, on Washington Street in Marblehead, in 1880. The Association met in a hall on the second story, while the lower level of the building was used for commercial space. The Association disbanded in 1943 and the building has since had other owners. This Marblehead landmark continues to house retail shops.

J.M. Gibbons Store (1934)

by Dan//Colonial Revival, Commercial, Granville

This week we’ll be looking at buildings in Granville, which is in Hampton County on the border with Connecticut. A local landmark is the Granville Country Store, famous for its cheese. John Murray Gibbons developed the recipe and aging process for what is known as Granville Cellar Aged Cheddar. At sixteen he had begun working in the Granville village store and a year later he owned the business. In 1851, he opened a new building for his store in Granville Center, which was also a post office (he served as postmaster) and had a school on the second floor. The store burned down in 1884 and was replaced by a new building. When that structure burned in 1934, it was replaced by the current Colonial Revival-style building, which has a pedimented gable and semicircular window. J.M. Gibbons Sons has had many owners over the years, but is seen by the people of Granville as “their” store.