Paesiello Emerson

Josiah Cooley House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (8)

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The back of the house at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road in Longmeadow, on November 17, 1907. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The scene in 2024:

These two photos show the back of the Josiah Cooley House, which was built sometime around 1760, as explained in more detail in an earlier post. The house has seen considerable changes over the years, as was often the case with colonial New England homes which grew as the families grew. This house was originally built as a saltbox-style house, with four rooms on the first floor, two rooms on the front part of the second floor, and a long, sloping roof here in the back. It was originally owned by Josiah Cooley and his son, Josiah Cooley Jr., and then by the younger Josiah’s daughter Lucy and her husband Luther Colton.

Around 1827–1835, the house underwent significant alterations and additions. This included raising the roof to create a full second story, and it also involved building two additions. In the distance on the left side of the house is a two story addition that has its own chimney. This was built for one of Lucy and Luther’s children, Luther Woolworth Colton, who lived in that part of the house after his 1835 marriage to Abigail Morris. Around this same time, the Colton family also added the one-story wing here in the foreground, which appears to have been primarily used as a workshop and/or shed, rather than as living space.

Other changes during this period included upgrading the windows on the front part of the house. Originally, the windows had 12 panes of glass on each sash, a style that is referred to as 12-over-12. However, as glassmaking improved in the early 19th century, larger panes of glass became easier to produce, and 6-over-6 windows became the preferred style for most homeowners. The Coltons replaced the windows in the front of the house, but rather than discarding the old ones, they repurposed them here on the back, where the windows were installed in the additions, where they would be less visible from the street. These windows were still on the house when the top photo was taken in 1907.

The Colton family eventually sold the house in 1869 to Bradford W. Palmer, and then he sold it three years later to William G. Emerson. It would remain in the Emerson family for more than 70 years, and by the time the top photo was taken it was owned by William’s daughter Annie, who lived here with her brother Henry and half brother Paesiello. Annie was a teacher, and she was also the town historian. She spent a considerable amount of time researching the history of this house, and her brother Paesiello took many photographs of the house, on both the interior and exterior. Together, her written account and his photography provide valuable information about the history of the house and the changes that it underwent.

Henry Emerson was the last of the family to live in this house, and he died in 1943. The house was subsequently sold, and over the years it has seen further changes. Most noticeably, this has included the expansion of the back wing, which now has a two-car garage. Next to the garage is a small covered porch, along with a door that leads into the back of the house. Another newer addition is the enclosed porch on the right side. On the second floor, there is now a third window, which was installed when one of the rooms was divided into two bathrooms during a mid-1940s remodel of the house.

Overall, despite these changes, the house has retained much of its historic appearance. The front of the house has remained mostly unchanged since the early 20th century, and the changes here in the back have generally been sensitive to its historic character. Many of the original 12-over-12 windows are also still here, including the double windows on the first floor, which are hard to see from this angle because of the enclosed porch.

Josiah Cooley House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (7)

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The house at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road in Longmeadow, seen from the northeast around the 1910s or 1920s. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The house in 2024:

These two photos show the Josiah Cooley House, which has been discussed in more detail in previous posts. It was built sometime around 1760, but was subsequently expanded around 1827–1835. This involved building the two additions that are shown here in these photos, including the one-story wing in the back of the house, and a two-story wing here on the north side of the house. The house was owned by Josiah Cooley and his descendants for over a century, and subsequent owners included the Emerson family, who lived here from 1872 to 1943.

Also visible in these two photos is the David Hale House, which stands in the distance on the left side of the scene. It was built sometime around the mid-19th century at the southwest corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road, and it features Greek Revival style architecture, which was typical for this period. It was originally owned by David Hale, but after his death in 1865 it was sold to Michael Kinney, whose family lived here into the early 20th century.

Today, this scene is not significantly different from when the top photo was taken a century ago. Both houses are still standing, although the Hale house is now part of the campus of Bay Path University. The Cooley house was also part of Bay Path for a time, although the school recently sold the property and it is once again a private residence.

Josiah Cooley House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (6)

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The house at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in July 1925. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The house in 2024:

This house has been well documented here on Lost New England due in large part to the efforts of half siblings Paesiello and Annie Emerson, whose family owned this house in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Paesiello was an amateur photographer, and this historic colonial house was a frequent subject of his photographs. Likewise, Annie was the town historian, and she extensively researched the history of the house. Her narrative was a valuable resource for me when I was writing an earlier blog post, which includes a detailed history of the property. The Emersons also played an important role in preserving the house at a time when many other old Longmeadow houses were being demolished or moved to make way for new suburban developments.

The recorded history of this property dates to the early 1700s, when Eliakim Cooley (1681–1758) built a house on this site, probably around the 1710s or 1720s. It was definitely here by 1728, when it was struck by lightning on May 19. The exact fate of this early house seems unclear, though, including whether it was destroyed by the lightning, and whether it was subsequently rebuilt. The exact construction date of the current house is also uncertain, although it appears to have been built by Eliakim’s son Josiah Cooley (1716–1778), probably sometime around 1760, although other sources have given the date as 1775. According to Annie Emerson’s research, it appears to have been built, at least in part, on the foundation of Eliakim Cooley’s early 1700s house.

When it was built, this house looked considerably different from its later appearance. It was a typical 18th century saltbox-style house, with four rooms on the first floor, two rooms on the front part of the second floor, and a long, sloping roof in the back, which gave the “saltbox” style its name. In the center of the house is a large chimney, which measures about 10 feet on each side on the first floor. The front doorway would have also been different from its current appearance, and the front windows would have had 12-over-12 sashes, rather than the 6-over-6 ones that are shown in these two photos.

Josiah Cooley’s son Josiah (1749–1824) subsequently inherited the house, and he lived here with his mother Experience Hale (1714–1798), his wife Abiel Bliss (1758–1830), and their children. Their daughter Lucy (1789–1869) was the next owner of the house, and she lived here with her husband Luther Colton (1787–1857) and their children.

It was during Lucy and Luther Colton’s ownership that the house underwent its most significant changes. Different sources give different dates, but this appears to have occurred between 1827 and 1835. This included raising the roof to create a full second floor, building a one-story addition on the back of the house, and building a two-story addition on the north side of the house, which can be seen on the right side of these two photos. This addition was built for Luther Woolworth Colton (1812–1851) and his wife Abigail Morris (1812–1848), who lived in it after their marriage in 1835.

Other alterations during this time included replacing the front doorway with a Greek Revival style doorway, and also replacing the older windows with newer, more fashionable 6-over-6 sashes. However, the older windows were not discarded, but were instead installed in the additions on the back of the house, where many of them still remain. The Coltons also added exterior shutters to the windows, and removed the older interior panel shutters, which were evidently repurposed to make cabinets.

The house remained in the Colton family until 1869, when Lucy and Luther’s son Josiah Cooley Colton (1825–1895) sold it to Bradford W. Palmer. However, Palmer remained here for just three years before selling it to William G. Emerson (1806–1887), a carpenter who was originally from eastern Massachusetts and had previously lived in Holyoke and Chicopee. He moved here with his wife Lovina Fay (c.1822–1897) and their three children: William (1849–1930), Annie (1859–1941), and Henry (1865–1943).

Of their children, Annie and Henry never married, and they lived here in this house for the rest of their lives. In 1907, they were joined by their half brother Paesiello (1832–1927), a Civil War veteran and retired bootmaker who was William G. Emerson’s son from his first marriage. Paesiello was a widower by the time he moved here, and he had recently taken up photography as a hobby. Over the next few decades, he used his camera to document life in Longmeadow, as the town underwent major changes due to population growth and suburbanization.

The top photo was taken in July 1925, when Paesiello Emerson was 93 years old. Despite his age, he was still living a very active life, including taking photographs around town and also traveling to attend Civil War reunions with an ever-dwindling number of his former comrades. His last reunion was in 1927, when he snuck out of the house without telling anyone and traveled across the state to Fairhaven to attend it, prompting a series of missing persons articles that were published in area newspapers. He died a few months later in December 1927, at the age of 95.

Annie and Henry continued to live here until their deaths in 1941 and 1943, respectively. The house has had a series of owners since then, including Bay Path University, which owned the house for a time. However, it is once again a private residence, and overall the exterior has seen few significant changes in the past century, aside from the removal of the shutters and the installation of a larger window on the first floor of the north wing of the house.

Longmeadow Street and Bliss Road, Longmeadow, Massachusetts

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The view looking east toward the corner of Longmeadow Street and Bliss Road in Longmeadow, around 1910. Image photographed by Paesiello Emerson, courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society.

The same view in 2024:

These two photos show a view from the same vantage point as the ones in the previous post, just angled farther to the right. The photographer of the 1910 image, Paesiello Emerson, took the photo from the second-floor bedroom on the southeast corner of his house, at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road. His image shows a changing landscape in Longmeadow, with an older farmhouse in the foreground and newer suburban homes in the background.

The house in the center of the top photo was apparently built sometime around the late 18th or early 19th centuries. It stood at the northeast corner of Longmeadow Street and Bliss Road, and the 1830 town map shows that it was owned by Samuel Stebbins. By the 1850s, it was owned by Sylvester Bliss, a farmer who lived here with his wife Nancy. They had four children: Hannah, Marilla, James, and Harriet. All four were living here with their parents during the 1880 census, and Bliss also employed two boys who lived and worked here. His property included about 30 acres that extended westward along the north side of Bliss Road as far as modern-day Laurel Street.

Sylvester Bliss died in 1887, and Nancy died a decade later. The top photo was taken around 1910, and the Bliss family still owned the property at this time, although they rented it to Clifford S. Kempton, a poultry farmer who was originally from Pennsylvania. During the 1910 census he was 53 years old, and he was living here with his wife Clara, their three children, and Clara’s brother Charles Breck. Their household also included 16-year-old Pearl Murphy, a Black domestic servant who was from North Carolina.

In 1913, the Bliss family sold this property to real estate developer Edwin H. Robbins. The land was then subdivided and new streets were laid out, including Belleclaire Avenue and Westmoreland Avenue. Most of the land was redeveloped with new single-family homes, but the spot here at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Bliss Road became the site of a commercial building known as the Colonnade. Rather than demolishing the old Bliss house, it was moved around the corner to a new lot on Bliss Road around 1914. However, it was destroyed by a fire just two years later. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the fire was probably caused by defective wiring.

The Colonnade featured a variety of businesses, and early tenants included a drugstore, a grocery store, a meat market, a tailor, a shoemaker, and an automobile garage. It is still standing today, and it is visible in the center of the second photo, although its exterior has been heavily altered over the years. Aside from the construction of the Colonnade, other changes from the top photo include the demolition of the houses on the right side of Bliss Road, which can be seen in the distance on the right side of the top photo. This area on Bliss Road is now occupied by St. Mary’s Church and St. Mary’s Academy, which is partially visible on the far right side.

Longmeadow Street and Belleclaire Avenue, Longmeadow, Massachusetts

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The view looking east toward the corner of Longmeadow Street and Belleclaire Avenue in Longmeadow, in January 1916. Image photographed by Paesiello Emerson, courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society.

The scene in 2024:

These two photos were taken from the southeast bedroom on the second floor of the Josiah Cooley House. Built around 1760, this house stands at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road, and during the early 20th century it was the home of Paesiello Emerson, an amateur photographer who used his camera to document life in Longmeadow.

The top photo shows some of the changes that were happening here in Longmeadow during this period. For much of its history, the town was relatively small. Most of the homes were located along Longmeadow Street, with long house lots that extended to the east and west of the street. There was minimal commercial or industrial development, and the town’s economy relied primarily on farming.

By 1900, the town had a population of just 811, but this would soon change due to the growth of Springfield, which is directly to the north of Longmeadow. A trolley line was built through the town, linking it to Springfield and also to Hartford, and it made it easy for residents to live in the town and commute into the city for work.

Over the next few decades, many of the old house lots were subdivided and developed with single-family homes. This included the land at the northeast corner of Longmeadow Street and Bliss Road, which had long been owned by the Bliss family. Around 1913, the Bliss family sold this land to Edwin H. Robbins, a real estate developer who named the subdivision “Brookline.” This was part of a strategy to market Longmeadow as Springfield’s equivalent to Brookline, which is an affluent suburb of Boston.

The Brookline subdivision consisted of homes along the north side of Bliss Road and east side of Longmeadow Street, along with the development of several new streets. Belleclaire Avenue and Westmoreland Avenue were laid out east to west, running parallel to Bliss Road. These streets were intersected by Dayton Street (later named Cross Street), Rosemore Street, and Lorenz Street, which ran north to south. From this view, Belleclaire Avenue is near the center of the photo, with Westmoreland Avenue farther in the distance on the left side.

Aside from naming it “Brookline,” Robbins also promoted this subdivision through regular advertisements in local newspapers. One such advertisement, published in the May 4, 1913 Springfield Republican, encouraged Springfield residents to move to Longmeadow, specifically to Brookline. He wrote:

You have thought that you would like to live in Longmeadow.

The reasons you had were these:

You would have every advantage you have in Springfield. Emphasis on the “every.”

You would have, in addition, all the delights of the country. These are:

  1. The pure country air, perfumed by the flowers and made vocal by the birds. Did you ever hear the birds’ May Festival?
  2. The absence of the many hideous sights and smells of the city, as well as the profanities and vulgarities you cannot help hearing.
  3. The closeness of the ties of friendships impossible anywhere but in a small community of congenial people. This is not obvious to a city dweller, but is a very real fact to the resident of a village community.

Think what these three advantages mean to growing children. You bring them up physically and morally clean, and you store their hearts with happy memories they will cherish in the strenuous days to come.

Your desire to live in Longmeadow is a true instinct. Follow it.

As to what “Brookline” is and will be, I want to say:—

1st. It has a beautiful location at the corner of Bliss Road, with a frontage of over 700 feet on Longmeadow Street, down to the Town House. It is level and high and perfectly dry, with a fine sand subsoil, and in no part underlaid with clay.

I am going to put in water, sewer, gas, electric lights. Trees now set out in the tree belts, and adequate cement sidewalks. The houses will be 100 feet apart across the streets, and I have restricted it so highly that I GUARANTEE YOU DESIRABLE NEIGHBORS, no matter how high your station in life may be.

I pledge my word to make “Brookline” the highest class development in Longmeadow. My word is good, and has been proved in my former developments, which I invite you to inspect.

Not only do I pledge my word, but I am hard at work to show the goods.

Come down and see what I am doing, as an indication of what I shall do.

BROOKLINE is where you bought melons of Mr. Kempton last year.

As indicated in the advertisement, Robbins placed deed restrictions on the lots, which were set to terminate in 1935. Some of these restrictions were fairly standard physical requirements, including setting standards for setbacks, minimum construction costs, and exterior materials. However, as implied by his guarantee of “desirable neighbors,” he also included racial and ethnic restrictions on the lots that he sold. These deeds stated that “said lot shall not be resold to a colored person a Polander or an Italian.” This was not an uncommon practice during the early 20th century, and it contributed to racial disparities between the predominantly white, high-income suburbs and the much more diverse, lower-income cities. The deed restrictions for this particular subdivision expired in 1935, but racially-based restrictions continued to be used elsewhere until 1948, when the Shelley v. Kraemer Supreme Court case ruled that they were unenforceable.

The top photo was taken in January 1916, during the early years of the subdivision’s development. Some of the houses were already built, and at least one or two on Westmoreland Avenue were under construction at the time. The photo was taken by Paesiello Emerson, from a second-floor bedroom at his house. This was one of the many photos that he took in Longmeadow during the first few decades of the 20th century, many of which showed the evolving landscape as the town evolved from an agricultural community to an affluent residential suburb.

Today, more than a century after Paesiello Emerson took the top photo, the view from the bedroom window shows a scene that is more developed, yet still recognizable from the top photo. The subdivision has long since been built out, and Belleclaire and Westmoreland Avenues are lined with early 20th century homes. Other than these houses, the only significant change in this scene is on the right side, where a small commercial property now stands at the corner of Longmeadow Street and Bliss Road. This was also constructed during the early 20th century development of the area, and it now includes a variety of commercial tenants, including a gas station and auto repair shop.

Laundry Wagon, Longmeadow, Massachusetts

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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.