Oliver Hastings was a nineteenth century architect-builder, who designed his own home on Brattle Street in Cambridge. Built in 1844 in the Greek Revival style, the Hastings House was sold in 1888 to William Lawrence. Lawrence was a professor and dean of the nearby Episcopal Theological School and later became Bishop of Massachusetts. The house was acquired by the school (now the Episcopal Divinity School) in 1924.
The old Masonic Building, at the corner of Main and State Streets in Springfield was perhaps built around 1893, as a volume entitled, Masonic Building, Springfield, Mass, “Authority of Committee on Dedication,” was published that year. The building once had a brownstone facade in the Richardsonian Romanesque style which has since been completely removed. A new Masonic Temple building on State Street was built in the Classical Revival style in 1924.
Built between 1871 and 1874, the Hampden County Courthouse was designed by H.H. Richardson and represents a stage in the development of his distinctive style. Located on Elm Street in Springfield, the structure replaced an earlier courthouse of 1822. In the 1860s, the county commissioners had resisted popular pressure to construct a new courthouse, but when the commissioners were threatened with an indictment in 1869 for not safekeeping deeds and public records in fireproof rooms, they relented and a new building was constructed. Between 1908 and 1912, a large addition was built, designed by the firm of Richardson’s successors, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.
The home of Rev. John F. Moors in Deerfield was built in 1848. Rev. Moors was the minister at Deerfield’s Brick Church and later at the Greenfield Unitarian Church. He was also Chaplain of the Fifty-second Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers in the Civil War and wrote the unit’s regimental history.
Built on Old Deerfield Lot 36, the Severance-Hawks House was probably built in 1712 by Joseph Severance, a tailor who fought in the Deerfield Raid of 1704. Severance was later seriously wounded by Indians in 1713. In 1762, the house was bought by Zadock Hawks, who died in 1821. In 1824, Zadock’s son, Zur Hawks, bought out his brothers’ shares in the property. As sole owner, he updated the house in the Federal style. Both father and son were tanners and shoemakers. In 1920, the house was purchased by Grace A. Bement, who founded the Bement School in 1925. Now called Bement House, it one of four buildings used as boarding houses by the school.
The Stebbins-Wright House is a brick Federal-style house in Old Deerfield. It was built in 1824 by Asa Stebbins, for his son, Asa Stebbins, Jr.. Asa, Sr. had earlier built his own house of brick in 1799. The house was owned by Stebbins’ heirs until 1908, when it was acquired by George and Jane Wright. In 1948, it was acquired by Henry and Helen Flynt for Historic Deerfield. They continued to use the name “Wright House” and restored the house to display a collection of high-style furniture. The house is no longer open to the public.
The Hinsdale and Anna Williams House in Deerfield was originally built in 1730 by Ebenezer Hinsdale, who founded Hinsdale , New Hampshire. It later passed through other owners until it came into the possession of Hinsdale’s grandnephew, Ebenezer Hinsdale Williams, whose mother was from Deerfield. In 1816, Williams extensively altered the house in the Federal style, raising the structure in order to install a fanlight above the door, raising the roof and doubling the size of the house with the addition of a two-story ell. Hinsdale Williams lived in the home, with his wife Anna and two children, until his death in 1838. From 1866-1981, the Williams House was occupied by members of the Cowles family. Russell Cowles worked to preserve the house and when the original French scenic wallpaper depicting Venetian scenes, installed by Williams in 1816, was damaged in the Flood of 1936, Cowles went to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to learn how to restore it. The building was restored in the 1980s as part of Historic Deerfield.
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