National Register of Historic Places

Ralph Carleton House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 121 Forest Park Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This Colonial Revival-style house was built in 1909 as the home of Dr. Ralph Carleton, an ophthalmologist who worked at Springfield Hospital. An 1894 graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Carleton began practicing in Springfield in 1897, and two years later he married his wife, Julia Louise Van Schaack. They moved into this house when it was completed in 1909, and they were still living here some 30 years later, when the first photo was taken. They did not have any children, but by the 1940 census they were living here with Julia’s twin sister, Leila.

Ralph Carleton died in 1940 at the age of 70, and Leila died two years later. Soon afterward, Julia sold the house, and very little has changed in its appearance since then. It is one of many well-preserved early 20th century homes in the neighborhood, and in 1982 it became part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Thomas Dyer House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 141 Forest Park Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1910, and was one of many homes in Forest Park that were designed by G. Wood Taylor, a prominent local architect of the early 20th century. It was originally the home of Thomas and Florence Dyer, who lived here for a few years. During this time, Thomas worked for an advertising company in Springfield, but by the end of the 1910s he had become a dairy farmer. He and Florence moved out of this house and purchased the Kingoke Farm in Sixteen Acres, at the present-day corner of Parker Street and South Branch Parkway. They operated the farm here for many years, and Thomas even served as the city’s police commissioner in the 1930s.

In the meantime, their home here in Forest Park was purchased by Charles N. Bancroft, the traffic manager for the Indian Motocycle Company. He did not stay here long either, though, and was living in Longmeadow by 1930. In 1933, several years before the first photo was taken, the house was purchased by Dr. Robert J. Klein and his wife Della, and they lived here for the rest of their lives, until Della’s death in 1967 and Robert’s in 1972. Since then, the exterior of the house has remained unchanged, and in 1982 the property became part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Alfred Chapin House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 151 Forest Park Avenue, at the corner of Mountainview Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This house was built in 1906, and is one of many large, upscale single-family homes that were built in the Forest Park neighborhood at the turn of the 20th century. It was originally the home of Alfred and Julia Chapin and their three young children, Alfred Jr., Neil, and Julia. Alfred was the treasurer and later president of the Moore Drop Forging Company, a Springfield-based tool manufacturer. He was also an avid tennis player, and served as treasurer of the United States National Lawn Tennis Association.

In 1916, shortly after becoming president of the company, Chapin and his family left this house and moved into a home on Crescent Hill. They subsequently adopted three more children, and by the 1920 census they employed five live-in servants at their new home. In the meantime, their former home was sold to Dr. Robert F. Hovey, a surgeon who worked at the Wesson Memorial Hospital for many years.

During the 1920 census, Hovey was living here with his wife Florence and a maid. Florence appears to have died sometime in the 1920s, because by 1930 he was living here with his second wife, Emma. His mother Lucy was also living here in 1930, and she remained here until her death in 1936 at the age of 98. Emma died in 1934, when she was in her early 50s, and Hovey subsequently married his third wife, Eva Danick.

The Hoveys were still living here when the first photo was taken, and Dr. Hovey remained here until his death in 1954 at the age of 79. The house was subsequently sold later that year, nearly 40 years after Hovey had first moved here. Since then, like so many other historic homes in the neighborhood, it has remained well-preserved, and in 1982 it became part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Althine W. Clark House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 163 Forest Park Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1909, around the time when this section of Forest Park was being developed as an upscale residential neighborhood. It was originally the home of Althine W. Clark, who was in her early 80s when she moved here. Her husband Leonard, a stove merchant, had died in 1904, and she moved into this house with her daughters Addie and Susan, her granddaughter Althine, and a servant. Addie died in 1913, and that same year another one of Althine’s children, Colonel Charles H. Clark, moved in here. A West Point graduate and career Army officer, Colonel Clark lived here for two years after his retirement, until his death in 1915. Althine herself remained here until her death in 1921, after having outlived most of her nine children.

By the late 1920s, the house was owned by Alfred White, a Russian-born tailor. He and his wife Rose had immigrated to the United States in 1905, and they had four children who were living here during the 1930 census. The house was sold around 1933 and again in 1942, when it was purchased by veterinarian Donald M. Snow. He and his wife Eunice were still living here 40 years later, when the house became part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. They finally sold the property in 1987, and 30 years later the exterior of the house remains well-preserved, with hardly any discernible changes between the two photos.

William H. Sargeant House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 169 Forest Park Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This section of the Forest Park neighborhood was developed in the first decade of the 20th century, and consists primarily of Colonial Revival-style homes, such as this one on Forest Park Avenue. It was built in 1905 for William H. Sargeant, the vice president of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. He lived here with his wife Belle, and the couple had one child, William, Jr., who died in infancy. Belle died in 1922 when she was in her mid-40s, and within a few years William had moved to a new house at 406 Longhill Street.

By the 1930 census, this house was being rented by Kenneth S. Edwards, whose occupation was listed as an assistant sales manager for gasoline pumps. At the time, he was living here with his wife Stella and their two young children, but they moved out sometime around the time when the first photo was taken. Since then, hardly anything has changed with the exterior of the house. It has remained well-preserved, and it is part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

South Congregational Church, Springfield, Mass

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South Congregational Church on Maple Street in Springfield, around 1900-1910. Image courtesy of Jim Boone.

The church in 2017:


South Congregational Church was established in 1842 by members of Springfield’s First Congregational Church, and its first permanent home was on Bliss Street. This rather plain church had a very conservative architectural design that looked like any number of other churches in the area at the time, but in 1875 the congregation built a new, far larger and more elaborate church here, at the corner of Maple and High Streets.

This church was designed by William Appleton Potter, the half-brother of the equally notable architect Edward Tuckerman Potter. It was one of his first major works, and it is an excellent example of High Victorian Gothic architecture. The 1873-1874 city directory described it as being “a rather bold departure from ordinary models, being much like an amphitheater, and entirely unlike any other church building in Springfield.” This may have been somewhat of a hyperbole, since the Memorial Congregational Church in the North End, built a few years earlier, has many similar Gothic-style features, but South Congregational Church certainly stood out at a time when Springfield was building a number of fine churches.

Like many of the city’s other churches and public buildings of the era, it was built with locally-quarried stone, with a foundation of Monson granite and walls of Longmeadow brownstone. Along with this, terracotta, sandstone, and other materials were used to add a variety of colors to the exterior of the building. Also common in churches of the time period, the building is very asymmetrical, with a 120-foot tower located off-center in the southwest corner, and the main entrance at its base.

In total, it cost some $100,000 to construct, which was substantially more than most of the other new churches that were built around this time. However, the costs were offset by contributions from some of Springfield’s most prominent residents, including dictionary publishers George and Charles Merriam, railroad engineer Daniel L. Harris, and gun manufacturer Daniel B. Wesson, who later moved into a massive mansion directly across the street from the church.

At the time that this building was completed, the pastor of the church was Samuel G. Buckingham, who had served in that position since 1847. He was also an author, and he wrote a biography of his brother, William A. Buckingham, a former Connecticut governor and U.S. Senator. Reverend Buckingham remained here at the church for 47 years, until his retirement in 1894. His successor was Philip Moxom, who, aside from his work here at the church, was also the president of the Appalachian Mountain Club.

More than 140 years after its completion, South Congregational Church is still an active congregation, and the building survives as one of Springfield’s finest architectural works. The only major change over the years was the addition of a parish house on the back of the church in the late 1940s. Not visible from this angle, it matches the design of the original building and it was even constructed with brownstone that had been salvaged from the demolished First Baptist Church. The church is now part of the city’s Lower Maple Local Historic District, and in 1976 it was also individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.