Spruceland Avenue Springfield

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

The house in 2017:

Albert and Greta Janes were married in 1896, and the following year they moved into this newly-built house in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood, which was just beginning to be developed at the time. Homes such as this one attracted middle-class buyers who, thanks to the advent of electric trolleys, could live in a fashionable neighborhood on the outskirts of the city and commute to work. For Albert, this commute would likely have involved a short walk to Longhill Street, where he would have taken the trolley through Springfield, into Chicopee, and finally across the river to Holyoke, where he worked as a manager in one of the city’s many paper factories.

The Janes’s only child, Beatrice, was born a few years after they moved in, and she grew up here in this house. By the early 1920s, she was working as a clerk for Massachusetts Mutual, at their old headquarters at the corner of Main and State Streets, and she continued living in this house with her parents until her marriage in 1925. However, Albert and Greta would remain here for many years, and they were still living in the house, and nearly 70 years old, when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s. However, Albert died in 1946, and Greta sold the house the following year, after having lived here for 50 years.

At some point, probably after Greta sold the house, the exterior clapboards were replaced with aluminum siding. However, the house was later restored to its original appearance, and today there is essentially no difference between the two photos. It remains as good example of late 19th century Colonial Revival architecture, and it is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

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

The house in 2017:

This house was built in 1902, and was originally the home of Edwin L. Bemis, a member of one of Springfield’s leading industrial families. Born in 1858, he was the grandson of Stephen C. Bemis, who had founded the Bemis & Call Hardware and Tool Company in the 1830s. The company would remain in the family for many years, and Edwin’s father, William C. Bemis, eventually became president of the company in 1897. Edwin also worked for the company, and was an assistant superintendent by the time he, his wife Carrie, and their daughter Marion moved into this house at the turn of the 20th century.

Edwin Bemis would later become the secretary of Bemis & Call, and he and Carrie continued to live here in this house for many years. Carrie died in 1925, and Edwin retired two years later, but continued living here until his death in 1933. Later that year, the house was sold to Paul and Sally Vining, who were living here with their children, Pauline and William, when the first photo was taken in the late 1930s. Paul worked as an assistant trust officer for the Springfield Safe Deposit and Trust Company, where he earned $3,000 per year (around $53,000 today) during the 1940 census.

The Vining family would remain here in this house until they sold it in 1953, and since then very little has changed in this scene. Like most of the other historic homes in the neighborhood, the house has been well-maintained and well-preserved in its original condition. Even the balustrade over the front porch, a detail that is missing in many other Forest Park homes, is still there in the present-day photo, although its appearance is slightly different from the first photo. Today, this house is, along with the rest of the neighborhood, part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The house at 42 Spruceland Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This house was built in 1903 as part of the large-scale development of the Forest Park neighborhood at the turn of the 20th century. Although located in the extreme southern part of the city, the advent of electric trolleys made this area desirable for upper middle class commuters. Among these was Asher Allen, who had previously lived on Broad Street in the South End before moving into this house, along with his wife Anna, their son Myron, and Asher’s mother, Emily.

Asher Allen was the treasurer and business manager of the Springfield Daily News, one of the newspapers that would later be merged into the present-day Springfield Republican. In the meantime, Myron attended Cornell, graduating in 1914 with a degree in civil engineering. He was soon employed as an engineer for the Springfield-based general contractor firm of Fred T. Ley, and also in 1914 he married his wife, Josephine Parsons.

By the 1920 census, Myron and Josephine were living nearby in an apartment on Warner Street, but Asher and Anna continued to live in this house for many years. After Asher’s death in the 1930s, though, Anna sold the house and moved into an apartment on Longhill Street. The first photo was taken a few years later, and since then very little has changed. Aside from the missing balustrade on top of the porch, the house remains well-preserved, and it is one of the many contributing properties in the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

The house at 50 Spruceland Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This Colonial Revival-style home was built in 1895 for Arthur Parks Smith, a Springfield native and engineer who, in 1890, had graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He married his wife Jennie around the same time that this house was built, and also during the 1890s he established the Springfield Cornice Works, which manufactured steel products. However, at the turn of the 20th century he joined with his younger brother Hinsdale and put his metallurgical skills to use in making steel and aluminum automobile bodies. Taking advantage of the skyrocketing demand for cars, the brothers established the Springfield Metal Body Company, with Arthur serving as treasurer and secretary.

Arthur died in 1927, a few years before the company closed in the midst of the Great Depression. However, he and his family had moved out of this house sometime before 1910, because during that year’s census it was the home of Frank and Grace Merrick, along with their two daughters, Frank’s aunt, and a servant. Frank was a clergyman who, prior to coming to Springfield, had served as a pastor in Utica, New York, and in the Boston neighborhoods of Neponset and West Roxbury. In 1908, he became the pastor of the Faith Congregational Church, located a block away from here at the corner of Sumner and Fort Pleasant Avenues. It was during his pastorate that the current stone Gothic-style church was built, and he served until 1914, when he accepted a position at a church in Danvers.

Following Merrick’s departure, this house was purchased by Frank and Edith Storms, who, during the 1920 census, were living here with their daughter Mildred, her husband Ralph Whittle, and their infant son, Ralph Jr. Like the first owner of this house, Frank Storms was an industrialist who was involved in metalworking. He was the president of the Page-Storms Drop Forge Company, which he and Edward C. Page established in 1902. With plants in Chicopee and the Brightwood neighborhood of Springfield, the company specialized in wrenches, but also manufactured a variety of products ranging from crank handles to golf club heads.

By the 1930 census, Ralph and Mildred had moved out of this house, but Frank and Edith were still living here, along with a servant. They finally sold the house in the late 1930s, around the same time that the first photo was taken, and by 1940 it was owned by Myron and Gladys Ryder. Myron was a dance master who, for many years, operated Ryder’s School of Dancing here in this house. At some point during this time, the exterior of the house was altered. A one-story addition was built in the back of the house, and the clapboards were replaced with asbestos siding. In the process, much of the original Colonial Revival-style detail was lost, including the pilasters in the corners and the balustrades above the bay windows and the porch. However, it has otherwise been well-maintained, and it is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

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

The house in 2017:

When the land on the south side of Sumner Avenue was developed in the last decade of the 19th century, one of the main focal points of this area was a traffic circle around a small floral park. This house, located at the corner of Spruceland and Beechwood Avenues, is diagonally opposite the park, and it was built in 1895 in the early years of the development. Its original owner was Albert W. Fulton, who lived here with his wife Rena, their two young children, and a servant. Fulton was involved in the publishing industry, and by the early 1900s he was the treasurer and agricultural editor of the Springfield-based Phelps Publishing Company. He would eventually go on to become the company’s president, many years after the family had sold this house and moved to a more spacious home at 5 Ridgewood Terrace.

By 1910, the house was owned by Dr. William Goodell, a physician who lived here for many years with his wife Ethel and their daughter Elizabeth. Born in Amherst in 1878, Goodell was the grandson of prominent missionary William Goodell, and the son of Henry H. Goodell, who served as president of the Massachusetts Agricultural College from 1886 to 1905. The college later became UMass Amherst, and Henry Goodell remains the longest-serving president in the school’s history. Despite his father’s position, though, William attended the more prestigious Amherst College, before earning his doctorate from Harvard Medical School. He graduated in 1905, and two years later moved to Springfield, where he opened an office on Chestnut Street as an ear, nose, and throat specialist.

The Goodell family was still living here into the 1930s, but later in the decade they moved to nearby Longmeadow. By the time the first photo was taken, the house was owned by James F. Dillon, who lived here with his wife Alice and their four children. At the time, James was the treasurer and manager of Dillon’s Package Store, but both he and Alice died only a few years later, in 1944. The house was subsequently sold, but his former business still exists today as Dillon’s Liquors, which is still located in the same building on Main Street in the South End.

In the nearly 80 years since the first photo was taken, this scene has hardly changed at all. The balustrade above the porch has disappeared, but otherwise the house and the other surrounding homes have remained well-preserved. The tree on the left side appears to be the same one in both photos, and even the street signs have not changed, although a couple extra signs have been added. Today, the entire area is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.