In 1811, the Bond family opened a store at the corner of Main and Central Streets in Boylston. When the store burned down in 1929 it was replaced by a new building, which today has the appearance of an American Foursquare house (1 Central Street) set above a modern storefront on its west side (700 Main Street). It was known as the Bond Corner Store, then the Boylston Center Store and is now the Boylston Deli.
The Clark Block, located at 401-409 Main Street in Worcester (not to be confused with the Clark Building at 492 Main Street, which does not survive today), was built in 1854 for William Clark to plans by Elbridge Boyden. For many years it remained one of the grandest buildings in the city, housing many institutions and businesses. In the 1850s, the adjacent Richmond and Piper Blocks were constructed. J.H. Walker acquired the Clark Block in 1884 and built an addition on the Mechanics Street side of the building. The Clark Block originally had a facade of thirteen bays along Main Street, but six of these (as well as the adjoining Richmond and Piper Blocks) have been covered over. The first two floors of the remaining bays have also been covered, leaving only part of the original facade visible.
The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, now Verizon New England, Inc., was founded in 1883. Am I right in assuming this is the same as the New England Telegraph and Telephone Company? Having just previously occupied (from 1902) a building at the corner of Maple and Suffolk Streets in Holyoke, that company moved into a new Art Deco structure, located two blocks south (at 322 Maple Street), in 1931. The building has lost much of its original ornament.
The Morgan Block, 3-7 Court Street in Westfield, was built c. 1817-1820 by Major Archippus Morgan (1772-1857). Morgan operated a general store on the premises with his partner Martin Cowles and rented additional space for other shops. The YMCA’s first hall in Westfield opened in the building in 1866 (it was here for only three years). Sarah Morgan Way made alterations to the building later in the nineteenth century, adding the bay windows, dormer windows and entry door surrounds. The Morgan Block today houses various professional service offices.
Replacing an earlier office next door (now at the Fruitlands Museum), the Harvard Shakers built the structure known as the New Office Building (or Second Trustees’ Office) the at 78 Shaker Road in 1840-1841. Here the Harvard Shakers had their dealings with the outside world. The large building housed the community’s Trustees, hired help and visitors (among whom were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne). A shop on the first floor sold the Shaker Sisters’ fancy work. In 1935/1936, architect Stanley Bruce Elwell remodeled the interior of the building as a summer residence for Robert Treat Paine. The novelist Thomas Wolfe was once interested in buying the house which, like the other buildings of the Harvard Shaker Village, remains a private residence.
Next to City Hall, at 270-276 High Street in Holyoke, is the J. R. Smith Building, sometimes referred to as Holyoke‘s first skyscraper. Smith owned the city’s largest grocery store. He built his eight-story building in 1906 (or as early as 1898?). Smith later sold the building to John J. Prew. It was thereafter called the Prew Building.
The Columbus Building, at 91-99 Elm Street in Westfield, was built in 1912 by John J. Hearn for his furniture store, Hearn & Company. There is a large c. 1950s slab on the lower right of the building’s front facade where the name “Hearn’s” was once displayed. Some years ago, the building’s upper floors were converted to apartments. Continue reading “Columbus Building (1912)”
