B&B – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

257 Main Street, Amherst (1878)

by Dan/September 7, 2011December 1, 2011/Amherst, Houses, Stick Style

The dating for the house at 257 Main Street in Amherst, across the street from the Dickinson Homestead, is a little confusing based on the sources immediately available to me. The 2005 guidebook to the Dickinson Historic District describes it as the Cyrus Kingman House, built in the 1850s. Cyrus Kingman was a businessman who established himself in Pelham and then moved to Amherst in 1850, when he purchased the general store that stood where the Town Hall is today. Kingman’s daughters, Martha and Ellen Mary, school friends of Emily Dickinson, died within two weeks of each other in 1851. The surviving daughter, Jane Juliette., and Kingman himself died in 1854. His widow was still living in the house in the early 1870s. Zillow.com has a date for the house of 1878. While Zillow dates are not always accurate, the 1870s seems a more likely period for a house built in the Stick style. Today the house is a bed & breakfast called the Amherst Inn.

Lysander H. Allen House (1886)

by Dan/July 28, 2011July 29, 2011/Amherst, Houses, Stick Style

Lysander H. Allen, a wire goods manufacturer, built his house, at 599 Main Street in Amherst, in 1886. In later years it was the home of his son, Harry Allen, who taught at Amherst College. The house, which is a notable example of the stick style of architecture, was the winner of the 1991 Amherst Historical Commission‘s Preservation Award. It is now a bed & breakfast known as the Allen House Inn.

Curwen/Gillis House (1854)

by Dan/November 27, 2010January 25, 2020/Houses, Italianate, Salem

At 331-333 Essex Street in Salem is the Italianate-style Curwen/Gillis Double House, built by the Curwen family around 1854. Today, the Curwen House has eleven guest rooms and is one of three buildings operated by the Salem Inn.