November 2011 – Page 2 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

Lessey-Stockbridge House (1870)

by Dan/November 18, 2011October 20, 2012/Amherst, Gothic, Houses, Stick Style

According to The History of the Town of Amherst (1896):

Chauncey W. Lessey, son of Alanson, was born in New Fairfield, Conn. in 1837. He came to Amherst in 1865, and engaged in business as a building contractor. He built the First church, Grace church, Walker hall, Palmer’s block and many dwelling-houses. He was for five years chairman of the board of selectmen and for many years one of the assessors. He represented the town in the General Court in 1876. He was a leading member of Grace church. For several years he was a trustee of the Amherst Savings bank. He married, Melvina Swanger. He died Aug. 26, 1877.

He also built his own stylistically eclectic home, at 94 Lessey Street, about 1870. After Lessey’s widow moved out of the house, it was purchased by Levi Stockbridge in 1886. Stockbridge was a farmer and agricultural scientist from Hadley who was instrumental in the early history of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, now UMASS. He helped clear the land for the school and was its first farm superintendent (1867-1869). He was later a full professor (1872-1879), acting president (when President William Smith Clark left for Japan in 1876), and fifth president (1880-1882). Stockbridge also had a hand in the development of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. As a scientist, he held patents for his experiments in fertilizer development, nutrient leaching and soil mulching and wrote Experiments in Feeding Plants (1876). He also served in the state legislature and as a Selectman of Amherst.

Law Office, Old Sturbridge Village (1796)

by Dan/November 17, 2011November 15, 2011/Commercial, Sturbridge, Vernacular

John McClellan was a lawyer in Woodstock, Connecticut, active in the first half of the nineteenth century. His law office in Woodstock, built around 1796, was acquired by Old Sturbridge Village in 1962 and was moved there in 1965.

Capt. Benjamin Stacy House (1735)

by Dan/November 16, 2011November 15, 2011/Colonial, Houses, Marblehead

On Washington Street, off Market Square, in Marblehead is a house built in 1735 for Capt. Benjamin Stacy, hatter and innholder of the Three Cods Tavern. Benjamin Stacy married Tabitha Glover. She was the widow of Jonathan Glover and her son, John Glover, who would play an important role in the Revolutionary War, grew up in the Stacy House. The house was enlarged around 1770 by John Sparhawk, a merchant.

John Adams House, Marblehead (1795)

by Dan/November 15, 2011/Greek Revival, Houses, Marblehead

On State Street, near Washington Street, in Marblehead is a gambrel-roofed house which, according to the historic marker on the house, was built in 1795 by Benoice Johnson, cabinet maker, for John Adams, mariner. The facade of the house is now Greek Revival, so it was probably altered in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

Enos Cook House (1855)

by Dan/November 14, 2011/Amherst, Houses, Stick Style

Built about 1855, the Enos Cook House stands at 30 Boltwood Walk (formerly 10 Lessey Street) in Amherst. Enos Foster Cook, a prominent Amherst businessman and entrepreneur, was president of the Amherst Savings Bank from 1870 until his death in 1909, at the age of 93. His house, an early example of the Stick style combined with Gothic and Georgian elements, became a nursing home in 1955. A north wing was added in 1960. More recently, the former house has been used as a restaurant with additional space for other businesses.

Former First Baptist Church of Northampton (1904)

by Dan/November 13, 2011August 11, 2012/Churches, Northampton, Romanesque Revival

In 1822, Benjamin Willard, an itinerant Baptist missionary, began preaching in Northampton. He soon organized a Baptist church, which was formally recognized by the Baptist Association Church Council in 1826. A church building was constructed by builder Isaac Damon on West Street in 1828-1829. A fire on December 29, 1863 damaged the building, and services were held in Northampton Town Hall for a year and a half while repairs were made. A new church, at the corner of Main and West Streets, was completed in May 1904 and dedicated May 22, 1904. In 1988, the First Baptist Church of Northampton joined the First Congregational Church to form the First Churches of Northampton, with worship continuing at the Congregational meeting house. In 1993, the former Baptist Church building was sold to Eric Suher of Holyoke. Restoration of the long vacant building has proceeded slowly, but Suher is continuing with plans to convert it into a conference and banqueting facility.

Stebbins-Lathrop House (1790)

by Dan/November 12, 2011November 11, 2011/Houses, Italianate, Northampton

The house at 81 Bridge Street in Northampton was built in 1790 by Asahel Wright and was sold to James Bull in 1809. It was later owned by a physician, Dr. Daniel Stebbins. Through his correspondence with missionaries in China, Dr. Stebbins was one of the earliest people in the area to import silkworm eggs in 1842. Stebbins had 12 acres of mulberry trees behind his home and he and his daughters fed the leaves to the worms. Dr. Stebbins brought a silk weaver from Lyons, France to weave his family’s silk. After Dr. Stebbins’ death in 1859, his daughter Clarissa resided in the house with her husband, Henry Lathrop. They hired the architect William F. Pratt to redesign the originally Federal-style house in the fashionable Italianate style, an altered appearance it maintains today.