Massachusetts

United States Whip Company, Westfield Mass

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The United States Whip Company building on Main Street in Westfield, around 1920. Image courtesy of the Westfield Athenaeum.

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The site in 2015:

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The United States Whip Company was established in 1892 with the merger of 14 whip companies, and they built this building on Main Street in Westfield as their headquarters.  It was part of a large complex that took up much of the block between Main Street and Thomas Street, and some of the buildings were originally used by the American Whip Company, one of the companies later involved in the 1892 merger.

Westfield gained the nickname of the Whip City because of its many whip manufacturing companies, but by the turn of the 20th century essentially all of these were owned by United States Whip Company.  By the end of World War I, around 99% of the worldwide whip production was from Westfield, and the United States Whip Company accounted for about 85% of the market.  They were by far the world’s leading whip producer, but they were the leader in a rapidly shrinking industry.  Automobiles were making horse-drawn carriages obsolete, which meant a limited demand for Westfield’s primary manufactured goods.  In 1895, the city had 37 different whip companies; by 1926, not long after the first photo was taken, there were only 37 people working in the whip industry.

Today, the building on Main Street is still there, although it has been significantly altered over the years.  The brick exterior has since been covered in stucco, and the building that was once the world’s leading producer of whips is now home to Subway, Domino’s, and other businesses.  Along with the storefronts on the first floor of the original building, the space in between the “U” has been filled in with a one-story commercial block.

Southwick Congregational Church, Southwick Mass

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Southwick Congregational Church on College Highway in Southwick, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

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The church in 2015:

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If this historic church in Southwick resembles a scaled-down version of Springfield’s Old First Church, there is good reason for that – both were designed by Northampton architect Isaac Damon, and out of all of his surviving work, Southwick is probably the closest thing to a twin of Springfield’s.  The belfry design on the two churches is nearly identical, and the rest of the steeple design here in Southwick looks like a miniature of the one on Old First Church.  Both churches also have a triangular portico supported by four columns, although again Southwick’s is on a smaller scale.  Some of Damon’s other churches included the old Northampton church, which burned in 1876, the First Congregational Church in Blandford, and Southwick’s Methodist Episcopal Church, both of which still exist.  Southwick’s church was founded in 1773, and the present-day building was built in 1824 to replace the first, which had burned the year before.  Nearly two centuries later, it has survived with few alterations, and it doesn’t look much different from its appearance in the early 1890s.

Railroad Station, Chatham Mass (2)

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Another view of the railroad station in Chatham, probably taken around the 1940s. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The station in 2015:

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These two photos show the opposite side of the station from the ones in this post, and as mentioned there, this is the only original train station remaining on Cape Cod.  The station was built in 1887 for the Chatham Railroad Company, which was later acquired by the Old Colony Railroad, which was in turn purchased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.  The branch line to Chatham closed in 1937, and the station was abandoned for several decades, as seen in the first photo.  However, it was later restored and converted into the Chatham Railroad Museum, and a historic 1910 caboose now sits on the spot where trains once stopped to pick up passengers coming to and from Chatham.

Railroad Station, Chatham Mass (1)

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The former railroad station in Chatham, probably around the 1940s. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

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The station in 2015:

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The former railroad station in Chatham is the only original railroad station left on Cape Cod, which is a little unusual given that today it is over 12 miles from the nearest active rail line. Built in 1887, the station was once the terminus of a 7.1 mile-long spur that was operated by the Chatham Railroad Colony, and connected the town of Chatham to the Old Colony Railroad, which ran the entire length of Cape Cod.  The line was later acquired by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, who operated it until 1937.  The Boston Public Library estimates that Leslie Jones took the first photo between 1934 and 1956, but I’m guessing it was probably sometime in the 1940s or early 1950s, given that the building looks like it has been abandoned for some time.  However, it wouldn’t stay like that for long, and in 1960 the old station became the home of the Chatham Railroad Museum.  Today, it looks far better than it did when Leslie Jones visited around 70 years ago, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Elm Street, Westfield Mass

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Elm Street in Westfield, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892)

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Elm Street in 2015:

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When the first photo was taken, Westfield was a significant industrial center, with factories that made everything from buggy whips (hence the city’s nickname as the “Whip City”) to organs, and as a result the town had a fairly prosperous downtown.  In the years since the first photo was taken, the town has become a city, most of the factories have closed, and much of the city’s commercial activity has left the downtown area.  However, many of the historic commercial blocks from the 19th century survive today, and the city has been making an effort to revitalize the downtown area, including a complete renovation of the town green and the rotary that surrounds it, part of which can be seen here in the 2015 photo.

The most prominent building in both photos is the commercial block to the right, at the corner of Elm and Main Streets.  Known as the Morrissey Block, it was built in 1842 as a boarding house, and by the time the first photo was taken it was operated as the Westfield House Hotel.  After the hotel closed, the second floor was used as the Westfield District Court in the early part of the 20th century, and today the historic building is used for a variety of commercial and office spaces.

First Congregational Church, Westfield Mass

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The First Congregational Church and the old Town Hall in Westfield, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892)

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The buildings in 2015:

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The scene at the rotary in downtown Westfield is very different from over 120 years ago, but several historic buildings have survived, including the First Congregational Church and the Town Hall.  The Town Hall in the foreground is actually the older of the two, having been built in 1837.  It served a variety of roles since then, first as a town hall and later as a city hall, when Westfield was incorporated as a city in 1920.  However, it was also used for high school classrooms from 1855 until around 1868, and later as a police station and district court.  It was used as city hall until 1962, when the city offices were moved up Broad Street to the former State Normal School building.  The building has seen some changes over the years, with the most obvious being the removal of the cupola, which happened in 1912.  However, it otherwise retains much of its historic exterior appearance, and today it is used as offices for a mental health agency.

Beyond the old Town Hall is the First Congregational Church.  The original church was established in 1679, with Edward Taylor serving as the town’s first pastor.  He had first come to Westfield in 1671 and began serving as pastor before the church was formally established, and he would continue until his death in 1729 at the age of 87.  However, today he is probably best known as one of the first American poets, although his works weren’t published until over 200 years after his death.

His original church building is long gone, and the one that stands on the site today was built in 1860.  The original steeple was destroyed in a storm in 1886, and I’m not sure if the first photo was taken before or after that.  It was published in 1892, but the photo itself could date to much earlier than that. According to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, “Several smaller steeples were in use until 1962 when a tall steeple was erected similar to the original one.”  The steeple in the first photo doesn’t appear to be a “small steeple,” yet the present-day one also doesn’t bear much resemblance to the first one, so I’m not sure which one is shown in the first photo.  In any case, though, otherwise the brick exterior of the church is well preserved, and it continues to be used by the same congregation that Edward Taylor began serving in 1671.