1930s Archives - Page 79 of 88

John Brown’s Fort, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia

November 16, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The fire engine house at the Harpers Ferry Armory, more commonly referred to as “John Brown’s Fort,” as seen around 1860. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Civil War Collection.

The same view in May 1939. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Collection.

The scene in 2015:

This small, seemingly nondescript building was built in 1848 at the entrance to the Harpers Ferry Armory, and was used as a guard house and fire engine house. Normally, such a building would not be the subject of an 1860s stereocard, but it gained widespread fame just a few years earlier, due to its role in John Brown’s raid on the armory.

On October 16, 1859, northern abolitionist John Brown led a group of 22 men who attempted to take the armory and start a slave rebellion. They succeeded in taking the armory, and took a number of Harpers Ferry citizens hostage, but the plan quickly unraveled and they ended up barricading themselves in this building, surrounded by local militiamen and other armed townspeople. Eventually, Colonel Robert E. Lee, still fighting in the US Army at the time, led a detachment of Marines, who succeeded in taking the building and capturing John Brown and most of his men.

To many northern abolitionists, John Brown was a hero, but to southern slaveowners he was a dangerous radical and a criminal. He was executed on December 2 in nearby Charles Town, but the failed raid helped to set the Civil War in motion a little over a year later. The first photo was probably taken within three years of the raid, and in it the building still bears some of the scars from the fight.

Unlike most of the armory buildings, this one actually survived the war, and over time it became a tourist attraction and a symbol of the abolitionist movement. However, many residents feared that it would become a major draw for African-Americans to visit the town, so they were looking for ways to get rid of it. Finally, in 1891 the owners decided to dismantle the fort and reassemble it at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was a colossal failure at the exposition, though; the move cost $60,000, and just 11 people paid the 50 cent admission fee to view the fort.

The fort underwent further dismantlings and reconstructions, before eventually moving to its present-day site about 150 feet to the right of here. However, it doesn’t have much real historic value, because of the number of times it has been reconstructed and the amount of original materials that has been lost over time.

After the fort was moved from here, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad built new railroad embankments through the site of the fort, so today it is at a substantially higher elevation than it was in the first photo. The monument, seen in the last two photos, was added by the railroad and marks the original location.

84 Temple Street, Springfield, Mass

February 11, 2016November 12, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The house at 84 Temple Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2015:

This Queen Anne style house was built around 1880, at about the same time as its nearly identical neighbor to the right. One early owner of this house was W.H. Burrall, whose name appears on the 1882 city atlas. He died before 1899, when the city atlas lists the house as belonging to his heirs, and he appears to be the same W.F. Burrall who co-owned Hawkins & Burrall, a Springfield-based bridge building company. Along with this, his name also appears in historical records as a consulting engineer for the Boston & Albany Railroad.

727_former resident 1912c

By 1900, the house was owned by Louis C. Hyde, Springfield’s postmaster. According to the 1900 census, this house was pretty crowded; he lived here with his wife, their son, two daughters, a daughter-in-law and son-in-law, two grandchildren, and three servants, for a total of 12 people in the house. Hyde was featured in a 1913 volume of Automobile Journal, which mentioned that he was using a Springfield-built Indian motorcycle with a tricar attachment to deliver parcel post mail around the city. The photo to the right was printed in the magazine, and shows him on the motorcycle.

82 Temple Street, Springfield, Mass

January 16, 2020November 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The house at 82 Temple Street, seen here around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2015:

Compared to the first photo, this historic Queen Anne style house on Temple Street has seen better days, although it is being restored as of the July 2015 photo. Both this house and its nearly identical neighbor to the left were built around 1880, at a time when this neighborhood was popular among upper middle class professionals such as bankers, lawyers, doctors, and businessmen. In the early 1900s, this house was owned by Robert O. Morris, who served as the clerk of courts for many years, and was also a director of the United Electric Light Company, president of the Springfield Five Cents Savings Bank, and served in similar roles for several other area companies. He was also an amateur ornithologist, and in 1901 he published a book, The Birds of Springfield and Vicinity.

Despite the changes in this neighborhood over the years, the 2015 photo shows that the house still retains many of its original decorative elements. The windows are all new, the shutters have been removed, and the front porch is being completely replaced, but otherwise it still looks very similar to what it would have looked like when Robert O. Morris lived here a century ago.

25 Mattoon Street, Springfield, Mass

February 11, 2016November 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The building at 25 Mattoon Street, seen around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

This building is a little different from the rest of the houses on the south side of Mattoon Street. It was built in 1891, making it the newest on that side of the street. Unlike all of the others, it was built as an apartment building, and its Romanesque architecture is very different from the rest of the street. It is also known as the Yadow Building, because of the somewhat enigmatic “Yadow” inscription in the center of the parapet, and it is part of the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

William H. Haile House, Springfield, Mass

April 3, 2016November 11, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The William H. Haile House at 41 Mattoon Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The houses in 2015:

This house on Mattoon Street was one of the first to be built on Mattoon Street; it was completed in 1871, and the first owner was William H. Haile, a businessman who had just moved to Springfield from Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Haile’s father had served as governor of New Hampshire from 1857 to 1859, and the younger Haile continued the family’s political legacy. He represented Hinsdale in the New Hampshire state legislature for three years, and after he came to Springfield he served a year as the city’s mayor, in 1881. From 1882 to 1883, he served in the Massachusetts Senate, and from 1890 to 1892 he was the Lieutenant Governor. He was the Republican candidate for governor in 1892, but he lost a close race to incumbent governor William E. Russell. I don’t know long Haile lived in this house, though, because by the early 1880s he was living in a larger house a few blocks away at 49 Chestnut Street, where the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts is located today.

35 Mattoon Street, Springfield, Mass

February 11, 2016November 10, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The rowhouse at 35 Mattoon Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2015:

Mattoon Street is a remarkable street in downtown Springfield, with beautifully restored Victorian rowhouses that make it seem more like Boston’s Back Bay than a neighborhood in Springfield. This particular house is near the western end of the street, and it was built in 1872 along with its four identical neighbors to the right. They were designed by architects E.C. Gardner and Jason Perkins, who later designed other Springfield buildings such as the Technical High School on nearby Elliot Street. The original owners of all five houses were B.F. Farrar and Jesse F. Tapley, who sold them to individual owners after they were completed. Today, the houses on the street, including this one, have been beautifully restored, and the neighborhood is part of the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.