Houses Archives - Page 114 of 128

William H. Haile House, Springfield, Mass

April 3, 2016November 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The William H. Haile House at 41 Mattoon Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The houses in 2015:

This house on Mattoon Street was one of the first to be built on Mattoon Street; it was completed in 1871, and the first owner was William H. Haile, a businessman who had just moved to Springfield from Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Haile’s father had served as governor of New Hampshire from 1857 to 1859, and the younger Haile continued the family’s political legacy. He represented Hinsdale in the New Hampshire state legislature for three years, and after he came to Springfield he served a year as the city’s mayor, in 1881. From 1882 to 1883, he served in the Massachusetts Senate, and from 1890 to 1892 he was the Lieutenant Governor. He was the Republican candidate for governor in 1892, but he lost a close race to incumbent governor William E. Russell. I don’t know long Haile lived in this house, though, because by the early 1880s he was living in a larger house a few blocks away at 49 Chestnut Street, where the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts is located today.

35 Mattoon Street, Springfield, Mass

February 11, 2016November 10, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The rowhouse at 35 Mattoon Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2015:

Mattoon Street is a remarkable street in downtown Springfield, with beautifully restored Victorian rowhouses that make it seem more like Boston’s Back Bay than a neighborhood in Springfield. This particular house is near the western end of the street, and it was built in 1872 along with its four identical neighbors to the right. They were designed by architects E.C. Gardner and Jason Perkins, who later designed other Springfield buildings such as the Technical High School on nearby Elliot Street. The original owners of all five houses were B.F. Farrar and Jesse F. Tapley, who sold them to individual owners after they were completed. Today, the houses on the street, including this one, have been beautifully restored, and the neighborhood is part of the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

263-265 Union Street, Springfield, Mass

November 8, 2015November 7, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The duplex at 263-265 Union Street, seen around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

Like its neighbor in the previous post, this duplex was built in the 1870s in the Second Empire style that was popular in the United States during this period. As this area was developed in the late 1800s, many middle class professionals moved in, including Dr. S.W. Bowles, a physician who, according to the 1882 city atlas, lived in the unit to the right. The same atlas also indicates that J.H. Appleton lived on the left side; this appears to have been Julius H. Appleton, who was a railroad executive and later became president of the Springfield Institution for Savings and a member of the state Governor’s Council. Assuming this is the same J.H. Appleton listed on the map, he didn’t live here for too long, though; by the late 1880s he was living in his new mansion at 313 Maple Street.

In the 2015 view, the house is partially hidden by the tree in front, but on the exterior it still retains most of its original features, including the asymmetrical bay windows on the right side and the two-story Victorian over the front doors From this angle, the only real difference is the minor change to front steps and the addition of handrails.

247-249 Union Street, Springfield, Mass

November 8, 2015November 7, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The duplex at 247-249 Union Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

This Victorian duplex is one of several along this section of Union Street that were built as the city’s population began to spread out from the original downtown area. Many middle class professionals lived in this area, including music store owner Levi M. Pierce, who lived in the unit on the right side. He appears to have been the original owner, living here from its construction in 1870 until his death in 1908. His two children, William and Leona, grew up here, and William went on to become the president of Kenyon College in Ohio, serving from 1896 until 1937. Leona also distinguished herself in academia; she graduated from Smith College and later received her Ph.D from Yale in 1899, with scintillatingly-titled doctoral thesis: “On Chain-Differentiants of a Ternary Quantics.” Leona took over her father’s music business after his death, and she was probably still living here when the first photo was taken. Today’s scene shows a few modifications to the house, especially the front porch and the steps, but otherwise it is a good example of Second Empire architecture from the Victorian era in Springfield.

Commonwealth Avenue, Boston

October 27, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking east on Commonwealth Avenue from near Kenmore Square, around 1910-1914. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Commonwealth Avenue in 2015:

When the first photo was taken, the Kenmore section of Boston was still being developed. The apartment building on the right, which is missing in the first photo, was built in 1916, and the other houses in the photo aren’t much older. These late Victorian-era homes were built in the late 1890s, around the same time as the Hotel Somerset, which can be seen in the distance in the lower center of the photos. To the left is the median of Commonwealth Avenue, which was part of the original design of the Back Bay to have a wide avenue with a large, landscaped central median. Although today Commonwealth Avenue has one way traffic on each side of the median, this apparently wasn’t the case in the early 1900s; the first photo shows traffic traveling in both directions on what is now the eastbound side of the road.

Around 100 years later, most of the buildings from the first photo are still standing today. The houses to the right now have stores on the ground floors, but despite this there haven’t been any drastic alterations. As mentioned in the previous post, the Hotel Somerset is still standing on the other side of the elevated Charlesgate, but it was converted into condominiums in the 1980s. To the left in the median, part of the old subway portal is visible in the 2015 photo. This section of the subway opened in 1914, probably not long after the first photo was taken, with the trolleys coming to the surface at this spot in the median before crossing Kenmore Square. This portal has since been closed off, but the arch at the top is still above ground.

Back Street, Boston (2)

October 26, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking east on Back Street in Boston from Hereford Street, probably in 1907. Image courtesy of the City of Boston Archives.

Back Street in 2015:

These photos show the scene only a block further down Back Street from the ones in this post, and the old photo here was probably taken on the same day as the other one. As mentioned in the other post, Back Street is a narrow alley that is used to access the rear of the houses along the north side of Beacon Street. When the first photo was taken, Back Street was the very northern end of the Back Bay, with only a flimsy-looking wooden guardrail separating the street from the Charles River.

Over time, this has changed, with the first change coming soon after the photo was taken. In 1910, the Charles River Esplanade was completed along the Charles River, creating a long, narrow strip of public parkland between Back Street and the Charles River. However, later in the 20th century much of the original park was taken to build Storrow Drive, a parkway connecting downtown Boston to the western parts of the city. It isn’t visible because of the dumpster in the foreground, but Storrow Drive runs right next to the street, with only a low chain link fence separating the two. On the other side of Storrow Drive, the Esplanade has been expanded, and can be accessed from Back Street via several pedestrian bridges.