National Register of Historic Places

Evan Bateman House, Springfield, Mass

by

The house at 130-132 Westminster Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2017:


This two-family home was built in 1887, and was originally own by Evan and Ruth Bateman. It seems unclear whether they actually lived here, though, because the house was primarily used as a rental property throughout its history. Like the rest of the neighborhood at the time, the residents here were primarily middle class professionals. In the early 1890s, Anna L. Goodenough lived here, and worked a few miles away at the school in Sixteen Acres. By the turn of the 20th century, Edwin C. Spear lived here, and worked as the treasurer of the Springfield-based Cheney Bigelow Wire Works. Other early residents included engineer Elbert E Lochridge, lumber company manager Howard B. Field, and meat market salesman William M. Byrnes.

By the time the first photo was taken, the unit at 130 Westminster was rented by car salesman Irving E. Baker, while the other unit was rented by chiropodist James E. Delaney. In the years that followed, though, the house was altered, including covering part of the exterior in aluminum siding and enclosing the front porch. In 1976 the house became part of the McKnight Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, but it was completely gutted in a fire in September 2004, and was demolished the following year.

However, unlike most of the other fire-damaged properties in McKnight, this lot did not stay vacant for long. A new house was soon built on the site, bearing some resemblance to the original home and fitting in seamlessly with the Queen Anne-style of the neighborhood. It is one of the few new homes in the area, and in 2007 it was recognized by the Springfield Preservation Trust, who presented an award to the owner for an architecturally appropriate new construction.

Lewis Bates House, Springfield, Mass

by

The house at 134 Westminster Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1887, and according to the state’s MACRIS database it was originally owned by a Lewis Bates. However, he evidently did not live here for long, because by the 1890s it was owned by James and Mary Allen. James was a dry goods merchant, and he and Mary lived here with their two daughters, Anna and Susan, plus Mary’s sisters, Elizabeth and Edith. Susan was a piano teacher, and Edith also taught, working at the nearby Buckingham Primary and Grammar School at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Wilbraham Road.

James died in 1904, and two years later Mary sold the house to Charles and Mary Van Vlack. Originally from Albany, they moved to Springfield in the late 1860s, joining the many people who came to the city in the post-Civil War economic boom. Charles began his career as a printer, but later went into the electrotyping business, establishing the Charles Van Vlack Electrotyping Company soon after his arrival in Springfield. In 1892, he began a second company, the Springfield Photo Engraving Company, which he co-owned with his son William.

Charles and Mary were living in this house during the 1910 census, along with William, who was 38 at the time. They also hired a live-in servant, and they rented a room to Susan Milliman, a teacher who worked in the Springfield public school system. However, Mary died of cancer two years later, and in 1913 Charles sold his electrotyping company. He died a year later, from Bright’s disease, and soon afterward William sold the house.

The house was purchased by Ralph and Mabel Fowler, a newlywed couple who moved in after their marriage in 1916. By the 1920 census, they had a young son, Frank, and they also hired a live-in servant. Ralph worked as a buyer for a paper company, and his family lived here until at least the late 1920s. Neither the family nor the house appears in the 1930 census, and by the time the first photo was taken in the late 1930s the house had changed hands again, and was owned by John B. Lewis. An elderly widower, Lewis was the pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Springfield, and he lived here with his daughter Olive, her husband John Radebaugh, and their three children. Reverend Lewis lived here until he moved out of Springfield around 1957, and, on a personal note, he also performed the wedding ceremony for my grandparents here in this house in 1953.

Like many of the other houses in the McKnight neighborhood, at some point in the mid-20th century the original clapboard exterior was replaced with siding. However, the house has since been restored to its 19th century appearance, complete with a multi-color paint scheme that highlights the Queen Anne-style details. Along with the rest of the neighborhood, it is now part of the McKnight Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

William M. Hoag House, Springfield, Mass

by

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

by

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

by

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.

Third Harrison Gray Otis House, Boston

by

The Third Harrison Gray Otis House, at 45 Beacon Street in Boston, around 1860. Image courtesy of the Boston Public Library

The house in 2017:


Harrison Gray Otis was a lawyer and politician, and one of the most prominent residents of Boston at the turn of the 19th century. Born in 1765 as a member of the prominent Otis family, he was a young boy when his uncle James became one of the leading anti-British patriots in the years leading up to the American Revolution. After graduating from Harvard in 1783, Harrison subsequently opened his law practice in Boston, and in 1796 he was appointed as the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. That same year, he was elected to Congress, and served two terms from 1797 to 1801.

Otis would go on to serve in the state legislature from 1802 to 1817, and was elected to a term in the U.S. Senate from 1817 to 1822. A few years later, he finished his political career by serving as mayor of Boston from 1829 to 1832. However, despite his extensive political career, his greatest legacy in Boston has probably been his three houses on Beacon Hill, all of which are still standing today as some of the finest examples of residential Federal architecture in the country.

All three of his houses were designed by Charles Bulfinch, one of the nation’s most prominent architects of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first house, completed in 1796, was built on Cambridge Street, but Otis only lived here for a few years before moving in 1800, to another new house on Mount Vernon Street, near the top of Beacon Hill. He did not live there for very long either, though, because his third house, seen here on Beacon Street, was completed in 1808.

When the house was completed, Beacon Hill was just starting to be developed as an upscale neighborhood for Boston’s elite, and Otis’s house occupied one of the most desirable spots, directly across from Boston Common. Although most of the houses here are townhouses, his was originally built as a freestanding home, with gardens to the right and behind it, and a driveway to the left. The house itself is considered to have been one of Charles Bulfinch’s finest works, and Otis was evidently satisfied with it, because he lived here until his death 40 years later in 1848.

Otis’s political career peaked during the time that he lived here, and this house saw several distinguished guests, including James Monroe, who stayed here during a visit to Boston in 1817, as well as Senator Henry Clay. With Beacon Hill becoming the city’s most desirable and exclusive neighborhood, though, property values rose to the point where Otis could no longer justifying having large gardens around his house. So, in 1831 he sold a 25-foot wide section of his garden to his neighbor, David Sears, who built an addition to his own house. This granite townhouse, which can be partially seen on the far right, was built for his daughter Anna and her husband William Amory, who was a prominent textile manufacturer. Two years later, Otis filled in the gap between the two houses by building 44 Beacon Street, directly adjacent to his own house, for his daughter Sophia and her husband, Andrew Ritchie.

By the time Harrison Gray Otis died in 1848, his formerly freestanding home had been mostly incorporated into the streetscape of Beacon Street. The only remnant of the gardens that once surrounded his home is the driveway on the left, which leads to a carriage house in the backyard. A rarity in Beacon Hill, this driveway is the only break in an otherwise continuous row of houses on Beacon Street between Walnut and Spruce Streets. When the first photo was taken about 12 years after his death, the house and its surroundings had already assumed its present-day appearance, and there is hardly any difference despite being taken over 150 years apart.

When the first photo was taken, the house was owned by brothers Samuel and Edward Austin, both of whom were merchants. Neither brother ever married, and after Samuel’s death, Edward continued to live here for many years, until his own death in 1898 at the age of 95. The property changed hands several more times in the first half of the 20th century, and by 1940 it was owned by the Boy Scouts, who used it as offices until 1954. Since 1958, it has been owned by the American Meteorological Society, and it is used as the organization’s headquarters. During this time, the interior was significantly renovated, but the exterior of the house has remained well-preserved, and it still stands as one of the finest homes in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.