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Roswell Field Putnam (1840–1911) was the foremost residential architect in Amherst and Northampton, Massachusetts, in the last two decades of the 19th century. He designed more than 35 sizable houses in those two towns and several in nearby communities.

Home of John C. Hammond, 222 Elm Street, Northampton, 1891/94

His early house designs, mostly in the Queen Anne style, centered on Amherst. From 1893 to 1897 Putnam was in partnership with Lewis D. Bayley, and their firm, Putnam & Bayley, operated from an office in Northampton. The focus of the firm’s residential work shifted to Northampton and tended toward the Classical Revival and Colonial Revival styles. The firm undertook several commercial buildings, notably the Masonic Block in Northampton, the most expensive building yet to have been constructed in the downtown area. The firm’s work encompassed civic structures as well. Putnam or his firm also designed three public libraries in towns around the Pioneer Valley. Following the dissolution of the firm, Putnam continued his architectural practice in Northampton, though at a slower pace, until his death on April 16, 1911. He designed a number of school buildings and renovated still other schools in towns throughout Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

Early years and schooling

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Roswell Field Putnam was born in Leverett, Massachusetts, on 20 May 1840, the son of a farmer, Timothy Putnam, and his wife, Sarah Field (Bangs) Putnam.[1] He was apparently named after Roswell Field (1767–1842), a magistrate and trial justice for Franklin County, Massachusetts, who represented the town of Leverett in the state legislature for many years. Timothy Putnam took care of Roswell Field and his wife, Sarah Graves Field, in their later years; when he died in 1842, Field bequeathed his property to Timothy and his household goods and a thousand dollars to Sarah Putnam.

In 1844, possibly on the strength of this inheritance, Timothy Putnam acquired a farm on Long Plain in Leverett, near the junction with Depot Road, together with a Greek Revival farmhouse for himself, his wife, and his four-year-old son. In 1852 he built a schoolhouse on the northwest corner of his property, which still stands at 159 Long Plain Road, although the Putnams’ house at #153 was destroyed by fire.[2] Roswell would have been twelve at the time of the schoolhouse construction, and this project may have sparked his interest in becoming an architect.

Roswell Field Putnam initially attended not this school (which met in a private home across the road before the schoolhouse was built), but rather Leverett’s Center School, the “Little Red Schoolhouse” near the town center. As he grew older, he attended the Amherst Academy, a private school in Amherst, and then the Powers Institute in Bernardston, Massachusetts, which had opened in 1855. Although Putnam appears to have had no formal education beyond high school, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, 18 October 1893, p. 2, reported that “he has always been a close student and probably has the finest library outside of New York City.”

Professional training and early work

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Roswell would have completed his studies at the Powers Institute around 1856 to 1858. He registered (as a farmer) for the Civil War draft in 1863, but there is no indication that he served; his registry entry bears the notation, “very near-sighted.” Little is known of his life’s course between the end of school and the early 1880s. He is identified as a farmer in the 1855 state census. No occupation is given in the 1860 U.S. Census, which shows him living with his parents in Leverett. He is still recorded living with them in the 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census; in 1870 he styled himself an architect, and in 1880, a carpenter.

Roswell’s earliest architectural venture may have been a store in Leverett that he designed for Payson Field in 1867, on the west side of the tracks just north of the railroad station, which had been built on Long Plain in 1865. This store functioned until the 1890s, when it was moved to a site on the east side of Shutesbury Road, just north of Mountain Brook, for use as a residence.[3]

Putnam as carpenter

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According to his obituaries,[4][5] Roswell learned the carpentry trade in Amherst and trained as an architect in Worcester, Massachusetts, under James Fuller. He may also have trained under an architect in Boston, although his name does not appear in Boston city directories. The sequence and timing of these ventures is not clear. He is listed (in Leverett) under “Carpenters and Builders” in the Massachusetts Register and Business Directory of 1874. Among the carpenters and builders active in Amherst in the 1870s were Chauncey Lessey and John Beston, Jr. Putnam later designed houses on behalf of both their widows, as well as one for carpenter James White, indicating possible personal connections that may relate to his training in carpentry. There was no standardized training, examination, or license required in Massachusetts to become a carpenter or architect at the time. One learned on the job, through apprenticeship—formal or informal.

Putnam’s training as architect

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It was probably in the latter half of the 1870s that Putnam undertook training for the architectural profession. The customary path to becoming an architect in the U.S. in this period was to spend time as an apprentice in an architectural office, learning at the elbow of an established practitioner. Formal courses in architecture were not instituted until later in the century. The distinction between builder and architect was not always clear cut, but from the records that survive from 1883 onward, it appears that once Putnam established himself as “architect” in Amherst, he employed others as builders, contractors, or specialized craftsmen and did not pick up a hammer himself.

According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Putnam learned architecture from James E. Fuller of Worcester, Massachusetts. Born in 1836, Fuller had already been a master-builder and a contractor in Athol, Massachusetts, though he was only 29 when he came to Worcester. In 1866 Fuller formed a partnership with Stephen C. Earle in Worcester, and the firm later opened an office in Boston as well. The partnership lasted 10 years. “Though it is impossible to distinguish exactly the separate contributions of Earle and Fuller to their partnership, it appears that Earle was the designer, Fuller the builder,” according to Curtis Dahl, whose monograph on Earle is the most complete study of the architect.[6] Dahl further posits that the Boston office was opened only to be able to attract inexpensive draftsmen, but that the heart of the firm’s work was in Worcester. The firm’s bread-and-butter work was designing stone churches in a Richardsonian Romanesque/Gothic idiom, although they did residential and commercial buildings as well.

After Fuller parted from Earle, he partnered in 1878 with Ward P. Delano to form the firm Fuller & Delano,[7][circular reference] which for more than two decades was one of the most successful firms in Worcester. The latter firm’s practice seems to have been geared toward institutional buildings (schools, hospitals, libraries and firehouses), with relatively few residential commissions.

Buildings in Amherst 1883-1893

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On 9 May 1882 Roswell Putnam married Sarah P. Scott, a native of Hawley, Massachusetts, a schoolteacher who had been a boarder at his parents’ home, where Roswell was living. She was about 13 years his junior. A year later, the couple had a son whom they named Karl Scott Putnam. Sarah died in June 1884. At about this time, Putnam, still residing with his parents in Leverett, seems to have established himself as a professional architect and begun taking commissions in Amherst. He designed a house for B. H. Williams in 1883 (no longer extant; photo in the Jones Library Special Collections, Amherst). Two documents preserved at the Jones Library, executed in September and December 1884, are agreements with John Beston, Jr., a contractor, to build homes in Amherst according to plans drawn up by R. F. Putnam, Architect. One of these, at 24 North Prospect Street, was contracted for by the estate of Mrs. C. W. Lessey and completed in 1885; the other, at 22 Seelye Street, was contracted for by George S. Kendrick.

Putnam’s practice in the 1880s and early 1890s was primarily in Amherst, designing inventive Queen Anne cross-gabled houses, many in the Shingle Style, for the town’s merchants and faculty members. The John C. Hammond house, at 222 Elm Street in Northampton (1891–94), is considered by many the apogee of his work in this style.[8] Although he was the initial unanimous choice of the committee formed to recommend an architect for Amherst’s Town Hall, he did not win the commission.[9][10] He did, however, design the North Amherst Library, which opened in 1893.[11]

Putnam & Bayley, North Amherst Library, 1893

Putnam & Bayley, 1893-1897

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In 1893 Roswell Putnam formed a partnership with Lewis D. Bayley, an architect from Louisville, Kentucky. The firm Putnam & Bayley opened an office at 160 Main Street, Northampton, in the Columbian Building. “The people of this vicinity who contemplate building will not find it necessary to send away for their architectural work,” the local paper crowed, “as we now have a firm of architects here that are second to none in the country as to experience and ability.”[12] The article continues, “Although having been located here but three months they have over $75,000 worth of buildings in course of erection.” In 1896 the firm’s offices were moved into Northampton’s Lambie Block.[13] Its houses, mostly in Northampton, became more Classical/Colonial Revival in style and symmetrical in design as the decade rolled on, but they still retained many Queen Anne features.

Roswell Putnam was married for a second time in 1895, to Mrs. Anna Field of Springfield, a 52-year-old widow from Leverett with three adult sons. Roswell’s son Karl would have been twelve at the time, presumably still living at home. Roswell Putnam built a new house for the family at 19 Columbus Avenue in Northampton.

Forming a firm led to a dramatic increase in the number of jobs undertaken, as well as to broadening the scope of work beyond what Putnam had done on his own. In addition to pursuing residential work, the firm undertook several commercial building projects—repairs to the McCallum Block and rebuilding of the Lambie Block in Northampton,

Putnam & Bayley, Lambie Block, Northampton, 1895-96

and construction of a brick block at Maple and Cottage Streets in Easthampton, Massachusetts. They designed a new plumbing scheme for the Northampton City Hall, an addition to the Nonotuck Silk Company in Florence (a suburb of Northampton), a school in Easthampton, and the Meekins Library in Williamsburg, as well as projects in Buckland and South Deerfield, all towns in Western Massachusetts. Putnam & Bayley’s most significant undertaking was the Masonic Block at 25 Main Street in Northampton, which opened in 1898.

A profile of the firm in the Daily Hampshire Gazette supplement of 30 November 1895 lists 18 clients in Northampton and vicinity for whom it had done work in the past two years, “besides about 25 residences in Springfield, Amherst, Gilbertville, Holyoke, Enfield, Hatfield, Newton, Medford, Mass., Chicago, Ill., Louisville, Ky., and Hot Springs, Ark.” The non-Massachusetts projects on this list were likely undertakings begun by Bayley and completed after the firm was formed. There is no indication that Roswell Putnam ever worked outside Massachusetts, whereas Bayley had quite a peripatetic career.

Putnam’s work after the firm’s dissolution (1897-1911)

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As the Masonic Building was nearing completion, the partnership ended. A heated exchange of letters in the Daily Hampshire Gazette about which of the partners deserved credit for the Masonic Building probably reflects the conflict that caused the rift.[14][15][16] Bayley moved on to Hartford, Connecticut, while Putnam continued to build in both Amherst and Northampton. He also designed the Shutesbury library, given to the town by M.N. Spear, and worked on new buildings and improvements for schools in Amherst, Easthampton, Leeds and Northampton.

Roswell’s son, Karl Scott Putnam (1883–1965), also became an architect, earning a B.S. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1910 and interning in the New York office of Edward Tilton. He is listed as a draftsman in his father’s office in the City Directory of Northampton in 1910. The firm was called R. Putnam & Son beginning in 1911. Karl Putnam taught architecture at Smith College from 1930 onward, and his papers are in Smith’s archives. Although he and the firms to which he belonged designed many private houses, college buildings, and institutional structures in Northampton, Amherst and surrounding towns, Karl Putnam’s papers reveal no buildings on which father and son collaborated. Roswell Putnam died on 16 April 1911, less than a year after his son’s graduation. Karl Putnam’s earliest buildings in Northampton appear to date from 1911.

Roswell’s obituary states that “Mr. Putnam was of a quiet and retiring nature, but a man pleasant to meet, ever ready to converse with anyone on business connected with his profession in which he took a great pride. He was conscientious in the work he did and as a citizen was interested in whatever was for the good of the community, but never desired to hold any public office. He belonged to the various Masonic orders, which included the Northampton commandery of Knights Templar.”[4]

Chronology of Buildings (all are in Massachusetts towns)

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The most comprehensive compilation of photographs of Putnam's buildings is Suzannah J. Fabing, Roswell Field Putnam (1840–1911): Versatile Architect for the Pioneer Valley (Amherst, MA: Privately published, 2020), copies of which can be found at the main public library in each of the towns in which Putnam or his firm designed a building. Many of the buildings listed below are described, with photographs, in the Massachusetts Historical Commission's database, online at http://mhc-macris.net. The MHC numbers are included in parentheses in the listings below. Note that not all these records identify Putnam as the architect. Other frequently cited sources include the newspapers Amherst Bulletin, Amherst, Massachusetts; Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, Massachusetts; and Springfield Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts. Springfield Republican archives, on microfilm, may be searched for a fee at The Republican - MassLive.comIts year-end surveys of new construction in the region establish date, owner, and cost but ordinarily do not identify the architect.

By R.F. Putnam, 1867-1892

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  • 1867 Depot Road, Leverett Store for Payson Field (moved 1890; no longer extant)
  • 1883 17 North Prospect St., Amherst Home of B.H. Williams (destroyed 1950)[17]
  • 1884/5 24 North Prospect St., Amherst House for the Lessey Estate (Mary Robison) (AMH.223)[18][19]
  • 1884/5 22 Seelye St., Amherst Home of George S. Kendrick[17]
  • 1885 320 North Pleasant St., Amherst Home of James White.[20]
  • c. 1885 87 North Pleasant St., Amherst Home of William Kellogg. (AMH.242).[21]
  • 1885/6 90 Spring St., Amherst “The Dell,” home of Mabel and David P. Todd. (AMH.517)[17][22]
  • 1887 122 North Pleasant St., Amherst Home of Edward D. Bangs (AMH.239)[23][24]
  • 1888 105 Montague Road, Amherst House commissioned by Stephen Puffer for his son, Eugene Puffer (AMH.20)[25]
  • 1888 194 Amity St., Amherst Home of Prof. Charles Wellington (AMH.262)[17]
  • 1889 10-14 South Prospect St., Amherst Tenement commissioned by Charles Deuel (destroyed 2000)(AMH.477)[17][26]
  • 1889 56 Congress St., Milford Home of Edwin Thomas (MIL.2320[17]
  • 1890 38 North Prospect St., Amherst Home of Edwin D. Marsh (AMH.1078)[27][19]
  • 1891/4 222 Elm St., Northampton Home of John C. Hammond (NTH.480)[28][29]
  • 1892/4 91 Sunset Ave., Amherst “Allbreeze,” home of Edward W. Carpenter (AMH.1512)[30][19]
  • 1892/3 30 Orchard St., Amherst Home of Herbert T. Cowles (AMH.299)[31]

By Putnam & Bayley, 1893-1897

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  • 1893 8 Montague Road, North Amherst North Amherst Library (AMH.66)[32]
  • By 1893 64 Elm St., Northampton Home of Dr. Charles W. Cooper (destroyed 1910)[33][34]
  • 1894 183 East Pleasant St., Amherst Home of William T. Chapin (moved from 57 N. Pleasant St., 1980) (AMH.728)[35]
  • 1894 75 New South St., Northampton Home of Dr. George D. Thayer[33][29]
  • 1894 36 Butler Pl., Northampton Home of Leo H. Porter (NTH.2094)[33][29][36]
  • 1894 27 Crescent, Northampton Home of Rev. Rufus Underwood (NTH.596)[33][29][37]
  • 1894 50 Phillips Pl., Northampton Home of J.W. Reid (NTH.2080)[38][33][36]
  • 1894 Round Hill, Northampton Recitation hall, Clarke Institution[33][39]
  • 1894 63 Dryads’ Green, Northampton Home of Adeline Moffat (NTH.567).[40]
  • 1895 12 Bedford Terrace, Northampton Home of Chas. N. Fitts/Mrs. R.A. Depew (NTH.690)[33][41][42]
  • 1895 155 South St., Northampton Home of Martha A. Strong (NTH.2190)[33][42]
  • 1895 34 Harrison, Northampton Home of Caroline Thompson (NTH.539)[33][42]
  • 1895 53 Harrison, Northampton Home of Edwin B. and Mary Emerson (NTH.529)[33][42]
  • 1895 210 Main St., Northampton Plumbing, City Hall (NTH.790)[43]
  • 1895 Florence (296 Nonotuck St.?) Nonotuck Silk Co. addition (NTH.233)[44]
  • 1895 150 Main St., Northampton Repairs to McCallum Block (NTH.2291)[45]
  • 1895 1-5 State St., Buckland Reconstruction of Odd Fellows Hall (BUC.153)[46]
  • 1895/6 76-88 Main St., Northampton Lambie Block (NTH.2414)[47]
  • 1895/6 19 Columbus Ave., Northampton Home of Roswell F. Putnam (NTH.1047)[48]
  • 1895/7 2 Williams St., Williamsburg Meekins Library (WLM.19)[42][49][50][51][52]
  • 1895/7 7 Chapel St., Easthampton Maple Street School (EAH.347)[42][53][54]
  • 1896 23 Dryads' Green, Northampton Renovations, home of George W. Cable (NTH.576)[55][56]
  • 1896 12 East St., Northampton Home of John H. Maloney (NTH. 1029)[57][56]
  • 1896 71-77 Cottage St., Easthampton Moriarty & Griffin commercial block[58][56]
  • 1896/7 216 Lincoln Ave., Amherst Home of Mary Beston (AMH.174)[59][19][60]
  • 1896/9 10 Elm St., South Deerfield Grand Army Building[61][62]
  • 1897/8 25 Main St., Northampton Masonic Block (NTH.2059)[63]

By Putnam, after the dissolution of Putnam & Bayley

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  • 1898 95 Round Hill Rd., Northampton Home of Dr. Albert and Katherine Minshall (NTH.361)[64][65][62]
  • c.1899 39 Harrison Ave., Northampton Home of Warren King (attributed) (NTH.527)[66]
  • 1900 93 Prospect St., Northampton House for Helen French Collins (NTH.598)[67]
  • 1900 Merchant’s Row Amherst Addition to Jackson & Cutler store[68]
  • 1900 off Fomer Rd., Southampton Improvements, E.H. Bell house (destroyed 1931)[69][70][71]
  • 1901 South East St., South Amherst South East School-House (no longer extant)[72][73][74]
  • 1901 1001 South East St., South Amherst South Amherst Green School-House (AMH.619)[72][73][74][75]
  • 1902 72 High St., Southampton Home of Edward Swasey (STH.30)[76][77][78]
  • 1902 48 Parsons St., Easthampton Parsons Street Schoolhouse (EAH.633)[77][79]
  • 1902 10 Cooleyville Rd., Shutesbury M.N. Spear Library (SHU.9)[80][81]
  • 1902 84-88 Main St., Northampton Clarke Block reconstruction (destroyed)[82][83]
  • 1902-03 75 Harrison Ave., Northampton Home of Charles W. Spear (attributed) (NTH.530)[77][84][85]
  • 1903 32 Gray St., Amherst Second house for William T. Chapin (moved from N. Pleasant St., 2000)(AMH.193)[86]
  • 1903 45 Elm St., Northampton Addition to Burnham house[87][84][88]
  • 1904 170 South St., Northampton Home of Frank Clapp (attributed) (NTH.1046)[89]
  • 1905 Fair St., Northampton Hall for Three-County Agricultural Society (no longer extant)[90][91][92]
  • 1906 Leeds Improvements, school-houses[93][94]
  • 1906 Bridge St., Northampton Modifications, plumbing, Bridge-Street School[94][95]
  • 1907 28 Columbus Ave., Northampton Home of Myron C. Bailey (NTH.1037)[96][97]
  • 1907 186 Bridge Street, Northampton Home of George R. Turner (NTH.396)[98][97]
  • 1909/1910 Center School, Whately (WHA.33)[99]
  • 1910 Sanderson Academy, Ashfield Remodeling (destroyed 1939)[100]
  • 1910 260 Lincoln Ave., Amherst Home of Ernest M. Bolles (AMH.176)[101][102]

Notes

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  1. ^ Lockwood, John, ed. (1926). Western Massachusetts, A History, 1636-1925, Vol. 3. Lewis Historical Publishing Co. pp. 67–68.
  2. ^ Field, Ruth Ellen Nickerson (1996). A History of Leverett, Massachusetts, with a Genealogy of its Early Inhabitants. Bountiful, Utah: Family History Publishers. pp. 203, 308, 154, 69.
  3. ^ "Railroading Integral Part of Leverett". Greenfield Recorder. 2 July 1974. p. 33.
  4. ^ a b "Obituary. Roswell F. Putnam". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 18 April 1911. p. 6.
  5. ^ "Death of Roswell F. Putnam". Springfield Republican. 18 April 1911.
  6. ^ Dahl, Curtis (1987). Stephen C. Earle, Architect: Shaping Worcester's Image. Worcester, Mass.: Worcester Preservation Society. p. 9.
  7. ^ "Fuller & Delano". Wikipedia. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  8. ^ The Northampton Book. Northampton Tercentenary Committee. 1954. p. 158.
  9. ^ "The New Town House". Amherst Record. 23 January 1889.
  10. ^ "The New Town Hall". Amherst Record. 12 November 1890. p. 1.
  11. ^ Holland, Patricia G. (2003). The Library in North Amherst: A History of a New England Village Library. Amherst, Massachusetts: The Jones Library.
  12. ^ "New Firm of Architects". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 18 October 1893. p. [2].
  13. ^ "City Items". Daily Hampshire Gazette. No. 30 July 1896.
  14. ^ Justice (24 February 1898). "Masonic Temple Architect". Daily Hampshire Gazette.
  15. ^ Putnam, R. F. (26 February 1898). "Mr. Putnam Writes About the Matter". Daily Hampshire Gazette.
  16. ^ Bayley, L. D. (2 March 1898). "Masonic Temple Architect". Daily Hampshire Gazette.
  17. ^ a b c d e f "Neighborhood Notes and News". Amherst Record EXTRA. 30 November 1889. p. 2.
  18. ^ "24 North Prospect Street". North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District. 3 August 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  19. ^ a b c d "North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District Study Committee Report". Town of Amherst. 3 August 2017. p. 11. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  20. ^ Plans and specifications by Putnam are in the Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst.
  21. ^ Assignment to Putnam is based on the plan, which is nearly identical to the documented house at 30 Orchard Street.
  22. ^ Mabel Loomis Todd’s and David Peck Todd’s diaries, letters and papers, in the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, detail several interchanges with Putnam during the planning and building of their home, which they called “The Dell.” See especially Mrs. Todd’s diary entries for 2, 11, 16 and 26 January 1886, 20 and 24 February and 11,12 and 24 March of the same year, and a letter from her to Austin Dickinson of 10 June 1887, asking him to make sure that Mr. Putnam is paid. Prof. Todd records payments to Putnam and various contractors and builders; draft specifications are among his records at Yale (D.P. Todd 496B, Series VI, Box 107, folder 36 “The Dell”).
  23. ^ Norton, Paul (1975). Amherst: A Guide to its Architecture. Amherst: Amherst Historical Society. p. 59.
  24. ^ "The Record of Buildings in Western Massachusetts. A Steady Growth". Springfield Republican. 31 December 1887. p. 11.
  25. ^ Former owner Patricia G. Holland has documentation of Putnam's authorship.
  26. ^ Photographs are in the Building Department of the Town of Amherst.
  27. ^ "38 North Prospect Street". North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District. May 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  28. ^ This house is cited in “Putnam & Bayley,” Daily Hampshire Gazette Supplement, 30 November 1895, as Putnam’s design, a work in progress “which will be the finest private residence in this city when completed.”
  29. ^ a b c d "The Building Growth". Springfield Republican. 29 December 1894. p. 11.
  30. ^ This house is thoroughly documented in the Special Collections of the Jones Library, Amherst, which holds specifications, plans, correspondence, and the account books of the owner, Edward Carpenter. The Carpenters admired a house in Portland, Maine, which was published in Scientific American’s Architects and Builders Edition of March 1892, pp. 34 and 40. They asked Putnam to adapt its design to their property, which he did, making minor modifications.
  31. ^ Documentation of this house, including plans and specifications that identify Roswell Putnam as the architect, are in the Jones Library Special Collections, Amherst. The house had only been occupied by two families until 2016. Katherine Cowles, whose parents had it built, lived in the house until 1977. She recorded, in notes in the Jones Library, that her mother told her that the house is patterned after 38 North Prospect Street. In its imaginative combination of Shingle Style motifs, this house displays greater sophistication than 38 N. Prospect or 87 N. Pleasant, showing Putnam’s growing maturity as an architect and perhaps his client’s more open purse.
  32. ^ See note 11. An addition, by Kuhn-Riddle Architects, will open in fall 2023.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Putnam & Bayley". Daily Hampshire Gazette Supplement. 30 November 1895.
  34. ^ This house later became the property of Smith College and was torn down for construction of John M. Greene Auditorium in 1910. A photograph is preserved in the college's Archives.
  35. ^ Plans stamped Putnam & Bayley are in the Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst, along with an unpublished paper of 1980 by Evelyn Ward, describing this and another house Putnam designed for the Chapin family, known as the Chapin-Ward House. See also "The Building Growth," Springfield Republican, 29 December 1894, p. 11.
  36. ^ a b The house is in the Pomeroy Terrace Historic District, admitted to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. See the registration form, section 7, p. 21, and section 8, p. 37.
  37. ^ Nearby at 5 Crescent Street, Rev. Underwood had built a smaller house around 1892 (NTH.596). Bearing many similarities to the Todd house in Amherst and other Putnam designs, it is a potential candidate for Putnam's authorship.
  38. ^ "City Items". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 13 October 1894.
  39. ^ Passing mention of this unidentified building is made in a Daily Hampshire Gazette article about the firm's careful cost estimating, 24 August 1895. "The Building Growth" [n. 35 above] describes a substantial brick and stone "hall for recitation purposes, costing $10,000" built at the Clarke Institution in 1894. A school for the deaf founded in 1867, the Clarke Institution expanded after buying 12 acres of land on Round Hill in 1870.
  40. ^ The Daily Hampshire Gazette Supplement [n. 33] lists Robert Wier [sic] as one of the firm's clients, probably Randolph R. B. Weir, whose name appears on this plot, along with that of his aunt, Adeline Moffat, in the 1895 Atlas of the City of Northampton (Philadelphia: D.L. Miller). "The Building Growth" [n. 29] correctly identifies Moffat as the owner. The house was later acquired by Smith College, modified in plan and stripped of much of its interior architectural detail. The college sold it in spring 2018.
  41. ^ "The Building Growth". Springfield Republican. 29 December 1894.
  42. ^ a b c d e f "Average Prosperity Shown by the Buildings in Western New England". Springfield Republican. 28 December 1895.
  43. ^ "Northampton". Springfield Republican. 22 July 1895.
  44. ^ "City Items". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 17 January 1895. p. [5]. This will be the largest job of iron work ever done in this city...Putnam & Bayley have been here not quite two years, yet they are getting the most important work here, and have shown that they are capable of doing good work and that it is not necessary for Northampton and surrounding towns to send to New York and Boston for their architectural work.
  45. ^ The repairs followed a fire. "McCallum Wastes No Time," Daily Hampshire Gazette, 20 July 1895 [p. 2], describes the work to be done and the damage to drawings for other projects underway at the architects' office in the adjacent Columbian Building. It mentions that the firm employed three draftsmen. See also "Northampton," Springfield Republican, 2 August 1895, p. 6.
  46. ^ This work, too, followed a fire. The Palladian windows on the upper floor and the elaborate cornice appear to have been additions by Putnam & Bayley. See Fannie Shaw Kendrick, History of Buckland, Vol. 1 (Town of Buckland: 1937), pp. 210, 245. Since Lewis Bayley was a member of the I.O.O.F. and had designed two halls for the order in Illinois, he may have taken the lead on this project.
  47. ^ "About Lambie's Block," Daily Hampshire Gazette, 4 September 1895, called it "the most modern building in the city." "Estimate for Building," Daily Hampshire Gazette, 24 August 1895, praised the firm for bringing in bids under the initial cost estimate. "Five-Story Block to be Erected," Springfield Republican, 26 June 1895, p. 5, announced the project, and, under "Northampton" on 28 December of that year, p. 5, the same paper characterized it as the largest single business block in the city. They published details of the elevator and its fireproofing on 17 March 1896, p. 8. On 31 July 1896, p. 6, the Springfield paper reported that the Putnam & Bayley firm had moved into the building.
  48. ^ Although it bears the firm's name, Putnam undoubtedly took the lead in designing this home for himself and his family. Despite the date 1895 prominently displayed on its facade, and its listing as one of the year's building projects in "Average Prosperity" [ n. 42], the family took occupancy the following May ("City Items," Daily Hampshire Gazette, 22 May 1896.) The design suggests Putnam's familiarity with the early work of Frank Lloyd Wright, which he may have known through architectural journals.
  49. ^ "The Williamsburg Library". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 3 June 1895.
  50. ^ "The New Meekins Library". Springfield Republican. 25 August 1895. p. 4.
  51. ^ "Williamsburg's Fine Library". Springfield Republican. 2 February 1897. p. 3.
  52. ^ Extensive records are preserved at the library itself.
  53. ^ "Our new and modern Maple Street building is proving all that was expected...The moral effect of a large, well ventilated, well lighted room upon the pupils is great, and the arrangement of the building admits of systematic and orderly movements of the schools under one head," stated Easthampton's annual report of 1897. The original eight-room building was doubled in size in 1924 and was still in use in 2018, although a replacement is planned. "Last bell for Maple St. School," Daily Hampshire Gazette, 18 June 2022, p. 1.
  54. ^ Putnam & Bayley (20 July 1895). "[Advertisement--call for contractors' bids]". Springfield Republican. p. 1.
  55. ^ "Some Prominent Citizens". Daily Hampshire Gazette Supplement. 1895. p. 11.
  56. ^ a b c "The Record in Hampshire County". Springfield Republican. 31 December 1896. p. 11.
  57. ^ "City Items". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 6 January 1896. p. [5].
  58. ^ "Easthampton. A New Two-Story Brick Block". Springfield Republican. 10 April 1896. p. 8.
  59. ^ "216 Lincoln Avenue". North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District (published 24 April 2017). September 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  60. ^ "Annual Building Review". Springfield Republican. 31 December 1897. p. 11.
  61. ^ "Franklin County". Springfield Republican. 29 January 1896. p. 9.
  62. ^ a b "Hampshire's New Buildings". Springfield Republican. 31 December 1898. p. 13.
  63. ^ This imposing four-story building with Augustan Revival detailing was the most elaborate and expensive structure to have been constructed in Northampton at the time. Discovery of unstable soil on the site ("quicksand," in the parlance of the local press) added to the complexity of construction. See "Quick Sand to Overcome," Daily Hampshire Gazette, 17 September 1896, and "The Masonic Ball. The Building," Daily Hampshire Gazette, 17 February 1898 [pp. 1 ff.]. For the dispute over which partner designed the building, see notes 14-16 above.
  64. ^ "A Builder of Beautiful Homes". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 17 December 1898.
  65. ^ "Northampton". Springfield Republican. 14 April 1898. p. 8.
  66. ^ The MACRIS database attributes this house to Putnam on the basis of his other work on this fashionable new street. No house appears on this lot in the 1895 D. L. Miller Atlas of the City of Northampton. Banker Warren M. King took up his job in Northampton in 1899 and is recorded living at this address in the 1900 U.S. Census.
  67. ^ "Northampton,” Springfield Republican, 16 March 1900, p. 8, reported that Putnam was designing four houses for Mrs. H. C. Collins, to be built at the corner of Prospect and Summer streets. They were to cost $4500 each, and two older houses would be torn down to accommodate the new ones. "Hampshire County's Record," Springfield Republican, 31 December 1900, p. 5, recorded that Mrs. Collins had built one house on Prospect Street, with three more to come. No additional houses for this owner are mentioned in subsequent year-end architectural surveys, and none except this one appears on the 1917 Sanborn map; apparently the entire scheme was not realized.
  68. ^ "Amherst,” Springfield Republican, 28 April 1900, identifies Putnam as the architect for a large three-story brick addition to the rear of the Jackson & Cutler store on Merchant’s Row. Today this is the back portion of A. J. Hastings Stationers, at 45 South Pleasant Street.
  69. ^ "Hampshire County. Northampton". Springfield Republican. 26 January 1900. p. 8.
  70. ^ "Activity in Southampton". Springfield Republican. 30 December 1899. p. 5.
  71. ^ Edward H. Bell and his wife Josephine (Searl[e]) moved their principal residence from Northampton to Southampton in 1900, when he retired. Josephine's father, Wharton, inherited the farmstead from his father, Israel Searl. The house was torn down in 1931.
  72. ^ a b "Report of the Building Committee for the South Amherst School-Houses". Annual Reports of the Town of Amherst for the Year Ending February 1, 1902. Carpenter & Morehouse: 79–83. 1902.
  73. ^ a b "Amherst's New School-Houses". Springfield Republican. 30 December 1901. p. 5.
  74. ^ a b Atkins, William H. (31 August 1951). "Correspondent Traces Evolution of South Amherst Schools". Amherst Journal.
  75. ^ Whereas the South East Street school closed in 1905 because of low enrollment, the South Amherst Green School was enlarged in 1953-54 and until 2018 served as Summit Academy, a special education school in the Amherst public school system. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 2 February 1995.
  76. ^ Parsons, Atherton W. (1966–1967). History of Old Houses. Southampton Historical Society. pp. 52–53, no. 38.
  77. ^ a b c "Building not Heavy". Springfield Republican. 29 December 1902. p. 6.
  78. ^ Hendrick, Ted and Maxine (1998). Images of America: Southampton. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 62, 63.
  79. ^ In 2004 the building was converted to residential apartments.
  80. ^ "Shutesbury's New Public Library". Springfield Republican. 24 September 1902. p. 11.
  81. ^ In addition to the library and school projects, Putnam's civic design output in 1902 included a rendering of a hypothetical new city hall for Northampton. Captioned "Suggestive Design for New City Hall by R. F. Putnam, Architect," it illustrated an article by City Clerk Egbert I. Clapp, "A New City Hall--Why?", in Northampton of Today (Northampton: Picturesque Publishing Co., 1902), p. 61.
  82. ^ "Home News". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 14 April 1902.
  83. ^ The building had burned in a dramatic fire on 12 March 1902. It was damaged in another fire on 21 November 1927 and torn down after a fire on New Year's Day 1955.
  84. ^ a b "Falling off at Northampton". Springfield Republican. 31 December 1903. p. 7.
  85. ^ The MACRIS database attributes the house to Putnam on the basis of his other work on the street.
  86. ^ It is known as the Chapin-Ward house to distinguish it from the earlier one Putnam designed for Chapin [n.35 above]. Originally located at 53 North Pleasant Street, it was moved in 2000 to free land for Kendrick Park. Plans, architectural detail drawings, and some specifications are in the Special Collections of the Jones Library, Amherst, along with an unpublished paper by Evelyn Ward (1980), who grew up in the house.
  87. ^ "Northampton". Springfield Republican. 7 May 1903. p. 9.
  88. ^ Originally part of the Burnham-Capen School, the building is now Chase House dormitory at Smith College.
  89. ^ "A Year of Building". Springfield Republican. 31 December 1904. p. 6.
  90. ^ "Hampshire County. Northampton". Springfield Republican. 14 August 1905. p. 8.
  91. ^ "The New Agricultural Hall". Daily Hampshire Gazette. 4 August 1905. p. [1].
  92. ^ "The Building Record". Springfield Republican. 1 January 1906. p. 7.
  93. ^ "School Contract Let". Springfield Republican. 12 July 1906. p. 9.
  94. ^ a b "Report of School Committee," Annual Reports of Officers, City of Northampton for year ending 30 November 1906, pp. 127 and 146.
  95. ^ "Northampton". Springfield Republican. 16 July 1906. p. 8.
  96. ^ A photograph of this house, with caption identifying the architect as R. J. [sic] Putnam, appears on p. 15 of the 25th Anniversary edition of the Northampton Daily Herald, n.d. [1908?]. Putnam lived virtually across the street, at 19 Columbus Avenue [n. 48 above]. Page 30 in the same issue has profile of the house’s owner, M. C. Bailey, contractor and builder. It reports, “His recently built and imposing new residence, one of the handsomest properties in the city, is on Columbus Avenue. This house has much beauty of design and the interior is specially attractive, being finished in hardwood.” This commemorative issue, which profiled many prominent establishments and individuals in the town, did not feature Roswell Putnam or even capture his name accurately. By 1908 his star had dimmed.
  97. ^ a b "Building in 1907. A Record of Progress". Springfield Republican. 31 December 1907. p. 6.
  98. ^ The Springfield Republican apparently erroneously reported on 30 January 1907, p. 9, that Putnam had drawn plans for an 8-room house on Orchard street [Northampton] which “G. R. Turner will build.” In fact, Turner was already living at 15 Orchard Street at that time; his new house, completed in 1907 for $3000, was built at 186 Bridge Street, around the corner. City directories confirm Turner's move to the Bridge Street address in 1907. Frank W. Twiss, whom the MACRIS record mistakenly identifies as the first owner, did not move in until 1913.
  99. ^ Crafts, L. A. (1910). ""Report of Building Committee". Annual Report of the Town of Whately for the Year 1909-1910. The concept was in gestation for a decade. Putnam's South Amherst Green School-House of 1901, which has a similar parti, would have been fresh news when discussions began. There are many similarities between the two buildings. The school was later repurposed for town offices. As of summer 2023 it is for sale with a preservation restriction, but no buyer has emerged.
  100. ^ "Ashfield". Springfield Republican. 24 May 1910. p. 13.
  101. ^ "260 Lincoln Avenue". North Prospect-Lincoln-Sunset Local Historic District (published 24 April 2017). September 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  102. ^ It is possible that a tiled fireplace design of Putnam’s, published in The Brickbuilder: an Architectural Monthly, vol. 18: no. 1 (January 1909), p. 18, pl. 14, also relates to this house or to the Turner or Bailey houses of 1907. Identified as “Panel for Library Fireplace,” it was said to have been executed by the Hartford Faience Company.
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