Month: September 2012

Holyoke Armory (1907)

by Dan//Gothic, Holyoke, Military

At 163 Sargeant Street in Holyoke is a former National Guard Armory, originally called the M.V.M. Armory for the Massachusetts Volunteer militia. It was designed by local architect William J. Howe and built in 1907. Its facade was said to be a replica of New Hawarden Castle, once the residence of former British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. In 1990, the building was seized by the Hampden County Sherriff to house excess prisoners. The Armory building is currently vacant.

Update 3-13-16: The rear of the building has been collapsing.

St. Peter and St. Paul Orthodox Church (1944)

by Dan//Byzantine, Churches, Romanesque Revival, Springfield

St. Peter & St. Paul Orthodox Church in Springfield was founded as St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in 1916. The congregation’s first church was a brick house on Carew Street in the city’s North End, which was purchased in 1917. The church was reorganized in 1928, when it took the name of St. Peter and St. Paul Russian Orthodox Church. The original church building was later replaced by the current church, built in 1944 and designed by Arthur A. Smith. The church, which is located at 118 Carew Street, won a Preservation Award from the Springfield Preservation Trust in 2008 for the re-gilding of its onion domes in gold leaf.

Elijah Northrup House (1790)

by Dan//Federal, Houses, Lenox

Associated early on with the Cook family, the Elijah Northrup House in Lenox was built around 1790, when it was a tavern and farmhouse. Richard Sands Tucker of Brooklyn, NY purchased the house in 1866 and his widow later sold it to Henry Sedgwick. His son, Manton R. Sedgwick, sold the house to Caroline Katherine Carey, who purchased the property in 1928 so it could serve as the Lenox branch of the Berkshire County Home for Aged Women. In more recent years the house, located at 114 Main Street, has served as offices, most recently for Winstanley Partners.

F.W. Lathrop House (1899)

by Dan//Colonial Revival, Foursquare, Houses, Neoclassical, Springfield

F.W. Lathrop was a Springfield real estate dealer. In 1899, he supervised the construction of his own house at 188 Sumner Street from plans executed by Carroll H. Pratt, who was the assistant of architect Louis Frank Newman. The house has an American Foursquare form with Colonial Revival and Neoclassical architectural features. The house later became the first home of Sinai Temple, which moved to a new building at 1100 Dickinson Street in 1950. The house was next home to Lubavitcher Yeshiva Academy and then to an artist who ran “The Mansion House” art school in his home. For 17 years the house was owned by the Griffin family and most recently by an owner who in 2003 opened a bed-and-breakfast in the house called the Lathrop House B&B, which closed last year.

George W. Kyburg House (1929)

by Dan//Houses, Springfield, Tudor Revival

One of the houses that later became part of the MacDuffie School campus in Springfield was a Tudor Revival home built in 1929 for George W. Kyburg, a wealthy businessman. Located at 6 Ames Hill Drive, the house was designed by Max Westhof, who had moved his practice from New York to Springfield in 1917 and became one of the city’s premiere architects. The Kyburg House, along with the other MacDuffie School buildings, was sold in 2011 when the school relocated to a campus in Granby. While the sale of the old campus, including the Kyburg House, was underway, its buildings were severely damaged by the Springfield Tornado of June 1, 2011. The David Ames, Jr. House, also part of the campus and previously featured on this site, lost its roof and attic story and its front portico was damaged. The sale of the campus proceeded, despite the damage, to a new owner who will continue to use the property as a school, called Commonwealth Academy, a new urban-based private school. Tornado recovery was recently delayed due to an insurance dispute.