Architecture

Henry D. Williams House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 83 Magnolia Terrace in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This house was among the many elegant Colonial Revival-style homes that were constructed in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood at the turn of the 20th century. It was built in 1901, and its original owner was Henry D. Williams, a superintendent for the American Writing Paper Company. He and his wife Mary had three sons, Roy, Howard, and Fay. All three graduated from M.I.T. in the early 1910s, and both Howard and Fay went on to serve in World War I. Mary died in 1913 at the age of 49, from complications after surgery to remove a tumor. Henry remarried a few years later, and around the same time he sold this house and moved to Holyoke, where he died in 1919.

By the 1920 census, this house was owned by Robert  Studley, a contractor who was living here with his wife Amy and their three children. However, Robert died the following year, when he was in his early 40s, and by the next census Amy and the children were renting a house elsewhere in the Forest Park neighborhood. In the meantime, this house was sold to Harry A. Sawyer, an insurance agent who worked as the Springfield branch manager for the Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford. During the 1930 census, he was living here along with his wife Grace and their three children, but they sold the house three years later.

The next owners of the house were Albert and Ruth Shaw. Albert was also involved in the insurance industry, working as a financial secretary for Massachusetts Mutual. They were still living here when the first photo was taken, along with their two sons, Lewis and Richard, as well as a servant. Since then, the exterior of the house has hardly changed, and like the rest of the neighborhood it remains well-preserved. It is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Minerva Thrall House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 63 Magnolia Terrace in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.


The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1895 for Minerva Thrall, a widow who moved in here along with her three adult step-daughters, Emily, Minnie, and Nellie. Minerva’s husband was Henry Thrall, a tanner and woolen goods merchant from Stafford Springs. He had originally married Minerva’s sister Emeline in 1841, and they had six daughters, two of whom died in infancy. Emeline died in 1860, two weeks after the birth of their last child, and Henry remarried to Minerva a year later. She was also a widow whose first husband, Dr. Oliver Tuthill, died in 1857 after just three years of marriage.

Of Henry’s surviving daughters, three of them never married, and after his death in 1880 they continued to live with Minerva, eventually coming to Springfield with her when this house was built. Minnie died in 1901 at the age of 48, from “paralysis of the heart,” and after Minerva’s death in 1917 the other two sisters inherited the house and lived here for the rest of their lives. Nellie died in 1934, and Emily in 1938, around the same time that the first photo was taken.

Like most of the other historic homes along Magnolia Terrace, this house has remained well-preserved, with hardly any differences in the past 80 years since the first photo was taken. Today, this street is one of the centerpieces of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Frederick B. Taylor House, Springfield, Mass

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

The house in 2017:


Completed in 1925, this house was among the last to be built in this section of Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood, with most of the other homes dating back to the turn of the 20th century. It was originally the home of Frederick B. Taylor, a merchant who sold doors, windows, blinds, paint, and other such building materials from his shop on Market Street. By the time Taylor moved into this house, he and his wife Eliza were in their 60s, and he only lived here for a few years, until his death in 1929.

Later in 1929, Eliza moved to Longmeadow to live with her daughter, and she sold this house to George and Kathryn Clark, who moved in here along with their three children. At the time, George was the vice president of Springfield’s Third National Bank, and he later went on to become the bank’s president. His wealth was reflected in the 1940 census, which was done only a year or two after the first photo was taken. The house was valued at $16,000, which was a considerable sum at the time, and George’s income was listed as being over $5,000, which was the highest bracket that the census recorded.

After George’s death in 1949, Kathryn continued to live here for nearly a half century longer, until she finally sold the property in 1987. Since then, the house has remained well-preserved, with an exterior appearance that is essentially unchanged from when the Clarks lived here. Along with the other homes in the neighborhood, the property is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Fred R. Brown House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 37 Magnolia Terrace in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1895 for Fred R. Brown, a wholesale grocer who ran a successful business here in Springfield for many years. He and his wife Isabella were in their mid-20s when they moved into the house, and they went on to raise two daughters here, Dorcas and Kathleen. They lived here for about 35 years, before selling the house around 1930 to Fred Stephenson. According to the census records, he was an executive manager for the Community Chest, a fundraising organization that was a predecessor to the United Way. He was still living here when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s, along with his wife Mary and their two children.

Today, Magnolia Terrace is a centerpiece of the Forest Park neighborhood, with historic late 19th and early 20th century homes lining both sides of the street. Like most of the other houses, this one has been well-preserved, with no noticeable exterior differences between the two photos, and in 1982 the entire surrounding neighborhood became part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Aaron Bissell House, South Windsor, Connecticut

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The house at 1891 Main Street in South Windsor, around 1935-1942. Image courtesy of the Connecticut State Library.

The house in 2017:


Aaron Bissell, Jr. was a leading resident of East Windsor at the turn of the 19th century. At the time, the town included all of present-day South Windsor, and Bissell operated a tavern here in the village of East Windsor Hill. The tavern, which is no longer standing, was located just south of where these photos were taken, at the corner of Main Street and Ferry Lane. Along with running the tavern, Bissell was also involved in the local government, serving as town clerk from 1799 to 1825, as well as several terms in the state legislature.

In 1812, a few years after his daughter Sophia’s marriage to Eli Haskell, Bissell built the couple an elegant brick house, which is seen in the distant right of both photos. A year later, he built a nearly identical house for himself, which is seen here in the foreground. Both houses are excellent examples of Federal-style architecture, and they are built of brick, which was far less common than wood-frame homes during this era. The main front sections of the two homes are virtually identical, but additions over the years have changed the appearance of the rear of the houses.

Bissell lived here in this house until his death in 1834, and the property was then purchased by Increase Clapp, a blacksmith. He lived here for the next 25 years, until his death in 1859, and his son Carlos then inherited the house. By around the turn of the 20th century, the house was owned by Lewis Sperry, a lawyer and politician who served two terms in Congress, representing Connecticut’s first district in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895.

The first photo was taken about 15 years after Sperry’s death, and almost nothing has changed since then, except for the removal of the front porch. Both this house and the neighboring Haskell House are well-preserved, and they are two of the many fine 18th and early 19th century homes that line South Windsor’s Main Street. In 1986, both of these homes, along with the rest of he surrounding neighborhood, became part of the East Windsor Hill Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

First Congregational Church, South Windsor, Connecticut

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The First Congregational Church on Main Street in South Windsor, around 1898. Image from The Connecticut Quarterly (1898).

The church in 2017:


When the town of Windsor was established in the 1630s, its borders originally extended across both sides of the Connecticut River, and included the present-day towns of Windsor, East Windsor, South Windsor, Windsor Locks, Bloomfield, and Ellington. Initially, most of Windsor’s settlement occurred on the west side of the river, but over the course of the 17th century a number of residents built homes here on the east side, in what became known as the village of East Windsor.

Because of its location on the opposite side of the river, traveling to and from church was often difficult, and in 1694 a church was established here in East Windsor. The original church building was located a little north of here, next to the Edwards Cemetery, and the first pastor was Timothy Edwards. He served in this position for over 60 years, until his death in 1758, but he is best known for being the father of Jonathan Edwards, the prominent preacher and theologian who helped spark the Great Awakening.

The current church building is the fourth one built by the congregation, and it was completed in 1845. Most New England churches of this era featured a Greek Revival design, with a columned portico at the front of the building, and this church is no exception. Its design, particularly the tower in the first photo, is remarkably similar to that of the First Church of Windsor, which was renovated a year earlier, perhaps by the same architect.

This area along Main Street was the historic town center of East Windsor, which was incorporated as a separate town in 1768. At the time, it included all of Windsor on the east side of the river, but in 1845 the southern portion of the town was split off to form the town of South Windsor. The current church building, which was built the same year, was located within the new town, so it became the First Church of South Windsor.

In the approximately 120 years since the first photo was taken, the church building has remained in active use, although with some changes to the exterior of the building. Along with modern additions to the back, there is also a new spire. The original one had deteriorated to the point where it had to be taken down at some point around the mid-20th century, and it was not replaced until 1963. Otherwise, though, the building survives as an important part of South Windsor’s historic Main Street, and it is a contributing property in the Windsor Farms Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.