WPA

Frank B. Morse House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 41 Churchill Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This Queen Anne-style house was built in 1893, right around the time that the Forest Park neighborhood was beginning to be developed on a large scale. It was originally the home of Frank and Alice Morse, although they apparently only lived here for a few years, because by the late 1890s the house was owned by Wilbur C. Tracy. He was a meat dealer, and he lived here with his wife Charlotte, his son, his parents, and his sister.

The Tracy family did not live here long, either, and by 1901 the house was owned by George M. Stebbins, a traveling salesman who also served in the police department as the city marshal. He lived here with his wife Mary, and by the 1910 census they also had a boarder living here, along with an 18 year old servant, Olga Lindquist. Mary died in 1927, but George was still living here when the first photo was taken. Olga was also still here, although she does not appear to have been a servant anymore. Instead, she lived here with her husband, Frank Keeling, who was a commercial artist, and she worked as a clerk in his studio.

George Stebbins died in 1942 at the age of 93, and the house was subsequently sold. At some point in the mid-20th century, the second story porch was enclosed, and the house was covered in asbestos shingles, losing much of its original Queen Anne details in the process. However, the house has since been restored to its original appearance, with hardly any difference from the first photo except for the lack of shutters. Along with the rest of the neighborhood, the house is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

George Dalton House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 47 Churchill Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


Churchill Street was among the first streets to be developed in the Forest Park Heights neighborhood, and nearly all of the homes on the street date back to the 1890s. The one exception is this two-family home, which was built in 1911. As a result, it has a different architectural style than the other houses, most of which are Queen Anne-style homes like the one on the left. Instead, this house has a Colonial Revival-style design, with a rather unusual combination of a stuccoed first floor and shingled second floor.

The house appears to have first been owned by a George Dalton, although he did not live here for very long. By the 1920 census, there were two families renting the house. In one unit was Philip S. Silbert, a flour salesman who lived here with his wife Flora and their infant daughter Eleanor. The other unit was rented by William J. Rayner, the treasurer of Gilbert & Barker Manufacturing Company, a West Springfield-based company that made gasoline pumps. At the time, he was living here with his wife Alice and two children, George and Elizabeth.

By the 1930 census, the property was owned by Morris Kaufman, a clothing salesman who lived here in one of the units and rented out the other one. He and his wife Yettie were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and they lived here with their daughter Lillian and son Jule. By the time the first photo was taken, the house had become much more crowded. Both of the children were married and living here with their spouses, although Lillian died in the fall of 1939 at the age of 31, leaving her husband Louis and their young daughter Bernadine.

After the first photo Jule and his wife Sallee continued living here with his parents, and they raised their two children here. Yettie died in 1953 and Morris in 1965, but the house remained in the Kaufman family for decades, until Sallee’s death in 1998. During this time, very little has changed with the house’s exterior, and in 1982 the property became part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Charles Teske House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 268 Sumner Avenue at the corner of Churchill Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:

This house was built in 1893, and was one of the earlier homes to be built in the Forest Park Heights neighborhood. It had a desirable location along Sumner Avenue, directly opposite Forest Park, and it was originally the home of Charles Teske. However, he did not live here long, because he sold the house around 1896. It does not appear to have been occupied during the 1900 census, but by 1910 it was owned by Icilius T. Alstrom, who lived here with his wife Carrie and their two sons, Albert and Harvey.

By 1915, the house had been sold again, to Bertram Craig. He lived here with his wife Catherine, their daughter Madeline, and, in later years, Madeline’s husband Richard Lovekin. During the 1930 census, they were also renting part of the house to another family for $48 per month. Catherine died later in 1930, though, and within a few years the rest of the family had moved. By the 1940 census, the house was owned by dentist Robert N. Cushman, who lived here with his sister, Emma J. Wilson. They were living here when the first photo was taken, and remained until Emma’s death in 1943 and Robert’s in 1949.

Over the years, this house has remained well-preserved, along with the houses in the background of both photos. The only significant difference is the enclosed second-story porch, but overall it is an excellent example of Queen Anne-style architecture in Forest Park. Along with the rest of the neighborhood, it is now part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Archibald M. Stone House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 264 Sumner Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house on Sumner Avenue was built in 1897 for Archibald M. Stone, who lived here with his wife Theresa and their son Archibald. He was listed as a traveling salesman in the 1900 census, and he lived here until about 1905. By 1910, the house was owned by Gottlieb Baer, a cigar manufacturer who had immigrated to the United States from Switzerland in the 1860s. He and his wife Theresia had six children, one of whom died young. The other five were all living here in 1910, with ages ranging from 12 to 28. Theresia died in 1914, but Gottlieb remained here into the 1920s, before moving to Longmeadow.

By 1930, the house was owned by Jacob Ginsberg, his wife Sarah, and their 25-year-old son Irving. Both Jacob and Sarah were Jewish immigrants from Poland who had come to the United States in the late 1800s, and Jacob worked as a real estate agent. Jacob died in 1938, around the time that the first photo was taken, although Sarah and Irving were still living here during the 1940 census. However, at some point during the 1940s Sarah sold this house and moved to a nearby house on Belmont Avenue.

During the mid-20th century, part of the house was converted into doctors’ offices, and the exterior was covered in siding, which removed much of the home’s original details. Despite the changes, though, the house is part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Arthur B. Lewis House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 233 Forest Park Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


This house was built in 1895 as the home of Arthur B. Lewis, a merchant who sold hats and other “men’s furnishings,” as the census records describe it. He and his wife Lena had nine children who grew up here, although one of their children, Arthur Jr., died in infancy in 1901. This house would have been crowded by the 1910 census, when all eight of their surviving children were still living here, with ages ranging from one to 20. Along with this, they also employed two servants who lived here.

Lena died of pneumonia in the fall of 1910 at the age of 45, with her death certificate indicating that, as a Christian Scientist, she did not receive any medical care for her illness. A year later, their daughter Alice died just a week before her sixth birthday. According to her death certificate, she died of starvation from being unable to retain food, with hot weather being listed as a contributing factor. Arthur remarried in 1914, and he and his second wife Ada were still living by the early 1920s, along with several of Arthur’s younger children.

By 1930, the house had been sold to Frederick D. Davis, a physician who lived here with his wife Blanche, their daughters Fredericka and Clarisa, and his parents, Lemuel and Lillian. However, Lemuel died in 1936, and Frederick died two years later, right around the time that the first photo was taken. Soon after, Blanche sold the house, and she and Clarisa moved to a nearby apartment on Sumner Avenue.

The house was subsequently owned by Michael Katz, the president of the Springfield-based Country Club Soda Company. A Jewish immigrant from Russia, he came to the United States in 1890 and soon after married his wife, Lena. They were both in their early 70s when they moved into this house in the late 1930s, and they lived here with their widowed daughter Rebecca and her daughter, Elaine. The family lived here until the early 1950s, when Rebecca, Michael, and Lena all died between 1951 and 1953.

In 1960, the house was purchased by Charles V. Ryan, who lived here with his wife Joan until 1976. During this time, Ryan served as the mayor of Springfield from 1962 to 1967, and unsuccessfully ran for Congress against Edward Boland in 1968. However, he returned to the mayor’s office 36 years later, serving two terms from 2004 to 2008 and becoming the city’s only mayor to serve non-consecutive terms. In the meantime, very little has changed with his former house. It remains well-preserved and, along with the rest of the neighborhood, it is part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.

Frederick Ross House, Springfield, Mass

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The house at 215 Forest Park Avenue in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The house in 2017:


Springfield’s Forest Park Heights neighborhood was developed around the turn of the 20th century, at a time when architectural tastes were shifting from Queen Anne to Colonial Revival styles. The majority of the homes in Forest Park are Colonial Revival, but some of the older homes, including this one, have Queen Anne architecture. It is located on Forest Park Avenue opposite Maplewood Terrace, and it is one of the oldest houses in the neighborhood, having been built in 1892.

During the 1900 census, this house was owned by Frederick Ross, who lived here with his wife Anna and their daughter, Hazel. Born in Canada, Frederick immigrated to the United States in the late 1880s and married Anna a few years later. The 1900 census indicates that he was a traveling salesman, and subsequent censuses indicate that he sold, of all things, coconuts. He was still living here with Anna and Hazel in the 1920 census, and was still selling coconuts, while Hazel worked as a clerk for the city water department. However, Anna died in the 1920s, and by 1930 Frederick was living in an apartment nearby on Belmont Avenue.

The next owner of this house was Horace E. Allen, a lawyer who was living here by 1930, along with his wife Mary, their three children, and Mary’s father, William Ballantine. A retired Congregational minister and college professor, Ballantine had served as president of Oberlin College from 1891 to 1896. He then came to Springfield and taught Bible at the International Y.M.C.A. Training School, which later became Springfield College. After his retirement in 1921, he wrote several books, including a translation of the New Testament.

Ballantine lived here with his daughter and son-in-law until his death in 1937 at the age of 88. The rest of the family was still living here a year or two later when the first photo was taken, but at some point in the 1940s they moved to Longmeadow. Since then, the house has remained well-preserved, and this scene has hardly changed in the past 80 years. Along with the rest of the neighborhood, the house is now part of the Forest Heights Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.