Harvard Shaker Square House (1769)

by Dan//Churches, Colonial, Harvard, Houses, Organizations

Square House

The town of Harvard was once home to the second Shaker community in the United States and the first in Massachusetts. Religious dissenters in the town had built the structure known as the “Square House” in 1769. They were followers of Shadrach Ireland, a “New Light” Baptist preacher who died in 1778 (an event that astounded his followers, who believed him to be immortal!). Mother Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers, visited this dissenting community in 1781-1782 and brought them into the United Society of Believers (Shakers). The Square House then became her base for two years as she went on missionary trips to establish other Shaker communities in New England. The house was used for various purposes by the Shakers until the community closed in 1917. The building‘s original hipped roof was replaced by a gable roof in 1845, at which time the Shakers also added a porch, a third floor and an addition. The house (94 Shaker Road) is now a private residence. The picture above is not a good view, but I have used it due to the building’s great historical and religious importance.

Ministry Shop, Hancock Shaker Village (1873)

by Dan//Hancock, Industrial, Organizations, Vernacular

Ministry Shop

Shaker communities were guided by two Elders and two Eldresses who together were known as the Ministry. Hancock Shaker Village was overseen by a Ministry that also had responsibility for the Shaker communities in Tyringham, Massachusetts and Enfield, Connecticut. Like the Shaker brethren and sisters, the Elders and Eldresses were also required to perform hand-labor. The Ministry had an early workshop at Hancock Shaker Village that was moved to north side of Route 20 in 1829 when the Brick Dwelling was constructed. By 1848 there were two Ministry shops, one for Elders and one for Eldresses. A new Ministry Shop was built in 1873 on the foundation of one of these earlier shops. The Ministry Shop was later used as a home for Shakers who had been displaced by the closure of the Enfield, Connecticut community in 1917. Continue reading “Ministry Shop, Hancock Shaker Village (1873)”

Sedgwick Little House (1898)

by Dan//Colonial Revival, Houses, Stockbridge

Sedgwick Little House

At 18 Main Street in Stockbridge is a house known as the “Sedgwick Little House” or the Erik Erikson House. Its earliest section was originally a large cottage built c. 1855 (other dates claimed for the house are 1850 and the 1870s). In 1896, the property was acquired by Henry Dwight Sedgwick III, prominent Stockbridge resident and one of the well-known Sedgwick family. The Sedgwick Pie in Stockbridge Cemetery is the famous burial place of the Sedgwick family. In 1898, Henry D. Sedgwick built “the Sedgwick Little House” (the central section of the current Colonial Revival mansion) for his son Alexander (1867-1929). This seems to have replaced the original cottage (?). The house was later expanded through additions made between 1898 and 1908. The east and west wings were added by Edward L. Morse, who bought the house in 1908. Later, the house was purchased by the well-known writer and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, who was working at the Austin Riggs Center at the time. The house is now a bed & breakfast called the Taggart House.

Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Roman Catholic Church, Adams (1887)

by Dan//Adams, Churches, Romanesque Revival

Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Roman Catholic Church

In vol. II of The History of the Catholic Church in the New England States (1899), Rev. John J. McCoy relates the origins of Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs parish:

Just one year beyond a quarter of a century need we go to find the French-Canadian people of Adams assisting for the first time at Mass in a body by themselves. Then, January 4, 1872, Father Charles Crevier, the pastor of the Sacred Heart church at North Adams, gathered them into a hall on the third story of a building in the town, and said Mass for them and preached to them in their native tongue. Five years later, on Park street, upon land which he had already purchased for $2500, he built a frame chapel at a cost of $5000. The original yet serves the people as a school for the parish children. In September, 1882, Bishop O’Reilly made the Rev. John Baptist Charbonneau, then a curate of Father Crevier, the first resident pastor of the Canadians of Adams.

The parish acquired additional property at 21 Maple Street for $15,000 and

Father Charbonneau, in 1887, hardly five years from the time of his appointment, laid the foundation of the spacious and beautiful church which is the pride of the Canadian people today. Bishop O’Reilly is reported as having called the church of the Sept. Douleurs one of the most beautiful in his diocese. It is of Romanesque architecture, 150 feet long by 70 feet wide, and has seating capacity for 1500 people.

In 1998, Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs Roman Catholic Church and St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church in Adams formed a joint parish. In 2008, the two parishes merged to form Pope John Paul the Great Parish, now called Blessed John Paul Parish.

Elisha Hammond House (1845)

by Dan//Houses, Northampton, Vernacular

26 Maple Street, Florence

Elisha Hammond was an artist and craftsman in Northampton who joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a utopian society, in 1844. The NAEI opposed slavery and supported fugitive slaves–Hammond’s obituary stated that “fugitives were never turned from his door.” In 1844 he painted a well-known portrait of Frederick Douglass. In 1845 Hammond built the house at 26 Maple Street in the Northampton village of Florence.