Georgian

The back of the house at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road in Longmeadow, on November 17, 1907. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The scene in 2024:

These two photos show the back of the Josiah Cooley House, which was built sometime around 1760, as explained in more detail in an earlier post. The house has seen considerable changes over the years, as was often the case with colonial New England homes which grew as the families grew. This house was originally built as a saltbox-style house, with four rooms on the first floor, two rooms on the front part of the second floor, and a long, sloping roof here in the back. It was originally owned by Josiah Cooley and his son, Josiah Cooley Jr., and then by the younger Josiah’s daughter Lucy and her husband Luther Colton.

Around 1827–1835, the house underwent significant alterations and additions. This included raising the roof to create a full second story, and it also involved building two additions. In the distance on the left side of the house is a two story addition that has its own chimney. This was built for one of Lucy and Luther’s children, Luther Woolworth Colton, who lived in that part of the house after his 1835 marriage to Abigail Morris. Around this same time, the Colton family also added the one-story wing here in the foreground, which appears to have been primarily used as a workshop and/or shed, rather than as living space.

Other changes during this period included upgrading the windows on the front part of the house. Originally, the windows had 12 panes of glass on each sash, a style that is referred to as 12-over-12. However, as glassmaking improved in the early 19th century, larger panes of glass became easier to produce, and 6-over-6 windows became the preferred style for most homeowners. The Coltons replaced the windows in the front of the house, but rather than discarding the old ones, they repurposed them here on the back, where the windows were installed in the additions, where they would be less visible from the street. These windows were still on the house when the top photo was taken in 1907.

The Colton family eventually sold the house in 1869 to Bradford W. Palmer, and then he sold it three years later to William G. Emerson. It would remain in the Emerson family for more than 70 years, and by the time the top photo was taken it was owned by William’s daughter Annie, who lived here with her brother Henry and half brother Paesiello. Annie was a teacher, and she was also the town historian. She spent a considerable amount of time researching the history of this house, and her brother Paesiello took many photographs of the house, on both the interior and exterior. Together, her written account and his photography provide valuable information about the history of the house and the changes that it underwent.

Henry Emerson was the last of the family to live in this house, and he died in 1943. The house was subsequently sold, and over the years it has seen further changes. Most noticeably, this has included the expansion of the back wing, which now has a two-car garage. Next to the garage is a small covered porch, along with a door that leads into the back of the house. Another newer addition is the enclosed porch on the right side. On the second floor, there is now a third window, which was installed when one of the rooms was divided into two bathrooms during a mid-1940s remodel of the house.

Overall, despite these changes, the house has retained much of its historic appearance. The front of the house has remained mostly unchanged since the early 20th century, and the changes here in the back have generally been sensitive to its historic character. Many of the original 12-over-12 windows are also still here, including the double windows on the first floor, which are hard to see from this angle because of the enclosed porch.

The house at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road in Longmeadow, seen from the northeast around the 1910s or 1920s. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The house in 2024:

These two photos show the Josiah Cooley House, which has been discussed in more detail in previous posts. It was built sometime around 1760, but was subsequently expanded around 1827–1835. This involved building the two additions that are shown here in these photos, including the one-story wing in the back of the house, and a two-story wing here on the north side of the house. The house was owned by Josiah Cooley and his descendants for over a century, and subsequent owners included the Emerson family, who lived here from 1872 to 1943.

Also visible in these two photos is the David Hale House, which stands in the distance on the left side of the scene. It was built sometime around the mid-19th century at the southwest corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road, and it features Greek Revival style architecture, which was typical for this period. It was originally owned by David Hale, but after his death in 1865 it was sold to Michael Kinney, whose family lived here into the early 20th century.

Today, this scene is not significantly different from when the top photo was taken a century ago. Both houses are still standing, although the Hale house is now part of the campus of Bay Path University. The Cooley house was also part of Bay Path for a time, although the school recently sold the property and it is once again a private residence.

The house at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in July 1925. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The house in 2024:

This house has been well documented here on Lost New England due in large part to the efforts of half siblings Paesiello and Annie Emerson, whose family owned this house in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Paesiello was an amateur photographer, and this historic colonial house was a frequent subject of his photographs. Likewise, Annie was the town historian, and she extensively researched the history of the house. Her narrative was a valuable resource for me when I was writing an earlier blog post, which includes a detailed history of the property. The Emersons also played an important role in preserving the house at a time when many other old Longmeadow houses were being demolished or moved to make way for new suburban developments.

The recorded history of this property dates to the early 1700s, when Eliakim Cooley (1681–1758) built a house on this site, probably around the 1710s or 1720s. It was definitely here by 1728, when it was struck by lightning on May 19. The exact fate of this early house seems unclear, though, including whether it was destroyed by the lightning, and whether it was subsequently rebuilt. The exact construction date of the current house is also uncertain, although it appears to have been built by Eliakim’s son Josiah Cooley (1716–1778), probably sometime around 1760, although other sources have given the date as 1775. According to Annie Emerson’s research, it appears to have been built, at least in part, on the foundation of Eliakim Cooley’s early 1700s house.

When it was built, this house looked considerably different from its later appearance. It was a typical 18th century saltbox-style house, with four rooms on the first floor, two rooms on the front part of the second floor, and a long, sloping roof in the back, which gave the “saltbox” style its name. In the center of the house is a large chimney, which measures about 10 feet on each side on the first floor. The front doorway would have also been different from its current appearance, and the front windows would have had 12-over-12 sashes, rather than the 6-over-6 ones that are shown in these two photos.

Josiah Cooley’s son Josiah (1749–1824) subsequently inherited the house, and he lived here with his mother Experience Hale (1714–1798), his wife Abiel Bliss (1758–1830), and their children. Their daughter Lucy (1789–1869) was the next owner of the house, and she lived here with her husband Luther Colton (1787–1857) and their children.

It was during Lucy and Luther Colton’s ownership that the house underwent its most significant changes. Different sources give different dates, but this appears to have occurred between 1827 and 1835. This included raising the roof to create a full second floor, building a one-story addition on the back of the house, and building a two-story addition on the north side of the house, which can be seen on the right side of these two photos. This addition was built for Luther Woolworth Colton (1812–1851) and his wife Abigail Morris (1812–1848), who lived in it after their marriage in 1835.

Other alterations during this time included replacing the front doorway with a Greek Revival style doorway, and also replacing the older windows with newer, more fashionable 6-over-6 sashes. However, the older windows were not discarded, but were instead installed in the additions on the back of the house, where many of them still remain. The Coltons also added exterior shutters to the windows, and removed the older interior panel shutters, which were evidently repurposed to make cabinets.

The house remained in the Colton family until 1869, when Lucy and Luther’s son Josiah Cooley Colton (1825–1895) sold it to Bradford W. Palmer. However, Palmer remained here for just three years before selling it to William G. Emerson (1806–1887), a carpenter who was originally from eastern Massachusetts and had previously lived in Holyoke and Chicopee. He moved here with his wife Lovina Fay (c.1822–1897) and their three children: William (1849–1930), Annie (1859–1941), and Henry (1865–1943).

Of their children, Annie and Henry never married, and they lived here in this house for the rest of their lives. In 1907, they were joined by their half brother Paesiello (1832–1927), a Civil War veteran and retired bootmaker who was William G. Emerson’s son from his first marriage. Paesiello was a widower by the time he moved here, and he had recently taken up photography as a hobby. Over the next few decades, he used his camera to document life in Longmeadow, as the town underwent major changes due to population growth and suburbanization.

The top photo was taken in July 1925, when Paesiello Emerson was 93 years old. Despite his age, he was still living a very active life, including taking photographs around town and also traveling to attend Civil War reunions with an ever-dwindling number of his former comrades. His last reunion was in 1927, when he snuck out of the house without telling anyone and traveled across the state to Fairhaven to attend it, prompting a series of missing persons articles that were published in area newspapers. He died a few months later in December 1927, at the age of 95.

Annie and Henry continued to live here until their deaths in 1941 and 1943, respectively. The house has had a series of owners since then, including Bay Path University, which owned the house for a time. However, it is once again a private residence, and overall the exterior has seen few significant changes in the past century, aside from the removal of the shutters and the installation of a larger window on the first floor of the north wing of the house.