1890s Archives - Page 51 of 66

Rufus Colton House, Agawam, Mass

August 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

A view of Main Street in Agawam from the corner of Elm Street, with the Rufus Colton House in the distance on the left, seen around 1895-1896. Image courtesy of the Agawam Historical Association.

The scene in 2015:

Built in 1806, the Rufus Colton House is architecturally similar to the nearby Captain Charles Leonard House, which was built a year earlier. Both are believed to have been designed by Asher Benjamin, and like the Leonard House it was built for a local militia officer, Lieutenant Rufus Colton. Beginning around 1830, it was owned by Martin King (not Martin Luther King, just Martin King), who operated a tavern here for some time. Main Street was once part of the Boston Post Road, connecting Boston to New York and points south, so it is likely that a good part of King’s business was from travelers on the road.

Today, Main Street is busier, with paved streets replacing the dirt roads of the 1890s, but the Rufus Colton House remains well-preserved after over two centuries. It may or may not have been designed by Asher Benjamin, but either way it is an excellent example of Federal architecture, and it retains many of its original elements, including the hip roof, the fan window over the door, and the Palladian window in the center of the second floor. In 2001, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Agawam Center Historic District.

Congregational Church Parsonage, Agawam, Mass

August 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The parsonage on Main Street in Agawam, around 1895-1896. Image courtesy of the Agawam Historical Association.

The house in 2015:

This house on Main Street opposite School Street was built around 1850 as the parsonage for the Agawam Congregational Church, which is located a few hundred yards south of here on the opposite side of Main Street. The church building that it once served was several decades older; it was built in the early 1800s and was demolished in the 1960s, when the current church was built on the same spot.

Today, the parsonage is partially hidden by trees from this angle, but it is still there, with some alterations. It appears to be a multi-unit apartment now, with additions in the back of the house where the barn once stood in the 1890s photo. The area around the house has also changed; the house to the right was probably built in the early 1900s, and later on the land behind the parsonage was subdivided and Raymond Circle was developed. Despite the changes, however, the building is a contributing property in the Agawam Center Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Wales Road, Monson Mass

June 19, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking up Wales Road from Main Street in Monson, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

Wales Road in 2015:

Most of the houses at the western end of Wales Road date to the second half of the 19th century, including the two on the left, which were built around 1850. At the time that the first photo was taken, Monson was becoming a significant factory town, and many of those factories were situated in the southern part of the town center, within easy walking distance of the houses seen here. Not long after the first photo was taken, a trolley line was built along Main Street in Monson, and it ended here at Wales Road. Today, the trolleys are long gone, and the house on the right has since been replaced, but otherwise most of the houses in this area from the 1892 scene are still there.

Columbia Straw Works, Monson Mass

June 19, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Columbia Straw Works factory on Main Street in South Monson, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

Main Street in 2015:

In the second half of the 19th century, Monson developed into a significant industrial town, with the Chicopee Brook and its tributaries providing power to a number of different factories, including this facility on the left, which was built in the early 1880s by Alvin A. Gage and Rice Munn Reynolds to manufacture straw hats, which were sold at their store on Broadway in New York City. Reynolds was the son of Monson industrialist Joseph L. Reynolds, and he had previously represented Monson in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1876 and 1877. He also served as a town selectman and was one of the founders and trustees of Monson Savings Bank, which still exists today. However, he committed suicide under rather mysterious circumstances in 1898, and his share of the business went to his brother Theodore, whose untimely death came less than two years later at the age of 57, following what the Boston Post described as “a supposedly slight illness.” Theodore owned three mills in Monson, including this one, and was also the third largest stockholder in the Boston & Albany Railroad. At his death, according to the Boston Post, he was worth close to $10 million, which would be around $280 million in 2015 dollars.

Following the death of Theodore Reynolds, the property was acquired by F.W.A. Langewald, who operated it as the Crescent Worsted Mill. However, it burned within a few years. The 1912 Hampden County atlas shows a couple small buildings on the site, but it appears that the fire marked the end of this location as a major industrial site. Today, the only remnants of the factory itself are the stone foundations in the woods beyond the house on the right. The small stream that once powered the factory still passes through the site, and across the street in the distance is the tenement house where many of the workers once lived. It is the only recognizable building from both photos, and today it is an apartment building.

Main Street, Monson Mass (2)

June 18, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking south on Main Street in Monson, toward the Methodist Church at the corner of Main and Cushman, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

Main Street in 2015:

In many ways, Monson’s town center of the 1890s was like many other New England towns of the time: a Main Street lined with elm trees and hitching posts, small stores, and a white church with a tall steeple. Today, Monson still has many elements of a typical small New England town, but not much has survived from the 1890s scene. Many of the stately elm trees were destroyed in the 1938 hurricane, and most of those that survived ended up succumbing to Dutch Elm Disease. The hitching posts have been replaced by parallel parking spaces, and most of the buildings have been replaced with newer, larger commercial developments. However, at least one building survives from the first scene: the United Methodist Church. Built in 1850, it is the oldest of the four active church buildings in town (the original Methodist church building is older, but it is now a private residence), but in the past 120+ years it has lost and regained its steeple. It was damaged in the 1938 hurricane and taken down in 1952, and was not replaced until 2010.

First Church, Monson Mass

June 18, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The First Church of Monson, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

The church in 2015:

The First Church of Monson was established in 1762, two years after the town separated from Brimfield. The first meeting house was built on this hill overlooking the center of town, and was used until a more substantial building was completed in 1803. This building was used until 1871, when it was sold and moved down the hill and across Main Street. Known as Green’s Hall, it was used for commercial space and social gatherings until it burned in 1895. It can be seen in the c.1892 photo in this post.

The present-day church was built in 1873, and has withstood several major disasters over the years. In August 1955, the town sustained heavy damage from flooding, including a massive rockslide from Ely Road, which covered this entire area in front of the church in boulders. A photograph of the scene, taken from around this spot, was published in newspapers across the country. Just a little over 50 years later, photographs of the church again made national news when the June 1, 2011 tornado destroyed the steeple. The original steeple seen in the 1892 photo had been partially destroyed in the 1938 hurricane, and the sections above the belfry were replaced with a similar, but not identical steeple. The entire thing, however, was destroyed in 2011, and a new one was built virtually identical to the 1939 reconstruction.

The other major feature in both photos is the Soldiers’ Monument, which was dedicated on July 4, 1884 in honor of those who served in the Civil War. It was designed by R.F. Carter and was given to the town by industrialist Cyrus W. Holmes. It is made of granite that was quarried in Monson by Flynt Granite Company, and is 46.5 feet tall; the soldier on the top alone is literally larger than life at 7.5 feet tall.