Houses

76 Greenwood Street, Springfield, Massachusetts

by

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

The scene in 2024:

This house stood directly to the east of the one in the previous post, and it was likely built around the same time, probably in the 1860s or 1870s. It was definitely here by 1880, when it was owned by Charles D. Ufford. He was 43 at the time, with his occupation listed as working for the railroad. He lived here with his wife Fidelia, who was 37.

The Uffords later moved to a house on State Street, and by 1900 this house on Greenwood Street was the home of Jennie Aronson, along with Abram and Ida Lewis and their three young children. The children were born in the United States, but the adults in the household were born in Russia. They were part of a large Jewish community that had begun to form here in this part of Springfield, many of whom had immigrated to the United States to escape persecution in the Russian pogroms.

By 1920, two different immigrant families were living here in this house. In one part of the house was Patrick Moran, a 55-year-old machinist who was born in Ireland. His wife Bessie was born in the United States, but her parents were likewise from Ireland. The other part of this house was the home of Anthony and Martha Chmielewski, along with Martha’s mother Teofila Roztiboske. All three were immigrants from Poland.

The top photo was taken in the late 1930s. By this point it was still a two-family property, with Charles and Doris Faughman and their children in one unit, and Charles and Josephine Barker in the other unit, according to the 1940 census. They each paid $18 per month in rent, and Charles Faughman was employed as a painter, earning $400 per year.

The house was still standing here until at least the 1950s, but it was ultimately demolished by the early 1960s as part of a large-scale urban renewal project that involved the demolition of nearly every building between the railroad tracks and Memorial Square along the Main Street and Chestnut Street corridors. Some of the land was redeveloped for commercial properties, but the project also included the construction of Interstate 291, which has its interchange with Interstate 91 just to the west of here. The second photo shows the modern-day view, including the embankment for Interstate 291 where it crosses Dwight Street. The spot where the house once stood is just a little to the left of the willow tree.

72-72 1/2 Greenwood Street, Springfield, Massachusetts

by

The house at 72-72 1/2 Greenwood Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2024:

Although it no longer exists, Greenwood Street once ran for two blocks from Main Street eastward to Chestnut Street, two blocks north of Congress Street. The street was developed in the second half of the 19th century, when Springfield saw rapid population growth due to industrialization. The land that would eventually become the street was once owned by Samuel Green, which was likely the source of the name.

The house in the top photo was likely built sometime around the 1860s based on its architectural style. It has a Mansard roof, a distinctive feature of Second Empire style architecture that was popular in the United States in the 1860s and into the 1870s. The house was definitely in existence by 1880, when it appears on the U.S. Census as a two-family home. In one unit was William L. and Eliza Elwell, who lived here with their two children, a nephew, a niece, and a lodger. The other unit was the home of John and Almeda Alexander, who had two children and also lived here with Almeda’s sister.

By the turn of the 20th century, this part of Springfield had become the home of many immigrant families, and this is reflected in the nationalities of the residents who lived here during the 1900 census. In one unit was Frank and Apolina Hepsick, who immigrated to the U.S. from Bohemia in 1875. They were both 59 years old in 1900, and the census indicated that they had 11 children, although only three were still living by that point. All three of these surviving children lived here, including their daughters Mary and Jennie and their son Frank. Also living here was Jennie’s husband Michael Kelleher, who was the son of Irish immigrants. Jennie and Michael had one child, three-year-old Roger. In the other unit was Harry and Esther Aronson and their young children Milton and Arnold. Harry was born in Russia and immigrated to the U.S. as a teenager in 1882, perhaps to escape persecution from the anti-Jewish pogroms. Esther was born in New York, but her parents were immigrants from Germany.

By 1920 the house was owned by Max Schaffer, a 38-year-old auto repair shop owner who lived here in the house with his wife Anna and their four children. The birthplace of both Max and Anna was listed as “Russia Poland,” and they spoke Yiddish as their native language. The Schaffers rented parts of their house to three other Jewish families: Isaac and Etta Hutner, Morris and Bertha Saven, and Nathan and Bertha Newman.

Over the course of the 20th century, the neighborhood demographics continued to evolve. By mid-century the area along Main Street between the railroad tracks and Memorial Square had become one of the city’s two major black neighborhoods, along with the Mason Square area farther to the southeast. This was partially a result of discriminatory housing practices, such as collusion among realtors and landlords to not sell or rent to black families in predominantly white areas. As a result, by 1950 more than 70% of the city’s black population lived in just one of two census tracts, with Tract 10—here in the area around Greenwood Street—having the highest percentage of black residents of the city, at 34%.

The top photo shows the house at 72-72 1/2 Greenwood Street around the late 1930s. The 1940 census, which was conducted only a few years later, shows two black families living here. In one unit was James and Mary Bartley, who were 72 and 69, respectively. They were both born in Georgia, only a few years after the end of the Civil War, and they lived here with a lodger, James Lattimore, who was also from Georgia. In the other unit was David and Irene Lofton, and Irene’s mother Sally Patterson. David was from South Carolina, and Irene and Sally were from Georgia. At the time of the census, David was working for the city water department, while Irene was working as a seamstress.

Irene Lofton died prior to the 1950 census, but David was still living here in 1950. His occupation was listed as special inspector for the water department, and he lived here with several lodgers, including Curtis and Fannie Jones and their two young children, and also Ray Evans. Curtis was from South Carolina, Fannie was from Georgia, and Ray Evans was from Illinois. The other unit in the building was the home of Mamie Gullick, who was from Georgia. Her son Roger lived here, along with Roger’s wife Hermione and their infant son. Mamie also had two lodgers who lived here with her.

By the late 1950s, this part of Springfield was targeted for a large-scale urban renewal project. This included the demolition of nearly every building north of the railroad tracks and south of Memorial Square, along with the elimination of many of the side streets, including Greenwood Street. The result was a series of large blocks with commercial development, along with a highway interchange with Interstate 91 and Interstate 291. This house was among the many that were demolished as part of the project, and the site of it is now an embankment that leads up to Interstate 291, near where it crosses Dwight Street.

28-30 Congress Street, Springfield, Massachusetts

by

The building at 28-30 Congress Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The same scene in 2024:

The early history of this building is difficult to trace, but it appears to have been built sometime around the 1850s. This date coincides with the large-scale development of this part of Springfield, and it is also consistent with some of the architectural features on the house, particularly the rounded Italianate-style windows in the front gable. It was owned by the Dunn family in the late 19th century, who evidently used it as a rental property. The 1899 city atlas shows it, along with the house next door at 24 Congress Street, as belonging to Margaret J. Dunn.

Margaret Dunn, a 65-year-old Irish immigrant, was living in the house at 24 Congress Street during the 1900 census, and she rented the house in the top photo to three different families, most of whom were also Irish. These included Ellen Fogarty, a 38-year-old widow from Ireland who lived at 28 Congress Street with her four children, who ranged in age from 5 to 17, and also her 22-year-old niece. Also living at 28 Congress Street was Martin Dillon, a single 35-year-old Irish immigrant who lived here with his sister Margaret, brother John, and two nephews and a niece. The third family in this building, in the unit at 30 Congress Street, was Adolphus Mason, a 50-year-old French-Canadian immigrant who lived here with his wife Mary, who was the daughter of Irish immigrants. They had one surviving child, 19-year-old Catherine, who lived here with them.

By the 1920 census, the house in the top photo was still owned by the Dunn family, and it was still rented primarily to other Irish families. There were four families living here at the time, with Napoleon and Mary Bluteau and Mary Morgan at 28 Congress, and Fred and Ellen Gaylord and Thomas and Anna Walsh at 30 Congress. A decade later, in the 1930 census, Thomas and Anna Walsh were still living here along with their son James, while Mary Morgan and her son John were still living in the unit at 28 Congress. The two families paid $14 and $13 per month in rent, respectively.

By the time the top photo was taken in the late 1930s, the house was evidently vacant. It was listed as vacant in the 1939 city directory, and the 1940 census likewise does not show any residents here. The building seems to have been used only sporadically for housing during the 1940s and 1950s, and it was demolished by the early 1960s, when this entire part of Springfield was redeveloped as part of a large-scale urban renewal project. Today, the site of the house is part of the parking lot for Northgate Plaza, which is located at the corner of Main and Congress Streets.

Albert Ward House, Pelham, Massachusetts

by

The house at the corner of Packardville Road and Juckett Road in Pelham, on November 7, 1928. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission, Quabbin Reservoir, Photographs of Real Estate Takings.

The scene in 2025:

This house was located at the southeast corner of the intersection of Packardville Road and Juckett Road, in the now defunct Pelham village of Packardville. It was owned briefly by Albert P. Ward, who acquired it as a gift from Henry Stevens in February of 1929. It was a small parcel that was broken off of a much larger property that Stevens owned. Ward’s newly created lot included only this house and an 8ft buffer around the home, for a lot size that totaled only 0.05 acres.

Before this home was built, a wagon shop for wagonmakers Packard & Thurston stood here in the early 1840s until they moved their operations to Belchertown in the late 1840s. Around 1860, this 1.5 story home was built by James Hanks, who owned and operated a store out of it from 1860 until 1873. Hanks would then go on to sell the home and the original, larger lot that it stood on to Henry Stevens in 1896.

Although the older photo labels this as the Albert P Ward House, he almost certainly never lived in it. Ward’s actual residence in 1929 was likely one of his properties in nearby Belchertown. The first photo was taken on November 7, 1928, three months before Ward was even gifted the property. Three months after Ward was given the home, the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission would go on to purchase it from him in May of 1929 when building the Quabbin Reservoir. It is unclear why Ward was given this derelict looking home right before it would be sold again, or if he had a personal connection to it that predated his acquisition of it. The Water Supply Commission would demolish the home sometime in the early 1930s, because of its location inside the Quabbin Reservoir watershed.

Aside from a cellar hole where the home once stood, the site today has not changed much. The power lines, dirt roads, and small stream from the 1928 photo are still there. What were once small farms behind the home have long since grown in with trees and brush, and the road passing in front of the house no longer leads to a neighboring church.

Laundry Wagon, Longmeadow, Massachusetts

by

A horse-drawn wagon for Scott’s Laundry, seen on Emerson Road near the corner of Longmeadow Street in Longmeadow, Massachusetts in 1914. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The same scene in 2023:

These two photos were taken from near the same spot as the ones in the previous post, but just a little farther to the east. But, unlike the older image in that post, the main subject of the 1914 photo here is not the house, but rather the people and the wagon in the foreground. The wagon bears the name of L. Dorenbaum, who was an agent for Scott’s Laundry, and the image shows a man, presumably Dorenbaum, standing next to the horse, with a young woman seated in the carriage.

Louis Dorenbaum was born in Russia in 1878. He was Jewish, and he came to America as a child in 1887, likely to escape the antisemitic pogroms that were happening in Russia at the time. He lived in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood, which had a large Jewish population at the turn of the 20th century, and by the time the top photo was taken he was about 36 years old and was living at 810 Belmont Avenue in Springfield, along with his wife Agnes and their children Myron, Pauline, and Blanche. It seems unclear if the person in the carriage was a relative, but she seems too young to have been Agnes (who was 31 at the time), but too old to have been either of his daughters (who were 8 and 6).

The photo shows Dorenbaum’s laundry wagon in Longmeadow, on Emerson Road (or Depot Road, as it was known at the time) near the corner of Longmeadow Street. The house in the background is the Josiah Cooley house, which was built around 1760 and is described in more detail in an earlier post. The photographer, Paesiello Emerson, lived in this house with his half siblings Annie and Henry Emerson, and the house was often a subject of his photos. This photo is somewhat unusual for him, though, because he typically did not photograph people, instead preferring buildings, trees, and landscapes. It’s hard to say why Emerson chose to take this photo. It is possible that he knew Dorenbaum, but it also seems possible that he may have wanted to capture this image of a more of transportation that, by 1914, was rapidly vanishing in favor of motor vehicles.

Louis Dorenbaum lived in Springfield until the early 1940s. The 1940 census shows him at a house on Blodgett Street, and his occupation was listed as delivery driver for a laundry, although he was probably no longer using horse-drawn wagons by that point. He later moved to Milton, where his son Myron was working as a dentist. Louis died there in 1947, at the age of  70.

Today, the house that Dorenbaum posed in front of in the top photo is still standing. It has seen some changes over the years, including the removal of the so-called “coffin door” that is partially visible on the south side of the house behind the horse’s head in the top photo. Overall, though, it has remained well preserved in its historic appearance, and it is one of the oldest surviving homes in Longmeadow.

Josiah Cooley House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (5)

by

The house at the corner of Longmeadow and Emerson Streets in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, on September 12, 1917. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The house in 2023:

This house has been featured in previous posts, and there are many early 20th century images of it thanks to Paesiello Emerson, an amateur photographer who lived here during that period. As explained in more detail in an earlier post, the house is believed to have been built around 1760 as the home of Josiah and Experience Cooley. An earlier house, belonging to Josiah’s father Eliakim, had stood here on this same spot earlier in the 18th century, and it is possible that the current house may have been built in part on the foundation of Eliakim’s house.

These two photos show the view of the back of the house from the southwest, on what is now Emerson Road. From this angle, the house would have looked very different when it was initially constructed. It was built as a saltbox, with a second floor on the front part of the house and a long sloping roof here on the back of the house. However, when Josiah and Experience’s granddaughter Lucy Colton inherited the house in the late 1820s, she modernized and expanded the house.

Some of this work included raising the roof to create a full second story, along with additions on the north and west sides of the house. The two-story northern addition, which is visible in the distance on the far side of the house, included living space for Lucy’s son Luther Woolworth Colton and his newlywed wife Abigail. The western addition, shown on the left side of these photos, was one story in height, and it appears to have been used for storage and workshop space, rather than as living space

Aside from these structural changes, Lucy also made some interior and exterior design changes, in keeping with early 19th century trends. On the exterior, this included removing the original 12-over-12 windows from the front of the house and replacing them with new 6-over-6 windows. However, rather than discarding the old windows, they were installed here on the back part of the house and in the back addition, likely because they would not be as visible from the street.

The house would remain in the Cooley-Colton family for several more decades, but in 1869 Lucy’s son Josiah Cooley Colton sold the house and 20 acres of land to Bradford W. Palmer for $4,500. The Palmer family, however, would only stay here for a few years before selling it to William G. Emerson, a carpenter who was originally from eastern Massachusetts. His family included his wife Lovina and their children William, Annie, and Henry. The elder William died in 1887, Lovina died in 1897, and at some point the younger William moved into a house of his own in Longmeadow, but Annie and Henry would live here for their entire lives.

Neither Annie nor Henry ever married, but in 1907 they were joined here by their older half brother Paesiello Emerson. He was a widower in his mid-70s, and he had worked for much of his life as a boot maker. However, when he was in his 70s he took up photography as a hobby. He tended to prefer photographing landscapes and old buildings, and he captured several thousand images, including many here in Longmeadow. He continued his photography into his 90s, creating a valuable photographic archive of the town’s early 20th century development.

Paesiello Emerson died here in the house in 1927 at the age of 95. At some point in the 1920s, William Emerson also returned to live here, and he died in the house in 1930 at the age of 81. The two younger siblings, Annie and Henry, remained here until their deaths in 1941 and 1943, at the age of 81 and 77 respectively. Henry was a farmer who grew raspberries and asparagus here, along with raising poultry. Annie was a teacher, but she was also the town historian. She conducted extensive research on the historic homes in Longmeadow, including her own, and much of the information about this house is based on her notes.

The house was sold by the Emerson heirs after Henry’s death in 1943, and subsequent owners did some restoration work as well as modernization of the house. Here on the back part of the house, this included adding an enclosed porch to the back of the house and adding an open porch to the back addition. The garage was also extended outward by a few feet to accommodate cars, and a second garage door was added. Other changes, which are hard to notice from this particular angle, included removing the “coffin door” from the south side of the house, and adding another second-story window to the back of the house. The latter was evidently done in the late 1940s, when two new bathrooms were installed in the back part of the second floor.

Overall, though, the appearance of the house is not drastically different from its appearance in 1917 when Paesiello Emerson took the top photo. Aside from the porches and the small addition to the garage, the overall form of the house has not changed. It retains its chimneys, including the large central chimney, and most of the windows appear to either be original or, in the case of the 6-over-6 windows, date to the late 1820s renovation. Many of the 12-over-12 windows can still be found in the back part of the house, and are likely the same ones that had once been installed on the front part of the house in the mid-1700s.