Pineywoods Avenue Springfield

David J. Bordeaux House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 82 Pineywoods Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built around 1907, at the same time as the similar-looking house next door at 76 Pineywoods Avenue. It was originally owned by David Bordeaux, a photographer who, along with his wife Elizabeth, had previously lived in a different home in Forest Park, at 19 Churchill Street. They had only lived in their Churchill Street home for about 10 years, but they lived here in this house for an even shorter time, because by 1911 they had sold it to another couple who were, coincidentally, also named David and Elizabeth.

David and Elizabeth Birkett were married in Springfield in 1908, and for a few years they had rented a home on Dickinson Street near the “X” in Forest Park. However, by 1911 they had purchased this house, and a year later their daughter Jean was born. David was originally from Scotland, but immigrated to the United States in 1894 and went on to become a buyer for the Forbes & Wallace department store. However, like the previous owners of the house, they did not live here for very long, because by the end of the decade they had moved to Minneapolis.

The house was subsequently sold to Wilson and Lona Hodgdon, who moved in a few years after their marriage in 1915. They were both in their late 40s when they were married, and it was the second marriage for both of them, after having been widowed. Lona soon became widowed for a second time, though, after Wilson’s death in 1918. She continued living in this house afterwards, and worked as a jeweler for True Brothers, a Springfield jewelry store that had been founded by her first husband, Fred L. True, and his brother Harry.

Lona was still living in this house when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s, but she died a few years later in 1942. However, the house has remained well-preserved since then, and it is one of the many turn-of-the-century homes that form the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Frederick A. Rugen House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 76 Pineywoods Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built around 1907, and was originally owned by Frederick A. Rugen, a carpet designer for the Hartford Carpet Company in Enfield, Connecticut. He and his wife Lillie were about 50 years old when they moved into the house, and they were joined by their four children, who were in their teens and early 20s. The three oldest children were all employed by the 1910 census, with their son Wilbur working as an insurance clerk, and their daughters Hazel and Mildred working as a teacher and a stenographer, respectively.

Frederick Rugen lived in this house until his death in 1923, and soon after the house was sold to Michaels H. Grassly, a traveling salesman for a paper company. He remained here with his wife Jessie until around 1937, when they sold the property to Clark and Marion Wilson. Clark worked as an engineer for a telephone company, and he and Marion were living here with their young son, William, when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s.

The Wilson family went on to live in this house for the next three decades, during which time Clark  published a book, Tracing the Telephone in Western Massachusetts 1877-1930, in 1959. After his death in 1966, Marion sold the house, which has remained well-preserved in the nearly 80 years since the first photo was taken. Hardly anything has changed in this scene, and even the tree in front of the house appears to be the same one in both photos. Along with the rest of the neighborhood, the property is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.