WPA

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.

Park Memorial Baptist Church, Springfield, Mass

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The Park Memorial Baptist Church at the corner of Forest Park Avenue and Garfield Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The church in 2017:


This section of the Forest Park neighborhood is almost entirely residential, but there are also several historic church buildings, including the Park Memorial Baptist Church, seen here at the corner of Forest Park Avenue and Garfield Street. The church was established in 1892, and this building was completed in 1901, just as the surrounding neighborhood was being developed, and it served the nearby residents who lived too far from the Baptist churches in downtown Springfield. The name refers to the fact that it served as a memorial to several local Baptist leaders: Dr. George B. Ide, pastor of First Baptist Church; Dr. A. K. Potter, pastor of State Street Baptist Church; and Jonathan Gould Chase, a deacon of First Baptist Church.

Since its completion, the only major change to the exterior of this building is the addition on the right, which was built around the 1920s. Essentially nothing has changed since the first photo was taken, though, and the building remains a prominent landmark in the Forest Park neighborhood. However, over the years there have been some changes to the church congregation itself. In the early 1900s, the First Baptist Church merged with Highland Baptist and State Street Baptist, and for many years was located at the corner of State and Stebbins Streets, but in 1982 they merged with the Park Memorial Baptist Church and moved into this building. Now named the First Park Memorial Baptist Church, the church continues to hold its services here, and the building itself is now is part of the Forest Park Heights Historic District on the 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.