1910s

Newton and Asa Colton Houses, Longmeadow, Massachusetts (2)

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The houses at 817 and 809 Longmeadow Street in Longmeadow, looking north from the corner of Colton Place, on May 10, 1918. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The same scene in 2024:

These two photos show a scene that is very similar to the one in the previous post. As explained in that post, the house on the right is the Newton Colton house, which was built in 1823, while the one on the left is the c.1775 Asa Colton house. Both houses were moved in 1921 in order to make room for the junior high school building, which still stands here today as Center Elementary School. Both houses are also still standing today, with the Newton Colton house at 870 Longmeadow Street and the Asa Colton house at 44 Colton Place.

Asa Colton House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts

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The house at 809 Longmeadow Street in Longmeadow, on May 13, 1915. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The same scene in 2024:

This house once stood directly to the north of the one that was featured in the previous post. According to the MACRIS inventory form for the house, it was built in 1775 as the home of Asa Colton, but it was later expanded. Based solely on the exterior appearance of the house, the back portion of the house appears to be older, since its windows do not line up with those in the front part of the house. Other elements of the house, such as the shutters and the Greek Revival style front doorway, would have also been added later.

The Colton family owned this house throughout the first half of the 19th century, but in 1865 it was sold to Daniel Erskine Burbank (1826–1914). The 1870 census shows him here with his wife Jerusha (1825–1903) and their children James (1854–1936), Eunice (1857–1948), and Mary (1860–1936). Prior to moving to this house they also had a fourth child, William, who died in 1863 when he was about 9 months old.

By the time Daniel Burbank died in 1914, Longmeadow was in the midst of considerable changes. Once a primarily agricultural community, by the turn of the 20th century it was transforming into a suburb of Springfield. Many of the old farms were being subdivided into new streets and home lots, and the town’s population was steadily growing. This led to a need for a junior high school, and this site on the east side of the Longmeadow Green was selected for the location of the new school. This required the removal of both this house and the neighboring one to the south. Rather than demolishing the historic houses, both were moved in 1921. This house was moved east and rotated 90 degrees, and it now faces south on the lot at 44 Colton Place, directly behind the school building.

The junior high school building, which is shown here in the present-day photo, is now part of Center Elementary School. The exterior of the school has not changed much since it was built more than a century ago, but the interior was completely gutted and reconstructed in the mid-1990s.

Newton Colton House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts

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The house at 817 Longmeadow Street, at the corner of Colton Place in Longmeadow, on May 13, 1915. Image courtesy of the Longmeadow Historical Society, Paesiello Emerson Collection.

The scene in 2024:

The house in the top photo was built in 1823 as the home of Newton Colton (1795–1858) and his newlywed wife Naomi Robinson (1799–1879). It stood on the east side of the Longmeadow Green, and it was owned by the Colton family throughout the 19th century. They had three children: Francis Parmalee Colton (1824–1852), Naomi Robinson Colton (1828–1920), and John Newton Colton (1837–1899). The oldest, Francis, became a physician, but died young from a disease that he contracted while working at a hospital in New York.

The youngest son, John Newton Colton, ended up inheriting this property, and he lived here until his death in 1899. A year later, the property was sold to Charles S. Allen (1847–1909), and at some point after his death the property was subdivided, and a new street—Colton Place—was laid out just to the south of the house, as shown in the foreground of the 1915 photo.

By about 1920, the property was chosen as the site of a new junior high school building, which required the removal of this house and the neighboring house to the north. However, rather than demolishing the historic houses, both were moved to new sites on or near the Green. This house was purchased by Charles (1881–1957) and Esther Bump (1878–1970), and in July 1921 they moved it across the Green to 870 Longmeadow Street, where it still stands today.

In the meantime, the junior high school was subsequently built here on this site, as shown in the modern-day photo. The building is now Center Elementary School, and it was completely reconstructed on the interior in the mid-1990s, leaving only the original exterior of the building.

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.

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.