Hyde House

The Hyde House is a large, vernacular Georgian style dwelling. It was built in 1792 and is located at 144 West Park Street in a residentially zoned area near the center of Lee. The house is set well back from the street with a landscaped lawn in front and large trees surrounding the sides and rear. The original house, which forms the central part of the current house, is built on a fieldstone foundation. It is of wood frame, plank construction and covered with four inch clapboard. The geometric shape of the house is rectangular; the facade is synmetrical with five bays of nine over nine windows and the center entrance on the first floor, and six over six windows on the second floor. The doorway is graced with fluted pilasters and capped with a triangular pediment.

The door itself is not original. It was reproduced according to an original design, but made wider to meet tire satety regulations. . The house is two and one half stories, with a medium height pitched roof that is pierced by two dormers. The interior design of the original house has been altered considerably. On the first floor, the original synmetrical layout of the rooms along a central hallway has been changed. The two front rooms remain, but the central staircase has been removed and the partitions that formed the back rooms have been taken out to create one Large room. Paneling has been put on the walls, doors have been changed and large planks have been put across the bottom of the first floor windows.

However, the original detail remains around the ceilings and fireplaces in many of the rooms.

/ARCHITECT The Hyde House has played a significant role in the educational and religious life town of Lee. It has served as the rectory of the First Congregational Church, a boys' boarding school and a private residence. Architecturally, the Georgian style Hyde House is also noteworthy, reflecting the tastes of an eighteenth century clergyman and town. Hyde House was built in 1792 by Reverend Alvan Hyde, the first settled minister of the Lee First Congregational Church. Upon the death of Reverend Hyde, the house was inherited by his son, Alexander Hyde. house called "Hyde Park Family Boarding School for Boys." The large addition at the rear of the house was built to accommodate the school. In 1867, the boarding school closed and the house was again used only as a private residence.

It was owned by the Hyde family until 1967, when the house was given to the newly founded Lee YMCA. Both Alvan and Alexander Hyde played significant roles in the early history of Lee. forty-one years, had an important impact on the religious life of the commmity. He was instrumental in the founding of Lee Academy which later became Lee High School. His own boarding school attracted boys from New York, Boston and Chicago and included F.D.R.'s father James Roosevelt and Arthur Gilman, a well-known educator who was one of the founders of Radcliffe.

Alexander also served as the first president of the Berkshire Historical and Scientific Society, contributed weekly articles on scientific agriculture to the New York Times, and was asked to be president of Massa- chusetts Agricultural College at Amherst - the present University of Massachusetts, an invitation he declined. In 1880 he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature, and died a year later in Boston while attending a legislative session.