1890s Archives - Page 54 of 68

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.

Main Street, Monson Mass (1)

June 18, 2015June 17, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking south on Main Street in Monson, from Fountain Street, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

Main Street in 2015:

Some of the buildings from the first photo no longer exist, but others survive today, despite over 120 years having passed, along with a direct hit from a tornado four years ago. The Monson Free Library building is visible in the first photo, and is obscured by trees in the second but still there. Next to it is the Soldiers’ Monument, and then in the distance in the center of both photos are two 19th century houses that survive today. These buildings all sustained some amount of damage from the June 1, 2011 tornado that swept through the center of Monson, and the path of the tornado can still be seen in the hillside in the distance; note the difference between the taller, dark green trees to the left and the shorter, light green trees to the right.

The left-hand side of Main Street, however, has completely changed since 1892, and it didn’t take too long. The most prominent building in this scene is what appears to be a church. In fact, it wasn’t a church at the time, but it used to be. It was built in 1803, across the street and up the hill, and was the second building for the First Church of Monson. When the time came to build a new building, the old one didn’t go to waste; it was moved down the hill and across the street in 1871, and was renovated with shops on the first floor and a meeting hall on the second floor, known as Green’s Hall. It was used for a variety of social events until the building burned down in 1895.

Flynt Store, Monson Mass

January 11, 2016June 17, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The company store for Flynt Granite Company on Main Street in Monson, around 1892. Photo from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

The scene in 2015:

This location in Monson has been used for a variety of commercial purposes over the years, beginning in the 1860s when E.E. Towne opened a general store in the building in the first photo, which was known for some time as Towne’s Block. By the time the first photo was taken, though, the store had changed hands, and was owned by Flynt Granite Company. It was the company store for the quarry, which was located a little north of the center of town and was one of the town’s largest employers, with nearly 500 workers in 1900. The original building burned in 1914, and the following year the store reopened in the present-day building. It was owned by the granite company until 1935, when the quarry closed. Since then, the building has been used as a tavern, bowling alley, and currently as an antique store.

The one thing that has remained the same since the first photo was taken is the Flynt Memorial Fountain, which was given to the town in 1882 by quarry owner William N. Flynt, as a watering trough for horses. Today, it is still in the same location, at the intersection of Main and Fountain Streets, although it is now used for decoration rather than as a place for horses to drink water.