Month: April 2012

Dr. Reuben Champion House (1815)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, West Springfield

The house at 334 Elm Street in West Springfield was built in 1815 for Dr. Reuben Champion at the time of his marriage to Pama Stebbins. Dr. Champion was born in West Springfield in 1784 and went to school in Westfield. He set up his practice in West Springfield in 1809 and has left account books (now at UMASS) containing a chronological listing of treatment and remedies, but with very little personal information about patients. Patients could earn credit for his services by working his farm land (his homelot occupied several acres). The doctor also served as a justice of the peace and in the state senate. He died in 1865 and is buried in Meeting House Hill Cemetery, which is now called White Church Hill Cemetery. Members of the Champion family lived in the house for 163 years.

Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company (1905)

by Dan//Commercial, Neoclassical, Springfield

At 195 State Street (at the corner of Maple Street) in Springfield is the former headquarters building of the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company. The company was founded in 1851 and had previously been located at Fort and Main Streets. Seven private estates were purchased and demolished to make way for the limestone Classical Revival-style structure, completed in 1905 and designed by the renowned architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns. The building was later used as the offices of the Springfield School Department, but due to various problems, including the lack of air circulation in the summer resulting in oppressive heat, the school offices were recently moved elsewhere. Last year, the antiquated building was sold to a developer who will undertake major renovations and convert it into at least 30 market-rate apartments.

Philip Kilroy House (1905)

by Dan//Houses, Mission Revival, Springfield

On Chestnut Street in Springfield is a stuccoed Mission Revival-style house, built in 1905 as the home and office of Dr. Philip Kilroy. Coming to the United States from Ireland with his parents in 1880, Dr. Kilroy (1866-1932) studied at Harvard Medical School and in Europe, becoming a respected neurologist, dermatologist and psychologist. He was also an antiquarian, who donated his archaeological collection of Indian artifacts to what is now the Springfield Science Museum in 1902. From 1936 to 1981, radio station WSPR owned and broadcast from the Kilroy House. It was later purchased by the Springfield Library & Museums Association and is used as administrative offices. Next to the house stands a tower of turtles topped by Yertle, part of the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden.