Care to write a sermon? Or, the tale of the Reverend's Desk

With our computer and cell phone-dominated lives, it may be hard to imagine someone using a piece of furniture like the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs’ cherrywood desk-and-bookcase. An imposing piece of furniture at over 98” tall, Storrs was certainly making a statement of his importance as a minister and the serious business of writing sermons.

The top portion of the piece consists of shelves behind two “tombstone” carved doors.  The doors are decorated with a distinctive serpentine vine carving.  At the top are ball-shaped finials that were originally topped with elegant flame-shaped turnings.  The lower portion is essentially a fall-front desk, commonly known now as a slant-front desk. The four drawers below are block front-carved and finished with bright brass Chippendale drawer pulls. With the writing surface pulled down, you can admire the cubby-holes with decorative valences and a central door with matching pillar drawers.  An added plus is the secret drawer hidden behind the door disguised as a valence!

This vine-carved object was made by an as-yet unknown cabinetmaker. Only a handful of similar pieces are known—one in the collections of Historic Deerfield, a couple in private collections, and at least one of unknown whereabouts. Recently, a highboy with similar vine carving sold at auction. Tantalizingly, it had an almost-illegible inscription. It is likely to be the name of the owner (associated with the provenance that came with the piece), so it does not shed light on the maker.  However, given the ownership of the known pieces, it is likely that the maker was located in the Springfield, MA area.

Although this desk was certainly a very important statement piece to the Storrs family, it gradually was regarded as old-fashioned, and it was relegated to less prominent places in the Storrs home.  At some point it was moved, with disastrous consequences. Gone were the flame finials--lost or discarded, we don't know. We also think that one of the rear feet got broken, and their solution was to cut off the other 3!  Thus, the amputated piece was left, though it was eventually returned to a place of honor in the south parlor.

The desk was unique enough to warrant admiration and study over the years, including a guest appearance at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford for the quintessential exhibit, The Great River, in 1985.  Potential cabinetmakers have been proposed and rejected, though a Springfield/Northampton origin seemed likely. Philip Zea, former President & CEO and Chief Curator of Historic Deerfield, wrote this about the piece: "the desk-and-bookcase represents the best case furniture available in the Springfield area after the Revolution. The secretary boasts documented descent from its first owner, the Reverend Richard Salter Storrs (1763-1819) of Longmeadow in the very house where it was first owned. In fact, it is quite likely that the secretary is among the original furnishings of the Storrs House built in 1786. This level of documented use, through the generations, creates an unusual opportunity to interpret local craftsmanship and evolving taste over time."

The Longmeadow Historical Society has been fortunate to obtain Community Preservation Act funds for the restoration of this piece—work that has recently been completed.  Come see it in its place of honor in the Reverend’s parlor in all its glory.

Dr. Harry Charles Martin

Harry Charles Martin was a prominent physician in Longmeadow in the early twentieth century who lived a fascinating, albeit relatively short life. He was born in Milford, Massachusetts on December 1, 1877 and graduated from Dartmouth Medical College in 1898. Soon after graduation, he opened his general medical practice in Springfield.  Harry married Emma Putnam from Sutton, Massachusetts in April 1899. The couple, who never had children, initially lived in Springfield but moved to a newly constructed home at 20 Woodlawn Place in Longmeadow along with Emma’s mother. 

His early 20th century career was interesting and varied. Dr. Martin cared for the residents of the nearby Doane Orphanage in Longmeadow after it opened in 1902. The orphanage was in very close proximity to his home. Starting in 1906, Dr. Martin was the personal physician for Everett Barney, whose clip-on ice-skate patent earned him the fortune that funded his estate in nearby Forest Park. Eventually, Martin also became the physician for the Hampden County Jail.  

Aside from his professional work, Dr. Martin was an early automobile enthusiast and one of the original members of the Automobile Club of Springfield.

Harry Martin joined the Massachusetts National Guard in 1909 as a Lieutenant and served as a battalion quartermaster. He transferred to the medical corps in 1913 and was influential in inoculating soldiers against Typhoid Fever. He served during the Mexican Border War.

During World War I, Dr. Martin served 19 months in France as a surgeon for the 101st Infantry and earned the rank of Major. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for bravery in action July 24, 1918.

In an article in The Springfield Republican on June 26, 1918, Dr. Martin described his position in the field with “shells bursting 300 yards away.” As a regimental surgeon he was at the front far from a base hospital, with intimate knowledge of “what a trench looks like along with a heap of dead Germans, living with rats and cooties.” His quarantining efforts in 1919 while still in France helped to reduce deaths from the dreaded Spanish influenza. 

After WWI, he was instrumental in establishing the Longmeadow branch of the American Legion, the Albert T. Wood Post No. 175. Dr Martin resumed his medical practice at 374 Main Street in Springfield on June 2, 1919.

In 1927, Dr Martin and Congressman Henry Bowles traveled to France to visit the battlefields at Verdun and Belleau Wood. On the voyage back home off of Nantucket their ocean liner Veendam rammed into and sank the freighter Sagaland. He and Congressman Bowles were uninjured. 

It was said that his war service “broke his health” and he subsequently suffered from “heart trouble.” His wife Emma died in January 1927, and later that year Harry C. Martin died suddenly on September 12, 1927 at 51 years old. His death was a shock to the war veterans he served with and the patients he cared for. The Martins are buried in Longmeadow Cemetery.

-Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society

Sources:

The Springfield Republican

Springfield Union

Ancestry.com

Alice Willard's Summer at Shinnecock

Watercolor by Alice Willard

Collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society

In the summer of 1897, Shinnecock Hills, New York was alive with artistic ambition. The Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art, led by the renowned painter William Merrit Chase, was more than a scenic retreat - it was a crucible for American Impressionism. Chase founded the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art in 1891, the first open-air (plein air) painting school in America. Inspired by French Impressionists like Monet and Sisley, Chase encouraged students to paint directly from nature, capturing fleeting light and atmosphere, without preparatory sketches.  While French Impressionism often focused on urban scenes and leisure, Chase’s Shinnecock work emphasized American landscapes - windswept dunes, scrubby hills, and coastal light.  Empowering a generation of artists, the school welcomed women, offering them rare access to professional instruction, and artistic community.

Watercolor by Alice Willard

Collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society

On August 27, 1897, The Springfield Republican reported that Alice Willard, a 31-year-old Art teacher for the Longmeadow schools, had returned to Longmeadow from the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art.

Willard’s message to the School Committee a year after her return reveals a most remarkable statement: “At the beginning of the spring term, a year ago, we began the use of watercolor in the grammar school. The time given to the study of color the year before, together with the practice of using the brush during the fall terms, helped us in beginning, and the pupils made some progress in mixing and laying on the color. The work was continued in the fall term, together with color study by means of colored papers.”

In the school year 1904-05 she reported starting lessons in watercolors in lower grades: “Few important changes have been made in the course in Drawing the past two or three years, but a continual and largely successful effort has been made to raise the standard of the work. We have had more color study in the upper grades, and have introduced the use of watercolor into the second and third grade room, so that much valuable time has not, as formerly, been spent in the fourth grade each fall in teaching a new class the handling of this medium.”

Watercolor by Alice Willard

Collection of the Longmeadow Historical Society

In these reports, Willard describes using the layering techniques she learned at Shinnecock. Alice Willard was teaching the children of Longmeadow the innovations of watercolor painting!

Alice Willard, Artist & Teacher

Between now and the end of October, stop by the Betty Ann Low Room at the Richard Salter Storrs Library to see a display of the breadth of Alice Willard’s artistic talent on display.  The Longmeadow Historical Society has recently produced a set of notecards featuring some of Willard’s floral designs. Reach out to us at info@longmeadowhistoricalsociety to get your own set!