Buildings Archives - Page 242 of 329

Armory at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

November 14, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The ruins of the Harpers Ferry Armory, photographed in October 1862. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Civil War Collection.

The scene in 2015:

Prior to the Civil War, Harpers Ferry was the location of one of the country’s two federal armories, with the other being in Springfield, Massachusetts. Both sites were chosen by George Washington, and they had similar advantages. Harpers Ferry and Springfield are both located on major rivers at the intersection of major transportation routes, but they are also located above the head of navigation on their respective rivers, preventing a naval attack from a foreign enemy.

In the first half of the 19th century, these two armories developed new ways to manufacture firearms, using machinery that mass-produced identical, interchangeable parts and that could be operated by unskilled workers. By the start of the Civil War, there were over 15,000 guns stored here, which helped entice John Brown to lead a raiding party in 1859. His goal was to start a slave rebellion by taking the arsenal and distributing the weapons to area slaves, and although the plan failed, it helped to spark the Civil War only a year and a half later.

By the time the first photo had been taken in October 1862, Harpers Ferry had already changed hands a number of times in the Civil War, and armies on both sides had steadily destroyed the buildings in order to prevent the other side from making use of them. The ruins seen here are from the same building that can be seen on the right hand side of the 1861 photo in this post.

Around the time that the first photo was taken, the ruins had several notable visitors, including Abraham Lincoln, who toured the armory site in October, perhaps on the same day that the photo was taken. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne also visited Harpers Ferry earlier in 1862, and wrote the following description in his essay “Chiefly About War Matters”:

Immediately on the shore of the Potomac, and extending back towards the town, lay the dismal ruins of the United States arsenal and armory, consisting of piles of broken bricks and a waste of shapeless demolition, amid which we saw gun-barrels in heaps of hundreds together. They were the relics of conflagration, bent with the heat of fire, and rusted with the wintry rain to which they had since been exposed. The brightest sunshine could not have made the scene cheerful, nor have taken away from the gloom from the dilapidated town; for, besides the natural shabbiness, and decayed, unthrifty look of a Virginian village, it has an inexpressible forlorness resulting from the devastations of war and its occupation by both armies alternately.

The town became part of West Virginia in 1863, and things were relatively stable here until the end of the war. However, at that point the damage had been done. The pre-war economy of Harpers Ferry had relied almost exclusively on the armory, but it was never rebuilt following the war. The land was sold, and the Baltimore & Ohio built railroad tracks through part of the land, including the present-day railroad station, which was completed in 1889. Today, this area is part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and although there are no buildings still standing here from the armory, the interpretive signs help to give visitors an idea of what was once here.

84 Temple Street, Springfield, Mass

February 11, 2016November 12, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The house at 84 Temple Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2015:

This Queen Anne style house was built around 1880, at about the same time as its nearly identical neighbor to the right. One early owner of this house was W.H. Burrall, whose name appears on the 1882 city atlas. He died before 1899, when the city atlas lists the house as belonging to his heirs, and he appears to be the same W.F. Burrall who co-owned Hawkins & Burrall, a Springfield-based bridge building company. Along with this, his name also appears in historical records as a consulting engineer for the Boston & Albany Railroad.

727_former resident 1912c

By 1900, the house was owned by Louis C. Hyde, Springfield’s postmaster. According to the 1900 census, this house was pretty crowded; he lived here with his wife, their son, two daughters, a daughter-in-law and son-in-law, two grandchildren, and three servants, for a total of 12 people in the house. Hyde was featured in a 1913 volume of Automobile Journal, which mentioned that he was using a Springfield-built Indian motorcycle with a tricar attachment to deliver parcel post mail around the city. The photo to the right was printed in the magazine, and shows him on the motorcycle.

82 Temple Street, Springfield, Mass

January 16, 2020November 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The house at 82 Temple Street, seen here around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2015:

Compared to the first photo, this historic Queen Anne style house on Temple Street has seen better days, although it is being restored as of the July 2015 photo. Both this house and its nearly identical neighbor to the left were built around 1880, at a time when this neighborhood was popular among upper middle class professionals such as bankers, lawyers, doctors, and businessmen. In the early 1900s, this house was owned by Robert O. Morris, who served as the clerk of courts for many years, and was also a director of the United Electric Light Company, president of the Springfield Five Cents Savings Bank, and served in similar roles for several other area companies. He was also an amateur ornithologist, and in 1901 he published a book, The Birds of Springfield and Vicinity.

Despite the changes in this neighborhood over the years, the 2015 photo shows that the house still retains many of its original decorative elements. The windows are all new, the shutters have been removed, and the front porch is being completely replaced, but otherwise it still looks very similar to what it would have looked like when Robert O. Morris lived here a century ago.

25 Mattoon Street, Springfield, Mass

February 11, 2016November 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The building at 25 Mattoon Street, seen around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

This building is a little different from the rest of the houses on the south side of Mattoon Street. It was built in 1891, making it the newest on that side of the street. Unlike all of the others, it was built as an apartment building, and its Romanesque architecture is very different from the rest of the street. It is also known as the Yadow Building, because of the somewhat enigmatic “Yadow” inscription in the center of the parapet, and it is part of the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

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.