In about 1751, Emerson Orcutt (1713-1777) purchased land in North Abington, Massachusetts, and built a half cape for his family. In 1762, Orcutt sold some of the land to John Ford, who was later a Lieutenant in the Continental Army, and according to local tradition, Ford added the other half of this current Georgian Cape house, giving it the current configuration. Character defining architectural details include an entry surround with fluted pilasters, and dentil cornice band on the main facade, 12-over-12 sash windows, and the central chimney, which would have heated both sides of the house. The property remained in the Ford family for over 100 years, and has since been converted back to a single family residence. Today, the charming pre-Revolutionary cottage is one of the oldest extant houses in Abington.
Abington, Massachusetts was first settled by Europeans in 1668 and was officially incorporated in 1712. Its namesake was is said to have been set by Governor Joseph Dudley as a tribute to Anne Bertie Venables, Countess of Abingdon, wife of the second Earl of Abingdon, who helped Dudley secure the governorship of the Colony of Massachusetts from Queen Anne. Governor Dudley noted in its decree that, “the Town be named Abingdon”. A marginal note on the document gave the spelling as “Abington” with a “t”, which has served as the spelling ever-since. At the center of town, this handsome church is the fourth edifice of the Congregational Church Society in Abington, Massachusetts, and replaced the third church, which was occupied for just thirty years until 1849, when this Greek Revival structure was built. Located a stone’s throw from its former home, this church showcases the increase in membership and relative wealth of the congregation by the middle of the 19th century. The structure with its flushboard siding and bold Doric pilasters, features an arched center entrance and multi-stage tower containing a clock and enclosed belfry.
One of five houses built by developer Albert Jewell along Powell Street in the Cottage Farm neighborhood of Brookline, this residence stands out for its materiality and stately design. The house was designed by J. Williams Beal, an architect who trained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then worked for McKim, Mead & White before opening his own business. The house was first purchased from Mr. Jewell by Grace and Edwin Kramer, who worked as superintendent for R. H. White & Co., the large dry goods store in Boston. The next long-term owner was Harry B. Duane, a wealthy grocer. The Kramer-Duane House is unique for the stone veneer at its facade, gambrel roof covered in slate, and varied window styles including: bay windows, dormer windows, and an eyebrow dormer window at the roof.
The former Essex County Jail is a large and significant building in Salem, Massachusetts, that has seen a recent rebirth thanks to the intersection of historic preservation and the demand for new housing in many New England communities. Constructed of large, Rockport granite blocks, the building was constructed in two phases—the section to the east was constructed in 1811-13 while the parallel west wing dates to 1884, with each of the construction dates inscribed at the top of the pediments on the south elevation. Completing the complex is the 1813 Jailer’s Residence which sits at the edge of the now enclosed courtyard. Those who were committed here were largely sentenced to short terms, many for the offense of drunkenness or petty theft. Inside, prisoners did all the labor, such as cooking, baking, firing the boilers, etc., with the female inmates making clothing for all inmates. The jail was in operation until 1991, and at that time was considered the oldest active penitentiary in the United States. Years prior, in 1984, several detainees had successfully sued the county for inadequate living conditions, leading to the closure of the building. A preservation restriction was established for the building and in 2009, the property was conveyed to a developer who converted the complex into 23 apartments, with 19 in the old jail, three in the old jail keeper’s residence, and one in a converted carriage house. The great preservation/adaptive reuse firm of Finegold Alexander Architects furnished the plans for the successful renovation that provided a new life for a once crumbling eyesore.
Captain Nathaniel Brown (1800-1866), a master mariner in Salem, built this fine brick house on Brown Street in 1851. Captain Brown bought the lot from the heirs of Nathaniel Kinsman in 1850, with an older house already occupying the site. The existing house was razed and construction began on this house, with it completed by 1851. The building is unique as it resembles the Federal period form of the five-bay and three-story residence with shortened third-floor windows under a low hipped roof. Although the Federal period waned in popularity by the 1830s, this house clearly took cues from the earlier homes nearby. Following Nathaniel Brown’s death in 1866, James Herrick Battis, a tobacconist and cigar manufacturer, purchased the home. City records state that Battis was issued a building permit in 1878 for an addition to the dwelling. It is probable that the bay windows and front door hood were also added at this time, giving the residence more of an Italianate style. Battis continued to own the property until his death in 1891. By 1930, the residence was converted into apartments and was known as the Conant Apartments. It remains a six-unit apartment building today.
The St. Peter’s Episcopal Church of Salem, is a landmark example of a granite, Gothic Revival church of the 19th century. The present church, which is constructed of Cape Ann granite, was the second church on the site built for local Episcopalians, replacing a wood-frame building constructed there 100 years prior. Designed by architect Isaiah Rogers, the Gothic church features a prominent entry tower with a quatrefoil window in each elevation, large lancet-arched windows in the tower and lining the sanctuary, and a crenelated parapet. When completed, St. Peter’s had Salem’s first church bell, an 1740 English bell that supposedly still graces the tower today and is said to be the oldest church bell in the United States! In 1871, the rear chapel was added to the building, from plans by George E. Harney. The chapel was built directly over the old parish cemetery, requiring some of the tombstones to be placed inside the chapel walls, while others were moved to the front of the church, creating a really unique “garden cemetery” in front of the church.
The Essex County Registry of Deeds and Probate Courthouse on Federal Street in Salem, Massachusetts, was built in 1909 from plans by Boston architect, Clarence Blackall. The Neo-Classical courthouse adds to the rich tapestry of Civic buildings there, showcasing the ever-evolving tastes in architecture as the buildings become more contemporary as you move westward down the street. The two-story granite and cast-stone faced brick masonry building is cross-shaped in plan, consisting of a three-bay wide gable-end entrance with Ionic porch of six fluted columns supporting a dentilled entablature and pediment. The central bay within the entry porch contains a large double-door entrance with elaborate architrave and a scrolling pediment incorporating Classical motifs and a Greek god bust. The building underwent a massive restoration in 2017, and was renamed the Thaddeus Buczko Building after retired First Justice Thaddeus M. Buczko.
Aligned in a row on the north side of Federal Street in Salem, the Essex County Court complex is a tour de force of the evolving architectural tastes of three centuries. At the eastern edge of the complex, the Old Granite Courthouse stands as the oldest of the group. The two-story temple-form building is of rectangular plan with gabled roof oriented towards the street. The facade features a recessed porch with paired columns surmounted by Greek Corinthian capitals which are set between broad, squared Doric corner pilasters. The granite building was designed by architect, Richard Bond (1797-1861) of Boston, and the structure is often referred to as one of the finest Greek Revival-style Civic buildings in New England. The courthouse remained in use until the J Michael Ruane Judicial Center at the end of the block was completed in 2012. The Old Granite Courthouse and adjacent Old Superior Courthouse were both vacated and have been essentially mothballed ever-since under the ownership of the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance as surplus. The fate of the two buildings remains undetermined.
Constructed in 1912, Temple Court at 15 Lynde Street was erected on the site of two earlier buildings during a period of great population growth in Salem. The parcels here were acquired by Aroline C. Gove (1857-1939), a prominent local property-owner and developer between 1908 and 1911. Ms. Gove was a prominent Salem citizen and daughter of notable inventor and businesswoman Lydia Pinkham. With a business-oriented mindset like her mother, Aroline hired architect Harry Prescott Graves of Lowell to furnish plans for an apartment building on this site. Completed in 1912, the apartment building, known as Temple Court, included 36 units with two-, three-, and four-room suites with a live-in janitor. The building is unique for Salem as a courtyard style building, more common in Boston and Brookline. The building’s large mass is broken up by its setback with the U-shaped form and central landscaped courtyard, series of projecting octagonal bays, and multiple entrances. Temple Court was converted to condominiums in the 1980s.
Salem, Massachusetts, was first settled by Europeans in 1626, and it would take 170 years until in 1796, an organization of citizens was established for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants generally of Salem and Danvers with pure spring water. The Salem and Danvers Aqueduct Company was incorporated in 1797 “for the purpose of conveying fresh water by subterraneous pipes into the towns of Salem & Danvers.” As Salem grew, the need for a more central water district and distribution network became a necessity for the health and prosperity of the city. A 1864 law allowed Salem to construct its own water works, and it formed a Board of Water Commissioners who designed and constructed the system. From this, funding was acquired and paid for the laying of tens of thousands of feet of subterranean water distribution pipes connecting the reservoir to buildings and hydrants in Salem. Offices of the Waterworks were scattered and obsolete until 1877, when funds for the construction of this structure at 32-34 Church Street were set aside as the new Water Department Offices. Completed by 1879, the building is a great example of a Romanesque/Italianate style masonry structure with corbelled cornice and arched openings. According to the city directories, this building continued to operate as the Salem Water Works into the late 1930s. By 1945, it was the headquarters of the United States War Price & Rationing Board. In 1964, it held a number of city offices including: Civil Defense headquarters, Fire Department headquarters, Licensing Board, Planning Board, and the City Veterans Service, before being sold by the City of Salem to private ownership in 1976.
Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library was the first large, free municipal library in the United States. The Boston Public Library’s first building of its own was a converted former schoolhouse located on Mason Street that opened to the public in 1854. As soon as the library occupied the building, it was apparent that the amount of visitors and collections could not effectively be held in the cramped quarters. Planning began almost immediately for it’s first purpose-built library. Less than a year later, in December 1854, library commissioners were authorized to purchase a lot and fund the construction of the new library. A desirable building lot on Boylston Street, opposite the Boston Common, was purchased and a public invitation for proposals from architects was held. The requirements for the building included: a library hall with alcoves capable of containing on fixed shelves at least 200,000 volumes, a general reading room with ample accommodations at tables for at least 150 readers, a ladies reading room, an adjacent library room for the arrangement of 20,000 books “most constantly demanded for circulation,” and quarters for the Trustees and Librarian. The facade was to be of brick, with stone dressing”. The selected design by architect, Charles Kirk Kirby, was for this handsome Italianate style building which took nearly three years to build, opening in September 1858. Twenty years later, as the library outgrew that space, the Trustees asked the state legislature for a plot in the newly filled Back Bay, and planning began on the McKim Building, built in 1895 down Boylston Street. This building, the first purpose-built Boston Public Library building, was demolished in 1898, and replaced by the ten-story Colonial Theater Building. It stood just 40 years.
On Boylston Street overlooking the Boston Common, this historic building with two distinct parts is not photographed as much as some of its neighbors, but it is an important visual reminder of the period of growth and development in the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is the Walker Building, an early office building that was constructed beginning in 1891 in two phases by owner Joseph W. Walker. Mr. Walker hired the architectural firm of Winslow & Wetherell to design the building, which was finished in the Romanesque Revival style with a notable cornice with nine-bay arcade of arched windows and ornate wreath and swag motifs. A major tenant in the building was the Boston office of the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company, the largest dental manufacturing company in the world. Less than a decade after the six-story Walker Building opened, Joseph Walker purchased and razed the parcels nextdoor and again hired the same firm (at this time renamed Winslow & Bigelow), to expand the Walker Building, building a ten-story addition in a similar style. The second Walker building housed piano company showrooms and offices along with professional offices of numerous architects and professionals. The Walker Building is now owned by Emerson College, and is used as classrooms, computer labs, and study spots for students with the dining center and bookstore in the former retail spaces.
As Chicopee developed into one of the major industrial cities in Western Massachusetts, immigrant groups moved there, finding work at some of the major manufacturing companies. Irish and Polish churches were built and French and French Canadian residents too built their own church, where they could gather and worship in their native language. A wood-frame church was first built in the 1870s and used until it was destroyed by fire in 1912. It took a decade for the congregation to gather enough funds to purchase a new lot and build a new church, but patience was a virtue as their church is a stunner! The cornerstone for the church was laid in 1922 and the building was designed by local architect, George P. Dion, and constructed at the cost of $200,000. The building was dedicated in 1925 and is one of the finest, and most unique churches in the state. Italian Renaissance Revival in style, the church stands out for its 85-foot-tall campanile and cast-stone high-relief in the pediment at the facade. It is believed that within the relief, that depicts the figure of Mary surrounded by Cherubs, depicting the “Assumption of the Virgin,” George P. Dion used the likeness of his granddaughter as a face of one of the cherubs. The congregation moved out of the building but has been recently mortgaged to a new church, Iglesia Cristiana Casa De Paz y Restauración, showcasing the ever-changing demographics that keep our cities vibrant and stewards that do right by our collective history and buildings.
The Old Chicopee High School building is located at 650 Front Street, between the two major population hubs of Chicopee Center and Chicopee Falls and is one of the finest examples of Collegiate Gothic/Neo-Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts. The school building was constructed in 1917 from plans by architect, George E. Haynes as a central high school, a single building where pupils from all over the city could be educated. The population growth of Chicopee in the early decades of the 20th century necessitated additions and reworking of the spaces of the building, eventually outgrowing the building after WWII. In 1961, plans for a contemporary high school were completed and this building became a middle school for the City of Chicopee. Architecturally, the building stands out for its siting and high-quality design. The main facade features a central clock tower which contains the main entrance. The use of brick with cast stone trim and the castellated parapet add much dimension to the large building. The City of Chicopee have done a commendable job maintaining this important landmark.
The Polish National Home in Chicopee, Massachusetts, was organized in 1910 as a fraternal service organization catering to the needs of the local Polish immigrant and Polish-American communities. The organization was founded at a time where Polish immigrants were settling in Chicopee, finding work at local factories. The Polish population of Chicopee surged in the late 19th into the early 20th centuries from just 200 residents in 1885 to over 9,000 in 1914, the year this building was completed. One of the other goals for the Polish National Home was to provide class space for new immigrants to take classes in the english language and learn to read and write, to become eligible for U.S. citizenship. The club eventually would build this five-story structure on Cabot Street, architecturally rivaling any other building in town. The building was designed by architect Bruno Wozny, a German-born architect who settled in Springfield and ran his own practice. Spaces inside the building included retail stores, a meeting hall, small meeting rooms, and apartments for some recently arrived immigrants and their families. The adjacent building was designed by local architect George Dion, as a bowling alley and billiard hall. After WWII, the building was converted almost entirely to residential use, which remains today.
Buildings of New England 