Col. Josiah Dwight House, 8-10 Howard Street, Springfield

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS MA-405. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Howard Street, Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts. Materials: Field notes include measurements and a questionnaire (historical data gathered at the site) completed by field members Max R. Hippell and J. E. Hermes in Questionnaire (transcribed from the handwritten field notes): 1. Date of finishing work in book Start - 20 February Last. 2. Name of building: Dwight Old Home. 3. Present location: 8 and 10 Howard Street. 4. Measured by: J.E. Hermes, 12 Harwich ... and Max R. Hippell, 121 State 5. Date built: 6. Former location: Fronting Main St. where the Parson ... stand now. 7. Original owners: Col. Josiah Dwight. After his death in it became the ... his son Col. Thomas Dwight who died in And it stayed in the Dwight family until sold and moved for speculative building on Howard St.

8. Highlights of the Dwight Family: The Dwight family was of illustrated ancestry of English descent and became prominent people in Springfield most of then [sic] officers in the War of the Rebellion. Lawyers of note member of Congress and Senate, most of them members of the Old First Church still standing in Court Square as a memorial of the good people of Old Springfield. The Dwights have a brillant [sic] place in New England history between the second half of and in Most all of them where [sic] wealthy, building fine homes in Springfield and financing churches, holding prominent places in the city, serving the country as soldiers and statesmen. Generous and of pleasing social qualities, ... and respected in the community as one of the best family in Springfield, Mass.

One of the Dwight[s] was one of the founder[s] of the American Antiquarian Society of Boston. They extended foreign trade, imported manufacturing establishments, helping railroads, created or endowed institutions of charity and education. 9. Architect & builder: Unknown. 1 Spellings, punctuations, etc., are the same as the original; the ellipse ] is used when the text was too faint to read. - vbp COL. JOSIAH DWIGHT HOUSE HABS No. MA-405 (page 2) 10. Materials. Basement: Front part brown stone. Basement walls. Back part red brick. Other floors: wood construction. Very interesting outside details. Corners of the house. Nice old clapboards and window framing. Front part of outside walls thickness covering corner posts that are showing on the second floor plan.

House in fair condition except woodwork exposed covered thick with paint. Hiding beautiful mouldings. 11. Research notes: The Dwight House. First location. Main St. Where the Parson's block now is. House built in and moved in [blank]. Changed into a double tenement losing the front door entrance and the staircase. These were sold by contractor and no trace found of where they are. But they still are in existence, and the original door as sketch below. [They] are reputed to be mostly interesting and by far the best detail of the house. The nice moldings of the exterior windows evidently where [sic] created on ... in the framing of the door way. Note: (I will make further research and may be able to locate the present location of the door itself and the stairway).

McMurphy Real estate agent is trying to locate same, may be found Long Island Sound Conn. It was sold by the contractor and we are trying to find him. (No luck so far. May