1930s

Henry S. Lee House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 254 Union Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2017:


The house in the first photo was once the home of Henry S. Lee, a prominent city banker. He was born in Springfield in 1834, and first entered the banking business as a clerk for Chicopee Bank. In 1858, he became treasurer of the Springfield Institution for Savings, and he held the position for over 40 years, until 1899, when he became the bank’s president. Aside from banking, Lee was also involved in city government, and served as president of the common council in 1865, 1868-1871, and 1875, before spending three years on the board of aldermen. In 1885, he was one of the founders of the School for Christian Workers, and was the president of the International YMCA Training School, now Springfield College, from 1891 to 1893.

Lee was living here by at least 1870, and he remained here until his death in 1902. He never married and had no children, so the house was sold to Azel A. Packard, a carpet merchant who was one of the partners in the city’s prominent Meekins, Packard & Wheat department store. Packard lived here with his wife Mary until her death in 1908, and the following year he remarried to Isabel Young, a 35-year-old who was 24 years younger than him. After Azel’s death in 1923, she remained here until at least 1930, but within a few years had remarried and was living in New York City.

By the time the first photo was taken, the mansion had been converted into a boarding house. The 1940 census shows ten lodgers living here, most of whom had middle-class occupations, including two clerks, two salesmen, a teacher, a stenographer, and a tool dresser who worked at the Armory. However, within a decade the house was demolished, and in 1950 this 64-unit apartment building was built on the property.

238-240 Union Street, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 238-240 Union Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2017:

This building is one of several Second Empire-style duplexes on this section of Union Street, including the similar-looking one directly across the street at 247-249 Union. It was built in 1869, and was owned by Colonel James M. Thompson, a prominent city resident who lived in a nearby mansion a little further up Union Street. Originally, the building had a third unit, which was located on the left side, but this was demolished around the 1930s.

After Colonel Thompson’s death in 1884, his family continued to own this building into the early 20th century. Census records from both 1900 and 1910 show that the units on the left were boarding houses, with tenants that included a bookkeeper, bank clerk, and a clergyman. The unit on the right, though, was rented to a single family, with real estate agent William Dewey living here from at least 1900 to 1910, along with his wife Ella and their three children, Alonzo, Eudocia, and Dorothy.

In subsequent censuses, the building continued to be used as a boarding house for several more decades. The third unit, number 236, was removed sometime before the first photo was taken, and the interior of the building is now divided into six different units. However, very little has changed with the building’s exterior in the past 80 years, and it stands as a good example of the type of elegant townhouses that were built during the city’s post-Civil War housing boom.

Albert H. Hovey House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 234 Union Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2017:


This house appears to have been built around the early 1890s, and for many years it was the home of Albert H. Hovey. Born in 1840 in Monson, Massachusetts, Hovey later moved to Toronto, where he worked as a publisher for many years. In 1855, at the age of 44, he returned to Springfield and married his wife, Sarah. The couple had two children, Albert, Jr., and Walter, and they moved into this house in 1895. Albert does not appear to have continued his publishing career while in Springfield, but he was evidently involved in real estate investments, because the Springfield Republican classified ads of the early 20th century are filled with his offers to rent or sell various properties across the city.

Albert died in 1922, but Sarah continued to live here along with their children. Like his father, the younger Albert went into the real estate business, and he and his wife Helen lived here in this house along with their daughter Julie. After Sarah’s death in 1947 at the age of 95, the house remained in the family until 1963, when it was finally sold, nearly 70 years after Albert Hovey had first purchased it. At some point after this, the house was demolished, and for many years his site was a vacant lot. The property is now owned by DevelopSpringfield, who have made it into a parking lot for the recently-restored Merrick-Phelps House, which is just of view to the left. This organization is also in the process of restoring the building at 77 Maple Street, which can be seen on the left side of both photos.

Henry A. Gould House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 89 Maple Street, at the corner of Union Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2017:


Henry A. Gould was born in 1828 in Manlius, New York, and grew up there and in nearby Syracuse. However, in 1854 he moved to Russell, Massachusetts, where he became a clerk at a paper mill. Four years later, he and Springfield resident Charles O. Chapin purchased the business, which became the Crescent Mills. Under the previous owners, the company had already been a major producer of paper, accounting for more than 13 percent of the country’s entire paper production, but Chapin and Gould grew the business even further. They expanded the factory in 1858, and the Crescent Mills went on to become a successful paper company for many years.

In 1855, Gould married Lucy Bliss Lyman, a 26-year-old widow from Springfield, and they lived in Russell until 1871, when they moved here to the corner of Maple and Union Streets. Another house had previously stood on this lot, but it was demolished to build the Goulds’ new home, which was designed in the Victorian Gothic style of the era. This same style can also be seen in other nearby homes, including 210 Maple and, on a much grander scale, 220 Maple.

Henry and Lucy did not have any children, and Lucy died in 1883. Two years later, he remarried to Harriet L. Bliss, who was the granddaughter of prominent early 19th century architect Asher Benjamin. By the 1900 census, they were living here with Henry’s niece, Emily Hedden, plus three servants. After Henry’s death in 1908, Harriet remained here until her death in 1920, and the house was subsequently sold to physician George Weston. Aside from his medical practice, Dr. Weston had also served as president of the Hampden District Medical Society and as a longtime member of the Springfield School Committee, and he lived here at this house until his death in 1931.

Like many of Springfield’s other mansions during the Great Depression, this house was converted into a boarding house. There were ten lodgers living here during the 1940 census, all of whom were middle aged or older, with occupations that included two teachers, a paymaster, a stenographer, and a salesperson. Ultimately, several decades after the first photo was taken, the property was sold to the Insurance Company of North America, who built an office building here in the 1960s. This building later became offices for Milton Bradley, and it is now the Milton Bradley Elementary School. The school itself is just outside of view to the right, but the site of the former house is now a parking lot for the school.

Dr. Luke Corcoran House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 95 Maple Street in Springfield, around 1889. Image from the Inland Architect and News Record, Volume XII No. 9.

The house around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2017:


For many years, this site on Maple Street was the home of James Dwight Brewer, a local merchant and member of the prominent Brewer family. However the house in the first photo is not the same one that he lived in. Brewer died in 1886, and the property was inherited by his daughter Harriet. In 1889, she had the old house moved to the rear of the lot, at 100 School Street, in order to make room for the house in the first two photos. Her husband, Dr. Luke Corcoran, was a leading physician in the city who also served as a trustee of the Northampton State Hospital. The Corcorans were also art patrons, and amassed a considerable collection here at their home.

Luke and Harriet Corcoran had two children, James and Sarah, although Sarah died in 1881 at the age of two.  James became an author and journalist who worked for the Springfield Republican, along with writing several books of his own. He married his wife Carolyn in 1901, and the couple lived here with James’s parents and their daughter Celeste. Both Luke and Harriet died in the 1920s, but James and his family continued to live here for many years. Carolyn died in 1953, but James was still living in this house until around 1963, when he sold the property to the Insurance Company of North America. The house was subsequently demolished, and the insurance company built the current building on the site. This building later became offices for Milton Bradley, and is now the Milton Bradley Elementary School.

12/2020 update: Special thanks to photos.innersource.com for providing the 1889 image from the Inland Architect and News Record.

Eunice B. Smith House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 111 Maple Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2017:


Eunice B. Smith was born in 1826, and grew up in Springfield’s prominent Brewer family. Her father James was a merchant who was one of the founders of Chicopee Bank, and her grandfather Chauncey was a distinguished physician in the colonial era. Likewise, her husband David P. Smith was also a physician. He served in the Civil War as a surgeon, first for the 18th Massachusetts Infantry and eventually as chief surgeon at the Fairfax Seminary Hospital in Alexandria, and after the war he became a professor of surgery at Yale.

David and Eunice’s only child, George, died in 1873 at the age of nine, and David died in 1880 at the age of 50. In 1890, Eunice had this house built on Maple Street, in between Union and Mulberry Streets. In the 1900 census, she was listed as living here with two servants, plus a woman who was identified as being her companion. Ten years later, she and her companion were still living here, along with four servants, which included a waitress, a cook, and two nurses.

After Eunice’s death in 1911, the house was sold to businessman Harry G. Fisk. He came from a family of successful industrialists, including his uncle, George C. Fisk, who was the longtime president of the Wason Manufacturing Company. Harry’s father, Noyes W. Fisk, worked for Wason and later became the clerk and treasurer of the Fisk Manufacturing Company, but in 1898 he and Harry established the Fisk Rubber Company in Chicopee. While Wason was one of the nation’s leading railroad car manufacturers, Fisk Rubber became a major producer of bicycle and car tires, and Harry served for many years as the company’s treasurer.

Aside from his involvement in the rubber company, which was later renamed the Fisk Tire Company, Harry Fisk was also the president of the Fisk Manufacturing Company, which made soap, and he was the president of the Springfield Motors Company. He served as a director for several other area companies, including the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, and he even owned a large farm in East Longmeadow, where he bred cattle.

Harry Fisk and his wife Alice had four children, one of whom died in infancy. The family lived in this house for many years, and their wealth can be seen in the census valuations of the property. In 1930, for example, the house was valued at $75,000, or around $1.1 million in 2017 dollars. This was substantially higher than the other nearby mansions, which were fine homes in their own right. By the 1940 census, however, the home’s value had declined to $40,000, or about $700,000 today. This was partially a result of the Great Depression, but it was probably also a reflection of changes in the neighborhood. By this point, many of the fine Gilded Age mansions on lower Maple Street had either been demolished to build apartments, or were converted into boarding houses. However, Harry Fisk remained here until his death in 1945, a year after Alice’s death.

Along with the other three mansions along this section of Maple Street between Mulberry and Union Streets, this house was demolished sometime in the two decades between Fisk’s death and the construction of the present building, which was completed in 1965. It was originally built as offices for the Insurance Company of North America, but was later used by Milton Bradley. In the mid-1990s, it was sold to the city and converted into the Milton Bradley Elementary School.