The first occupant of the house at 25 West Street in Hadley was Daniel Dickinson. He had married in 1779 and the house was built soon after. He also started a tannery that was continued by his son and grandson. Eliakim Smith, a local builder, worked on a shop & addition. The house remained in the Dickinson family until 1905.
A barn, constructed in 1782 on the Porter-Phelps-Huntington estate, was moved in 1930 to the rear of the Hadley Town Hall. It is now home to the Hadley Farm Museum, which houses a collection of vehicles and equipment used on New England farms from the eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries. When it was moved, the barn‘s exterior was redecorated with white painted clapboards. A doorway was added, which is a copy of the famous Connecticut River Valley doorway of the Samuel Porter House in Hadley.
In 1830, Dr. Reuben Bell purchased a lot in Hadley that was occupied by the blacksmith shop of Horace Seymour (d. 1829). Bell then moved the blacksmith shop and built a house (29 West Street) for his son, John Smith Bell, who received title in 1839.
This is the 600th post for Historic Buildings of Massachusetts! The oldest house in Hadley is the Samuel Porter House at 26 West Street. It was built in 1713 by Samuel Porter (1660-1722), the son of Samuel Porter, an original settler of Hadley. The house is famed for its Connecticut River Valley scroll pedimented doorway, which was probably added to house by Eleazer Porter in about 1761. The house remained in the Porter family until 1868, when it was purchased by Oliver Thayer, a stagecoach driver. It was later in the McQueston family for over a century. A nineteenth-century side porch was later replaced by the current two-level porch on the south side of the house. The property is currently for sale.
By 1700 a ferry ran across the Connecticut River between Hadley and Hatfield. According to the National Register of Historic Places Nomination for the Boundary Increase of the Hadley Center Historic District, Solomon Cook operated the ferry crossing and a tavern on the Hadley side of the river. In 1795, Andrew Cook purchased a home lot adjacent to the river in Hadley and erected his house (1 West Street) there around 1800. He operated it as a later version of Cook’s Tavern, also called the Ferryman’s Hotel. Other sources refer to the the building as the Solomon Cook Tavern, named for Solomon Cook (Andrew’s brother?), whose wife was Tryphena Newton Cook. The second floor of the tavern had a ballroom with seats built into the wall. In 2006-2007, the old tavern was restored and put on the market. It was sold, but was for sale again a year later.
The Greek Revival-style Town Hall of Hadley was built in 1841. It was constructed by William Pratt, a builder who was the father of architect William Fenno Pratt.
The Religious Society of North Hadley was organized in 1831, having separated from the First Congregational Church of Hadley. The meeting house was built and dedicated in 1834 and the steeple was added in 1854.