1900s

Chestnut Street, Salem, Massachusetts

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The view looking west on Chestnut Street from the corner of Pickering Street, around 1906. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene in 2023:

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Salem was one of the most prosperous seaports in the United States. This was reflected in its architecture, which included many large, fashionable Federal-style homes that were built for merchants and other wealthy Salem residents. Many of these homes are located on the streets immediately to the west of downtown Salem, including Chestnut Street, as shown in these two photos.

Chestnut Street was laid out in 1796, and over the next few decades it was developed with stately homes. Only one house on the street is known to have been the work of prominent Salem architect Samuel McIntire, but his influence is clearly evident in the designs of the other houses here. Many of the houses are brick, although some are wood, and they are generally three stories high, have a hipped roof, and have a roughly square footprint. Most were designed as standalone single-family homes, but there are a few that were built as adjoining two-family homes.

By the time the top photo was taken at the turn of the 20th century, the street was already recognized as an important Salem landmark. Not only were the houses themselves significant, but the streetscape itself was also notable for the many elms that lined the street, creating a tunnel-like effect, as shown in the top photo.

Sadly, nearly all of the elms are gone now, likely as a result of Dutch Elm Disease. Today, the street is still lined by trees, but their lower canopies do not have the same effect that the elms once had. Despite the loss of the elms, though, not much else has changed in this scene. The tree cover makes it hard to tell, but all of the homes in the top photo are still standing. The street is one of the finest collections of Federal-style architecture anywhere in New England, and it forms the centerpiece of the Chestnut Street District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

 

Devereux-Hoffman House, Salem, Massachusetts

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The house at 26 Chestnut Street in Salem, probably around 1906-1910. Image courtesy of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Frank Cousins Glass Plate Negatives Collection.

The house in 2023:

These two photos show one of the many historic early 19th century homes that line Chestnut Street in Salem. The street was laid out in 1796, and over the next few decades it was developed with large Federal-style homes for the merchants and other wealthy Salem residents. This particular house was built around 1826-1827 as the home of Humphrey and Eliza Devereux. The architect of the house is unknown, but its design is consistent with the other homes of this period on Chestnut Street, which were heavily influenced by the designs of Samuel McIntire.

Humphrey Devereux was a merchant and ship owner, and early in his career he spent time at sea, including making voyages to Europe and the East Indies. During the War of 1812, his ship was captured by the British, and he spent time as a prisoner in Bermuda. He later retired from life at sea, and instead focused on running his mercantile business from Salem.

He married his wife Eliza Dodge in 1809, and they had two children. Their son, George Humphrey Devereux, was born in 1809, and their daughter Mary Ann Cabot Devereux was born in 1812. They moved into this house around 1827, but Eliza died soon after, in 1828. Humphrey continued to live here for at least another decade, but by the 1840s he was living a few houses down the street from here, at 34 Chestnut Street.

This house was subsequently owned by another merchant, Charles Hoffman. Originally from Hamburg, Germany, he later immigrated to America, where he became one of Salem’s leading merchants in the West African trade during the mid-19th century, and he imported goods such as hides, palm oil, and nuts. He moved into this house a few years after his 1840 marriage to his second wife, Eliza King.

Charles and Eliza did not have any children, and the census records from the late 19th century show that they lived here alone except for two live-in servants. Aside from his business interests, Charles was also an amateur horticulturalist, and his house was well known for its well-maintained gardens and its greenhouses in the back of the house. He lived here until his death in 1878, but Eliza continued to live here into the early 20th century. The 1900 census shows here living here with her sister Harriet and three servants.

Eliza died in 1905, and the house was subsequently sold to Dr. James E. Simpson. He made some alterations to the house, and converted part of it into offices for his medical practice. This included adding a second entryway on the right side of the house, which served as the entrance to his offices. The top photo was taken within a few years after this work was completed.

The 1910 census shows James Simpson living here with his wife Gertrude, her mother Mary Ropes, and two servants. By 1920, the Simpsons had three servants, and the household also included James’s aunt Fannie. James lived here until his death in 1935, and Gertrude died five years later.

Overall, the house has seen few exterior changes since the top photo was taken. Its ivy-covered brick walls are still easily recognizable from the top photo, and the house stands as one of the many well-preserved Federal-style homes in this part of Salem. Along with the other houses in this area, it is now part of the Chestnut Street District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Quincy Mansion, Quincy, Massachusetts (2)

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The Quincy Mansion, sometime around the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Image courtesy of the Thomas Crane Public Library.

The same scene in 2023:

As explained in more detail in the previous post, the house in the top photo was built in 1848 as the summer home of Josiah Quincy IV, who was at the time serving as mayor of Boston. Quincy died in 1882, and the house was subsequently converted into educational use. In 1896, Dr. Horace Mann Willard opened the Quincy Mansion School here in the house. This was a prestigious boarding school for girls, and he served as principal until his death in 1907. His wife Ruth then continued to run the school until 1919, when she closed it in the midst of declining health.

The property was then sold to Eastern Nazarene College, which relocated here from Rhode Island in 1919. The college used the old house as a dormitory and for classroom space, but the house was ultimately demolished in 1969 to make way for Angell Hall, a modern classroom building. This building is still standing here on the Eastern Nazarene campus, as shown in the second photo.

Corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (2)

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A wintry scene looking southeast toward the intersection of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road in Longmeadow, around 1902-1909. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The scene in 2024:


These two photos show the same scene as the ones in the previous post, except these photos here were taken in the winter rather than in the summer. And, rather than being taken from ground level, they are taken from the southeastern bedroom on the second floor of the Josiah Cooley House. The photographer who took the top photo, Paesiello Emerson, lived in this house in the early 20th century with his half siblings Annie and Henry, and this is one of the many photos that he took of Longmeadow during this period.

The top photo is undated, but as explained in the previous post it must have been taken in 1909 or earlier, due to the presence of the house on the far right side of the photo. This house was demolished around 1909, when Springfield-based heating and plumbing contractor George R. Estabrook purchased the property and built a new house on the site. Likewise, the house on the left, which stood at the corner of Bliss Street, was demolished around the late 1920s in order to build St. Mary’s Church.

Today, both the church and the former Estabrook house are still standing, and the latter now serves as the rectory. Although these were built after the top photo was taken, the overall scene is still recognizable from that photo, especially when the landscape is covered with freshly-fallen snow. And, there is at least one noticeable surviving feature from the top photo—the maple tree in the foreground. It is now probably around 150 years old, and it still stands in the front yard of the Josiah Cooley House.

Corner of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road, Longmeadow, Massachusetts

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The view looking southeast toward the intersection of Longmeadow Street and Emerson Road, sometime around 1902-1909. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The scene in 2023:

These two photos were taken from the front yard of the Josiah Cooley House, looking southeast across Longmeadow Street. The top photo was taken by amateur photographer Paesiello Emerson, who lived in the Cooley House, and it is one of the many images that he captured of early 20th century Longmeadow.

The top photo shows a trolley traveling northbound on Longmeadow Street. At the time, trolley tracks ran the length of the street from the Connecticut state line in the south, to the Springfield border on the north. The tracks were operated by the Springfield Street Railway, and this provided direct service from Longmeadow to Springfield. Passengers could also take the trolleys south to Hartford, so this section of track in Longmeadow provided an important link in the interurban trolley system between these two major cities.

The trolley was a sign of changing times here in Longmeadow. Throughout the 19th century, the town had remained a small agricultural community, with very little development aside for the houses that lined either side of Longmeadow Street. However, the arrival of the trolley line meant that people could now live in Longmeadow and easily commute to Springfield, so by the early 20th century many of the old farms were being subdivided into residential streets.

On the other side of Longmeadow Street in the top photo, several old houses are visible through the trees. It’s hard to say whether this was a deliberate juxtaposition on Paesiello Emerson’s part, to show the modern trolley with a backdrop of old farmhouses, but the photo certainly has that effect. These two houses, which once stood on the east side of Longmeadow Street just south of Bliss Road, were likely built at some point in the 18th or early 19th centuries, but both would disappear within the first few decades of the 20th century.

The house further to the right, just beyond the trolley, was the first to go. Its presence in the photo helps to establish the date that it was taken, because the house was demolished by about 1909, when Springfield-based heating and plumbing contractor George R. Estabrook purchased the property and built a new brick house on the site. Further to the left, the house at the corner of Bliss Street was demolished around the late 1920s, in order to build St. Mary’s Church.

Aside from new buildings across the street, this scene would undergo more changes in the years after the top photo was taken. As automobiles became more common in the early 20th century, Longmeadow Street became part of the main north-south route through the Connecticut River Valley. This was made official with the designation of New England Route 2 in 1922, which was later renumbered as U.S. Route 5 with the establishment of the United States Numbered Highway System in 1926. Longmeadow Street was a part of this route, resulting in heavy automobile traffic through the center of a town that, a few decades prior, had been a quiet village on the outskirts of Springfield. This led to concerns about speeding, and after a string of traffic fatalities in 1927 the town decided to install traffic lights at five key intersections, including one here at the corner of Emerson Road.

Today, almost nothing survives from the top photo, but this scene has still managed to retain much of its original scale, even if the buildings themselves are different. St. Mary’s Church still stands at the corner nearly a century after it was built, and next to it is the house that George Estabrook built around 1909. This house was sold to the church in the 1930s, and it now serves as the rectory. However, perhaps the only identifiable thing that survives from the top photo is the maple tree in the foreground on the right side of both photos. It is probably around 150 years old now, and it still stands here in the front yard of the Josiah Cooley House.

Old Manse North Parlor, Concord, Massachusetts

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The north parlor at the Old Manse in Concord, probably around 1890-1910. Image courtesy of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum, Frank Cousins Glass Plate Negatives Collection.

The scene in 2023:

These two photos show the parlor in the northeast corner of the first floor at the Old Manse. In contrast to the south parlor, which was used primarily by family and close friends, the north parlor was historically a more formal space for entertaining guests, and would have generally had finer decorations and furnishings.

As described in more detail in an earlier post, the Old Manse was built in 1770 as the home of William and Phebe Emerson. William was the pastor of the church in Concord, but he died only a few years later in 1776, while serving as a chaplain in the Continental Army. His successor at the church was Ezra Ripley, who would go on to serve as pastor for 63 years. Ripley also married Emerson’s widow Phebe, and they lived here in this house for the rest of their lives.

The house remained in the Ripley family and their descendants for many years, but the house is best remembered for its association with two prominent writers who lived here early in their careers. From 1834 to 1835, William and Phebe Emerson’s grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, lived in the house, and then from 1842 to 1845 the family rented the house to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his newlywed wife Sophia. Both Emerson and Hawthorne used the same upstairs room as their study, and they each wrote some of their earliest published works there.

The top photo shows the north parlor at some point around the turn of the 20th century, when the house was owned by Ezra and Phebe’s granddaughter Sophia Thayer. Her daughter, Sarah Ames, subsequently inherited the house, and she owned it until her death in 1939. Sarah’s husband then donated the house and all of its contents to the Trustees of Reservations, a nonprofit conservation and historic preservation organization in Massachusetts.

Today, the house is still owned by the Trustees and operated as a museum. Here in the North Parlor, the highlights include an 1864 Steinway piano, which is partially visible in the lower right corner of the second photo, and the standing desk beyond it to the right. The desk originally belonged to Ezra Ripley, and it was there that he composed over 3,000 sermons during his more than six decades of ministry at the church.