Dorsey-Jones House (1849)

by Dan//Houses, Northampton, Vernacular

Dorsey-Jones House

The Dorsey-Jones House, located at 191 Nonotuck Street in the village of Florence in Northampton, was built in 1849 by Basil Dorsey. He was a fugitive slave who had escaped from Maryland in 1836 to New York with the help of Robert Purvis, a prominent black abolitionist. Florence was home at that time to a utopian community called the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. The NAEI opposed slavery and aided fugitive slaves. Selah B. Trask briefly lived in the house when Dorsey and his family moved to another home in Florence in 1852. Mary Jones, the wife of Thomas H. Jones, who was also a fugitive slave, purchased the house in 1854. Jones had escaped from slavery in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1849, having already arranged for the escape of his free wife and her enslaved children. Jones then published a narrative of his life entitled The Experience of Thomas H. Jones, Who Was a Slave for Forty-Three Years. Jones and his family lived in Florence until they moved to Worcester in 1859.

Hampden Savings Bank (1918)

by Dan//Banks, Neoclassical, Springfield

Hampden Savings Bank (1918)

The Hampden Savings Bank Building, at 1665 Main Street in Springfield, was built in 1918. Designed by Max Westhoff, it displays fine Classical Revival detailing. The bank was founded in 1852, the same year Springfield was incorporated as a city. It was originally established to serve railroad workers and was located near the railroad depot. From 1852 to 1871, the Hampden Savings Bank shared space with the Agawam National Bank. In 1899 it moved to the Fort Block, at the corner of Main and Fort Streets. The bank occupied its 1918 building until 1952, when it moved to a new building at 19 Harrison Avenue. The former bank building now houses a law office.

Former Our Lady of Fatima Church, Worcester (1911)

by Dan//Churches, Gothic, Worcester

43 Belmont Street, Worcester

The church at 43 Belmont Street in Worcester was built in 1908-1911. Designed by Fuller and Delano, it was the second building used by the First Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church, a congregation that was established in 1881. The congregation merged with two other parishes to form the new Trinity Lutheran Church in 1948 and moved to a new church on Lancaster Street in 1951. The church Belmont Street was sold to the Catholic Diocese of Worcester and became Our Lady of Fatima Church. Over the years the building suffered damage from vibrations from the nearby Interstate 290. Major repairs were made in 1999 and the bell tower at the southeast corner of the church was also removed. The parish served area Catholics until 2009, when the church was closed. It was merged with St. Bernard’s Church to form Our Lady of Providence Parish. The vacant church was in danger of being demolished, but in 2012 the Diocese sold the building to the Chinese Gospel Church of Massachusetts, which had previously been worshiping in a former A.M.E. Zion Church at 21 Belmont Street. The Chinese Gospel Church of Massachusetts also has a church in Southborough, where it was founded in the 1980s.

Old Town Hall, Pittsfield (1832)

by Dan//Federal, Pittsfield, Public Buildings

Old Town Hall, Pittsfield

The Old Town Hall of Pittsfield is a Federal-style brick structure located at 43 East Street. An earlier Town House had stood near here, where St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church stands today. The construction of the church in 1832 had led to the building of what is now the Old Town Hall, as related in J. E. A. Smith’s The History of Pittsfield, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts, From the year 1800 to the year 1876 (1876):

In December, 1831, the Sun stated that the wardens had already contracted for a building of stone in the Gothic style, to be commenced in the following spring. From what the editors had heard, the Sun was “disposed to think that it would contribute much to the beauty of the village.” A difficulty, however, arose at the very outset. It was the desire of Mr. Newton and his associates, that the church should stand, where it was afterwards built, upon what is now the corner of Park place and School street; and they offered the town five hundred dollars for a lot of sufficient size at that point. But the site was already occupied in part by the town-house, in which the Central school-district claimed an interest by virtue of its occupancy of its lower story for a school-room. For this, and other reasons, Lemuel Pomeroy and other citizens, averse to change in the old order of things, opposed the sale, and the proposition was rejected by the town.

Upon this Mr. Newton announced his determination to erect the church on a portion of the grounds attached to his own residence, and adjoining that of Mr. Pomeroy. And here, in the spring of 1832, the contractors began to collect stone and other material. The danger of a chronic and bitter neighborhood feud was imminent; but it was happily avoided by a compromise offered by Mr. Pomeroy, who proposed that the difficulty should be surmounted by the erection of a new town-hall, and the purchase by St. Stephen’s parish, of the school-district’s interest in the old building.

Lemuel Pomeroy paid for the building of the new Town Hall, reserving the basement for his own use. His heirs sold their rights in the building to the town in 1882. The front and back facades of the Old Town Hall are stuccoed and scored at the corners to resemble quoining (masonry blocks at the corner of a wall). The building served as Town Hall from 1832 to 1891 and then as City Hall until 1968. Municipal offices then moved to the former Post Office building. In 1969-1970 the Old Town Hall was renovated to become a bank branch and offices.

74 Fairfield Street, Springfield (1903)

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

74 Fairfield St., Springfield

The house at 74 Fairfield Street in Springfield was built in 1903 for Henry Russell, but it is most notable as the childhood home of Dr. Seuss. Theodore Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in his family’s home on Howard Street. In 1906, when he was two, his family moved to 74 Fairfield Street, where they would live until 1943. The author’s father, Theodore Geisel, senior, ran the family brewery until it closed due to prohibition. He then became superintendent of city parks, which included the local zoo. Ted Geisel moved away after he graduated from Dartmouth in 1925, but images from his childhood in Springfield would later reappear in his illustrated children’s books.