1910s Archives - Page 42 of 58

Center Street, Rutland Vermont (2)

June 2, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Another view looking east on Center Street from Merchants Row in Rutland, taken around 1907-1920. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company collection.

Center Street in 2015:

These photos were taken from nearly the same location as the ones in this post, but the historic photo here shows the north side of Center Street as it appeared in the years following the 1906 fire that destroyed most of the left-hand side of this scene. Since the first photo was taken, though, not much has changed. Some of the buildings have been altered, such as the Rutland Savings Bank building on the far right, but otherwise all of the prominent buildings from the early 20th century are still there today, including the Mead Building on the left, which is situated at the corner of Center Street and Merchants Row and replaced the earlier Bates House Hotel that had been destroyed in the fire. Today, the entire area is part of the Rutland Downtown Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

State and Main Streets, Springfield Mass

July 21, 2015May 29, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Foot’s Block at the southwest corner of State and Main Streets in Springfield, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

The location around 1910. Image from View Book of Springfield (1910)

The building in 2015:

The site now occupied by 1200 Main Street has had its share of historic buildings over the years. Thomas Bates built a tavern here in 1773, which operated well into the 19th century. On the surface, it was a popular stagecoach tavern that regularly entertained visiting dignitaries like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. However, it also operated clandestinely a stop on the Underground Railroad. It stood here until 1847, when it was moved a few lots west on State Street, as seen in this post, which gives more details about its history.

After the old tavern was moved in 1847, businessman Homer Foot built Foot’s Block, the building seen in the 1892 photo here. It didn’t take long for Foot to find tenants for the commercial and office space in the building; in 1851,the newly-incorporated Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company rented office number 8 in the building as their original company office. The company would later move to their own building a few blocks up Main Street, but by the first decade of the 20th century they had moved back to the corner of Main and State. However, instead of renting a single suite as they had some 50 years earlier, they demolished Foot’s Block and replaced it with the 12-story tower that stands there today.

The building was completed in 1908, and at 125 feet it is the same height as the steeple of Old First Church. In response to the construction of this building. and because of fears that the city would be overtaken by modern skyscrapers, the Massachusetts legislature set 125 feet as the height limit for any building in Springfield, a law that stood until 1970. As a result, despite being over a century old it is still tied for 7th tallest building in the city. MassMutual didn’t stay here for too long, however. In 1927 with a continually-expanding company and little room in downtown, MassMutual moved to their present-day home a few miles up State Street in the Pine Point neighborhood. Menawhile, the historic office building here at the corner of State and Main is now owned by MGM Springfield, who plan to preserve the building for MGM’s offices once the casino is built adjacent to it.

Saint John the Baptist Church, Ludlow Mass

May 26, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Saint John the Baptist Church on Hubbard Street in Ludlow, c.1906-1913. Image courtesy of the Hubbard Memorial Library.

The church in 2015:

This church, like Saint Paul’s Methodist Church just down the street, was built on land donated by the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates. Because of its location along the Chicopee River, this part of Ludlow was developing into a mill town, and as a result many Catholic immigrants began moving into what had previously been a Protestant town. Catholic mill workers had previously traveled across the river to Indian Orchard to worship, but in 1906 Saint John the Baptist Church opened as the first Catholic church in Ludlow. To the left of the church is the rectory, which was completed in the same year as the church. Today, it’s no longer the only Catholic church in town, but it remains an active congregation , and its appearance hasn’t changed much in the past century. The angle of the present-day photo is a little off, though. The spot that the original photo was taken is now a house, which was probably built for workers at Ludlow Manufacturing who attended the church across the street.

Saint Paul’s Methodist Church, Ludlow Mass

May 26, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Saint Paul’s Methodist Church, at the corner of Hubbard and Sewall Streets in Ludlow, around 1905-1913. Image courtesy of the Hubbard Memorial Library.

The church in 2015:

Saint Paul’s Methodist Church was built here in 1905, and the first photo shows how it appeared not long after its construction. It was built on land donated by the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates, whose factory was just a few blocks down Sewall Street. In 1917, a parsonage was built to the right of the church, and can be seen in the 2015 view. Despite nearly 110 years in between the two photographs, the church is still easily recognizable. The exterior now has modern siding instead of shingles, so the building did lose some of its Victorian style, but otherwise the building is very well preserved today.

Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance, Hartford, Connecticut

June 5, 2017May 15, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance building at the corner of Main and Pearl Streets in Hartford, around 1907. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The same location in 2015:

These two views were taken near the scene on Main Street in this post; the building on the left in the 1905 photo there is the same one featured here. Connecticut Mutual was founded in 1846, and like many other insurance companies it was headquartered in Hartford. The company built this Second Empire style building here in 1872 and expanded it in 1901, but over the years other alterations removed much of its original architectural value. Connecticut Mutual moved out of downtown in 1925, and the building was drastically altered again, becoming the home of Hartford National Bank and Trust. The building remained here until 1964, when it was demolished to build the present skyscraper. As for its original tenant, Connecticut Mutual, they no longer exist either; in 1995 they merged with MassMutual, and most of the company moved to the MassMutual headquarters in Springfield, Mass. Today, these two photographs offer a comparison of architectural styles – the ornate, eclectic Second Empire building of the 1870s in one scene, and the plain concrete and glass 1960s-era Brutalist architecture of the present-day scene.

Willimansett Y, Chicopee Mass

April 26, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The “Y” intersection of Chicopee Street and Meadow Street in the Chicopee village of Willimansett, around 1917. Image courtesy of the Chicopee Public Library, Russ H. Gilbert Photographic Collection.

The “Y” in 2015:

In the early 20th century, the city of Chicopee experienced a large population growth, much of which was made up of Polish and French Canadian immigrants. Each group settled in particular neighborhoods, and Willimansett became home for many French-Canadian immigrants, including my great-great-grandparents, who lived a block away from here in the 1920s. From here, workers could commute a short distance by trolley to either the Holyoke mills across the river, or the mills along the Chicopee River a few miles to the south.

This intersection of Chicopee and Meadow Streets became known as the “Y”, so-named because of the angle at which the streets merge. This is the primary commercial center of Willimansett, but in the early 1900s it was still fairly undeveloped. The commercial blocks on the right weren’t there yet, nor were the houses to the left. The only prominent building that appears in both photos is the Chapin School, which can be seen in the distance in the middle of the fork. It opened in 1898, and had several additions put on as Willimansett grew in population. Today it is vacant, but it is currently planned to be converted into apartments for veterans.

Probably the most interesting thing about the “Y”, however, is something that does not appear in either photo. In the 1930s, a grocery store opened here, called the Y Cash Market. They are no longer in Willimansett, but the name lives on – today the company is Big Y, one of the largest grocery store chains in New England.