1930s

Frank L. Brigham House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 73 Washington Road in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


The Forest Park neighborhood features a number of large mansions from the early 20th century, most of which are located along Longhill Street. On the side streets, the houses tend to be more modest in size, but one of the exceptions is this house, which was built in 1902. Its architecture is a combination of Colonial Revival and English Revival styles, and it was designed by G. Wood Taylor, who was one of the city’s leading architects of the era. Aside from being far larger than most of the other homes in the neighborhood, it also enjoys an idea location at the corner of Washington Road and Pineywoods Avenue, far removed from the busy Sumner Avenue and directly across from Forest Park.

The house was built for Frank L. Brigham, a clothing merchant who was the president of the Springfield-based D. H. Brigham & Company. The store specialized in women’s clothing, and for many years it was located in the old Springfield Republican building, which is still standing at 1365 Main Street. Frank Brigham began working for the store in the late 1890s, and he served as president until his retirement in 1915, when he sold his interest in the company. During this time, he lived here in this house with his wife Frances, and their two daughters, Frances and Dorcas. Frances’s mother, Euretta, also lived here, and the family also employed two-live in servants.

The family sold the house soon after Brigham’s retirement, because by 1916 it was owned by attorney James L. Doherty, who lived here with his wife Harriet and their two sons, James and Louis. He died in the early 1920s, but by the 1930 census Harriet was still living in this house. Both of her sons were also still here, with James working as a stock broker and Louis following in his father’s footsteps as a lawyer. However, the family sold the house just a few years later, and by the time the first photo was taken it was the home of Jacob and Eva Fisher, Russian immigrants who lived here with their two adult children, Milton and Anita, along with Anita’s husband, Abbott Brunelle.

In the nearly 80 years since the first photo was taken, there have been some minor changes, including the removal of the patio at the front of the house and the balustrades atop the porches. Overall, though, the house has been well-maintained, and it still stands today as one of the largest homes in the neighborhood. Along with the rest of the area, it is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

David J. Bordeaux House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 82 Pineywoods Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built around 1907, at the same time as the similar-looking house next door at 76 Pineywoods Avenue. It was originally owned by David Bordeaux, a photographer who, along with his wife Elizabeth, had previously lived in a different home in Forest Park, at 19 Churchill Street. They had only lived in their Churchill Street home for about 10 years, but they lived here in this house for an even shorter time, because by 1911 they had sold it to another couple who were, coincidentally, also named David and Elizabeth.

David and Elizabeth Birkett were married in Springfield in 1908, and for a few years they had rented a home on Dickinson Street near the “X” in Forest Park. However, by 1911 they had purchased this house, and a year later their daughter Jean was born. David was originally from Scotland, but immigrated to the United States in 1894 and went on to become a buyer for the Forbes & Wallace department store. However, like the previous owners of the house, they did not live here for very long, because by the end of the decade they had moved to Minneapolis.

The house was subsequently sold to Wilson and Lona Hodgdon, who moved in a few years after their marriage in 1915. They were both in their late 40s when they were married, and it was the second marriage for both of them, after having been widowed. Lona soon became widowed for a second time, though, after Wilson’s death in 1918. She continued living in this house afterwards, and worked as a jeweler for True Brothers, a Springfield jewelry store that had been founded by her first husband, Fred L. True, and his brother Harry.

Lona was still living in this house when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s, but she died a few years later in 1942. However, the house has remained well-preserved since then, and it is one of the many turn-of-the-century homes that form the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Frederick A. Rugen House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 76 Pineywoods Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built around 1907, and was originally owned by Frederick A. Rugen, a carpet designer for the Hartford Carpet Company in Enfield, Connecticut. He and his wife Lillie were about 50 years old when they moved into the house, and they were joined by their four children, who were in their teens and early 20s. The three oldest children were all employed by the 1910 census, with their son Wilbur working as an insurance clerk, and their daughters Hazel and Mildred working as a teacher and a stenographer, respectively.

Frederick Rugen lived in this house until his death in 1923, and soon after the house was sold to Michaels H. Grassly, a traveling salesman for a paper company. He remained here with his wife Jessie until around 1937, when they sold the property to Clark and Marion Wilson. Clark worked as an engineer for a telephone company, and he and Marion were living here with their young son, William, when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s.

The Wilson family went on to live in this house for the next three decades, during which time Clark  published a book, Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts 1877-1930, in 1959. After his death in 1966, Marion sold the house, which has remained well-preserved in the nearly 80 years since the first photo was taken. Hardly anything has changed in this scene, and even the tree in front of the house appears to be the same one in both photos. Along with the rest of the neighborhood, the property is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

George M. Faulkner House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 53 Florentine Gardens, at the corner of Pineywoods Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


Most of the homes that were built in Forest Park at the turn of the 20th century are considered to be works of Colonial Revival architecture, although this category encompasses a wide variety of styles. The area’s developers took advantage of this, creating a neighborhood with a remarkable diversity in the designs of the houses. One of the more common styles was a modification of the American Foursquare design, which is seen here in this house on Florentine Gardens. Built around 1903, it has many similarities to its neighbors, such as the house at 43 Florentine Gardens, but it still has unique features of its own.

The first owner of this house was built for George M. Faulkner, an insurance agent who lived here for a few years. However, by 1908 he had moved out, and the house had been sold to William and Lydia Laird. Originally from Vermont, they were in their mid-40s when they moved to Springfield, and by the 1910 census William was working as a floorwalker for a department store. However, Lydia died a year later, and soon after William sold the house and returned to Vermont, where he was living with his brother by the 1920 census.

Following William Laird’s departure, the house was sold to Harry and Florence Sprague, who were living here by at least 1915. Harry was an architect, and he designed a number of buildings in the city, particularly apartment blocks and commercial buildings. He designed the western addition to the Classical High School in 1922, and perhaps his most architecturally significant work was the Tarbell-Waters building at the corner of Chestnut and Bridge Streets. Along with this, he also designed some of the apartment buildings in the present-day Quadrangle-Mattoon Historic District, including the ones at 97 and 127 Spring Street and 82-86 Pearl Street.

By the 1920 census, the Spragues were living here with their 14 year old daughter Dorothy and Florence’s widowed sister, Nettie J. Reed. Dorothy left home in the 1920s, and Nettie died in 1933, but Harry and Florence were still living here when the first photo was taken. They would remain here for the rest of their lives, until Harry’s death in 1950 and Florence’s in 1967. Since then, the house has been well-preserved, and like the rest of the neighborhood it is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

William H. Moore House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 43 Florentine Gardens in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


William H. Moore was a conductor for the Boston and Albany Railroad, and in 1901 he moved into this newly-built house in Forest Park, along with his wife Annie and their two teenaged daughters, Elsie and Carolyn. After living here for about a decade, Elsie married Richard W. Upson in 1911, and a year later Carolyn married Harold B. Adams, a young dentist who lived nearby on Spruceland Avenue. However, their mother Annie died several months after Elsie’s wedding, and William subsequently moved to Longmeadow with her and Richard.

After their marriage, Carolyn and Harold continued living here in this house, with Harold commuting from here to his office on Main Street near the corner of Worthington Street. After less than two years of marriage, though, Carolyn died in 1914 from complications following the birth of their only child, Burton. Harold later left this house and moved into an apartment on Sumner Avenue, where he and Burton were living by the 1920 census.

In the meantime, this house was sold to Arthur I. Franklin, a shoe polish factory manager who lived here for a few years with his wife Elizabeth and their three children. In 1922, though, the house was sold again, to Anson and Frances Viets. Anson was the president and treasurer of the Springfield-based New Method Loan Company, and he lived here in this house until his death in 1938, around the same time that the first photo was taken. In the census two years later, Frances was still living here, along with her daughters, Marion and Frances, and her nice, who was also named Frances. She would remain until 1951, when she finally sold the property.

Nearly 80 years have passed since the first photo was taken, and very little has changed in the appearance of the house. As is the case with many similar homes in the Forest Park neighborhood, the decorative balustrade has disappeared from the top of the porch, but otherwise the house remains well-preserved in its Colonial-Revival appearance. Today, like the rest of the surrounding neighborhood, it is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Joseph O. Daniels House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 39 Florentine Gardens in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


The development of the Forest Park neighborhood at the turn of the 20th century attracted many of the city’s upper middle class residents, including insurance agent Joseph O. Daniels, who moved into this house after it was built in 1908. He and his wife Mary were both about 40 years old at the time, and their only child, Joseph Jr., was about 11. They went on to live here for about a decade, but by the 1920 census the family had decidedly humbler living arrangements in the Victoria Hotel, a cheap residential hotel on State Street in a building that had been previously been the home of the YMCA.

In 1920, this house was being rented to Robins C. Vivian, an English-born paint merchant who was living here with his wife Ethel and their two daughters, Ethel and Emily. He was one of the incorporators of the Springfield-based New England Paint Supply Company, and he lived here for many years, eventually purchasing the house. By the time the first photo was taken, he and Ethel were still living here, and he was listed in the city directory as the secretary and treasurer of the paint company. However, within a few years he evidently changed occupations, and was working as a railroad clerk. Like the previous owner of the house, he also ended up at the Victoria Hotel, where he was living by the late 1940s.

The house was subsequently purchased by Alden and Elizabeth Blankenship, who lived here until selling the house in 1949. During this time, Alden worked as the superintendent of schools in Springfield, and he would later go on to become superintendent in Tacoma, Washington and Gary, Indiana. Since then, the house has remained essentially unchanged. Like the other homes in the neighborhood, it has been well-maintained in its original appearance, and it now forms part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.