McKnight Springfield

William M. Hoag House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 152 Westminster Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This Queen Anne-style house in the McKnight neighborhood was built in 1888 for William and Mary Hoag, a couple in their late 50s who had previously lived nearby on Saint James Avenue. William was variously listed as a contractor, carpenter, and builder, and he likely found plenty of work here in McKnight, which was seeing large-scale development in the 1880s. He and Mary lived here for about a decade, but Mary died in 1898, and by 1900 William had moved to the house nearby at 112 Westminster Street.

During the 1900 census, this house still owned by Hoag, but was being used as a rental property. James Dunbar, who worked as a freight agent, lived here with his wife Minnie, their son Risley, and Minnie’s parents. However, the house was later sold to Samuel C. Hall, a local shoe manufacturer. A widower, he lived here with his brother James and James’s wife Mary. Samuel died in 1917, but James and Mary remained here for many years, with James working as a traveling salesman.

The first photo was taken a year or two after Mary’s death in 1937, but James was still living here at the time, and he remained here until his death in 1943. At some point soon after, the exterior of the house was remodeled, with asphalt shingles replacing the original clapboards. However, the exterior has since been restored, and today the only noticeable difference between the two photos is the loss of the house next door at 162 Westminster, which burned down in 1966.

William L. Richards House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 166 Westminster Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This house was built in 1894 as part of the late 19th century development of the McKnight neighborhood. By 1899, it was owned by William and Marion Richards, who were in their mid-30s at the time. Like many of the other McKnight residents of the era, William was a middle class professional, working as an insurance agent for a life insurance company, probably Mass Mutual. He and Marion owned the house for many years, and they also lived here with William’s mother, Phebe. His father, who was also named William, had been killed in action in 1864 during the Civil War, leaving Phebe with two young children to raise. After William and Marion purchased this house, Phebe moved in with them, and lived here until her death in 1916.

William and Marion lived here until the late 1920s, and sold the house in 1931 to Arthur and Clarissa Sedgwick. A retired Congregational minister, Arthur was originally from Lenox, Massachusetts, but later went on to serve churches in Iowa and Virginia. He and Clarissa were still living here when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s, and he remained here until his death in 1948. Clarissa later moved to Pennsylvania, and sold the house in 1957. Since then, the exterior of the house has seen some changes, but it still stands as one of the many 19th century homes that form the McKnight Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Charles W. Hutchins House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 32 Dartmouth Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1887 for Charles W. Hutchins, a musical instrument manufacturer who was originally from Greenfield. He lived here with his wife Carrie, and they also had a one-year-old daughter, also named Carrie. Another daughter, Myra, was born around the same time that they moved into this house, and two years later they had twin boys, Frederick and Charles. However, the infant Charles died just a month later, and tragedy struck the household again in 1894, when Carrie died of tuberculosis at the age of 34. Soon after, Charles moved out and he sold the house, although he remained in Springfield, where he established the Hutchins Manufacturing Company in 1896.

The house appears to have been vacant during the 1900 census, but by 1910 it was owned by Martha Brewster, an elderly widow. She lived here with her daughter, Lulu Shattuck, Lulu’s husband Frank, and their two children, along with a servant. However, Lulu died in 1912, and Martha died just five months later. Frank, who worked as a traveling salesman, sold the house in 1914 to Charles L. Combs, a 51 year old retired farmer from Warren, Massachusetts.

That same year, Charles married for the first time, to 21 year old Grace D. Gould, who was also from Warren. The 30-year age difference undoubtedly raised some eyebrows, but the match was even more curious given that Grace had previously been employed as Charles’s servant. Presumably even more eyebrows were raised later in 1914, when their first child was born just six months after their marriage.

Charles lived here in this house until his death in 1934, and Grace was still living here later in the decade when the first photo was taken. She sold the house around 1940, and at some point afterwards the wooden clapboards were replaced with asbestos shingles. Many of the original Queen Anne-style details were lost in the process, although some of the ornamentation remains, including on the front porch. Along with the rest of the neighborhood, the house is now part of the McKnight Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Herbert C. Puffer House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 145 Dartmouth Terrace in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1888 for Herbert C. Puffer, a flour and grain merchant who lived here with his wife Elizabeth and their three children, Nellie, Caroline, and Herbert. The family had previously lived on Howard Street, but when Dartmouth Terrace was developed in the late 1880s they joined the city’s other prominent families who moved into the McKnight neighborhood. Aside from his business, Puffer also held several public offices. In 1899, he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and he subsequently served as a city water commissioner.

In 1892, his oldest daughter Nellie married Fordis C. Parker, an insurance agent. The couple lived here with her parents for some time, although by the first decade of the 20th century they had moved into their own house on High Street. Fordis went on to become a partner in the Springfield-based fire insurance firm of Judd, Parsons & Parker, and he also had a successful political career. He served nine Springfield’s Common Council and Board of Aldermen, in both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate, and as mayor of Springfield from 1925 to 1929.

In the meantime, Herbert and Elizabeth lived here in this house until their deaths in the 1920s. Their son Herbert inherited the house, and he lived here with his wife Harriet and their son Charles. The house remained in the Puffer family for over 60 years, until Herbert’s death in 1953. Harriet sold the property the following year and moved to Longmeadow, where she lived until her death in 1974 at the age of 95. In 1976, this house became part of the McKnight Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, and it was subsequently restored in the 1980s. Today, there is hardly any noticeable difference between the two photos, and it still stands as one of the many historic 19th century homes in the neighborhood.

Edgar S. Bliss House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 153 Dartmouth Terrace in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


Most of the homes on Dartmouth Terrace were built in the late 1880s, but this particular lot remained vacant for several decades, until this house was built in 1908. As a result, its Colonial Revival design is very different from the earlier Victorian-style homes on the street, reflecting the changes in architectural tastes at the turn of the 20th century. It was originally the home of Edgar S. Bliss, a paper manufacturer who, in 1896, had purchased a controlling interest in the Worthy Paper Company in West Springfield. He became the company’s president and treasurer, and a little over a decade later he moved into this house, along with his wife Jane and their four children.

Edgar Bliss ran the Worthy Paper Company until his retirement in 1930, and he continued living in this house for the rest of his life. Jane died in 1935, but Edgar was still living here when the first photo was taken a few years later. He died in 1942, and his children sold the house to Joseph Chapdelaine, a building contractor. He and his wife Florida had immigrated to the United States from Quebec in 1924, and they had lived in the South End before moving into this house. They remained here until 1956, when they sold the house and moved to East Forest Park. The house went through several more owners before being restored in the 1990s, and it is now part of the McKnight Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Walter T. Bugbee House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 24 Dartmouth Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.


The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1887 for Walter T. Bugbee, a tailor whose shop was located on Main Street, directly opposite Court Square. He and his wife Flora had three young children when they moved into this house. Another child had died prior to their move to Springfield, and their fifth child was born in 1892. A year later, they moved out of here and into a nearby home at 60 Dartmouth Street. They did not live there long either, though, and by the 1900 census the Bugbee family was living in Forest Park.

In the meantime, this house was sold to traveling salesman Frank Howland and his wife Bertha, who were living here during the 1900 census. By 1906, though, the house had been sold again, to general store merchant Charles D. Haskell. His first wife, Mary, had died in the late 1890s, and they had one son, Ethelbert, who was about 12 when his father moved into this house. Around the same time that they moved into this house, Charles remarried, to his late wife’s younger sister, Mabel.

The family lived here together for the next seven years, but tragedy struck in 1913. Late in August, 19-year-old Ethelbert was critically injured in a diving accident that fractured his spine. About a week later, Charles contracted typhoid fever, and he died on September 9 at the age of 55. In the meantime, Ethelbert remained in critical condition for about a month after the accident, and he died on September 25, a day after surgeons operated on his neck in an effort to remove the bone fragments.

Mabel was still living here in this house when the first photo was taken, around 25 years later. Alone except for a live-in maid, she continued to live in this house until her death in 1956. Since then, the exterior of the house has been well-preserved, and in 1976 it became part of the McKnight Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.