Longmeadow Street's Hidden Frank Lloyd Wright Inspired Gems

An iconic feature of Longmeadow is “The Green” which is on the National Register of Historic Places primarily because of the historic homes dating to the 18th and 19th centuries. But did you know that within this historic area there also exist two adjacent 1950 mid-century modern homes designed by a disciple of one of America’s greatest architects? The designer was James Thomson and he was a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. These are remarkable additions to our town’s incredible architectural mystique.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was one of the greatest American architects. He designed over 1000 structures during his career and was a proponent of organic architecture that integrated home construction with the surrounding natural environment. His most famous home design is Fallingwater located in Pennsylvania built in 1935.

Fallingwater in Pennsylvania

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright created the first real American form of architecture known as the Prairie Style. This consisted of a long, low, open plan structure to emphasize the horizontal line of the prairie landscape. This stood in contrast to the more common high, straight-sided, box-shaped designs. Following the Great Depression, Frank Lloyd Wright became interested in creating a high-quality home design that was relatively affordable. These designs are referred to as the Usonian style, a term referring to the United States of North America. The first Usonian home was designed in 1936. One Frank Lloyd Wright scholar notes, “Design elements for these single-story homes include flat roofs with generous overhangs and cantilevered carports…, built-in furniture and shelving, tall windows that softened the boundary between interior and exterior, radiant heat embedded in a concrete slab gridded floor, skylights, a sense of flow from one room to the next, and a central hearth. Floor plans dispensed with basements, attics, and, in smaller models, formal dining rooms to maximize efficiency.”

There is one Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Massachusetts. This Usonian-style home was built in Amherst for Amherst College professor Theodore Baird in 1940.

However, in Longmeadow, we have homes designed by an apprentice of Wright’s, James Thomson (1913-1993). Thomson was born in Hartford, Connecticut and resided in Farmington, Connecticut for most of his life. He was educated at Yale and MIT and studied under Frank Lloyd Wright.

Thomson was an architect who utilized Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Usonian design elements in his home plans throughout New England. In Longmeadow, he designed adjacent homes for Mary Wallace and her son and daughter-in-law at 808 and 810 Longmeadow Street. This land had been purchased from Frank Smith in 1947.

These homes were built in 1950 and are great representations of the Wright Usonian design. The design elements combined into the natural environment are clearly evident.

Typical of the Usonian style, they have long, flat roofs with overhangs, large windows softening the boundary between inside and outside, along with a central hearth.

They utilize natural air flow and radiant heat embedded into the floors

Rear Property View, Longmeadow Street

The beautiful surrounding natural environment is typical of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian style. Though the homes are set back from the street and not as easily visible as their Victorian and Federal-style neighbors, they are just as architecturally interesting to behold!

-Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member, who also supplied all of the images from 808 and 810 Longmeadow Street.

Originally published September 8, 2022

Sources:

Wright, Amy Beth. “Seven Hidden Gems from the Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Period.” in Metropolis, July 4, 2017. https://metropolismag.com/viewpoints/seven-hidden-gems-from-frank-lloyd-wrights-usonian-period/

Standish, or "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?"

Have you ever heard of a standish? Besides the Pilgrim story of Miles Standish, I hadn't either. Long before Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his epic poem about the Pilgrim love triangle between John Alden, Miles Standish, and Priscilla Mullins, the term "standish" meant something else entirely. Maybe you're more familiar with the term inkwell or inkstand? The Longmeadow Historical Society has several inkwells, including this somewhat beat-up pewter one:

Pewter Standish, 19xx-205

This homely, well-used object in the LHS collection was purported to belong to the Reverend Stephen Williams (1693-1782). Williams was Longmeadow's first minister, and served the town for 66 years. The Williams parsonage burned in 1846, and many objects belonging to him were saved and brought to the Storrs House, then the home of his granddaughter Sarah (see the History Note "Fire, Fire!" published on June 16, 2022). The items saved from the conflagration included furniture, diaries, textiles, snowshoes, and this inkstand.

The inkstand has touchmarks--impressed marks that identify the maker. I set out to identify the maker from the mark.

I had no luck with my meager collection of reference books. Next, I consulted the metals expert at a local museum. She was unable to find the mark in her references, and suggested we contact a notable pewter dealer from Connecticut. From there we were directed to the Pewter Society in England. This august organization, which often collaborates with the Pewter Collectors Club of America, promptly identified the mark as a product of Richard Hoare, who worked from Angel Alley, Bishopsgate, London from 1664, and probably died in 1704. They went on to explain that one such as ours with a rectangular box for pens is one of only 3 known to the Society! According to the History of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers of the City of London by Charles Welch, Richard Hoare was fined in 1672 for "makeing standishes 3 1/2 gr. worse than ffyne." Apparently, less than fine was evident from the color of the pewter alloy, which is usually made up of tin, copper, antimony, bismuth and sometimes lead.

Our example was so unusual that it was featured in an article from the Spring 2011 issue of the Journal of the Pewter Society.

The Longmeadow Historical Society example has a pounce pot on one side and a ring to hold an inkpot on the other. The tube in the middle might have been used for a candle, pens (quills), a stick of wax, or a small roll of parchment paper. The pounce pot or sander would have been filled with a finely ground powder made of pumice, gum-sandarac resin, or the crushed bones of cuttlefish. Where would a Longmeadow minister get cuttlefish bones?

"Still Life" by Edward Collier, 1699

Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND

Tate Gallery. photo copyright Tate https://www.tate.org.uk/

A review of one of our account books in the Historical Society collection (Samuel Colton, BV5) revealed multiple purchases of "pennife," ink, and quires of paper (25 sheets).

Asa Colton, to a 1/4 quire paper and ink, and Edward Chandler to a 1/4 quire paper

Rev Mr. Stephen Williams to 1 pennife

Paper was labor-intensive to make, and therefor expensive. Lest you assume that the Reverend Williams was profligate in his use of paper while writing 11 volumes of diaries, look at the size of the writing from a 1714 sermon!

1714 sermon written by Stephen Williams,

Longmeadow Historical Society archives

So now that we had a maker who was working from 1664, could this standish have originally belonged to Stephen, or did it perhaps belong to his father John (1664-1729)? The Longmeadow Historical Society has several other Williams family objects that pre-date Stephen and probably belonged to his father, who was the minister in the town of Deerfield. We can imagine Stephen taking this standish, some quills trimmed with his penknife, and some small sheets of paper when he traveled with the soldiers during the French and Indian Wars. He kept a diary of these times, as well as the complete tenure of his ministry. Quill pens, usually made from the left wing feathers of geese or swans, did not come with sharpened points, or nibs. The users would employ their pen knife to trim the point to a shape and sharpness to their liking. When the point became dull, you could trim it again. And in spite of what we've all seen in old paintings, most of the feather would have been removed before being used as a pen!

“Oh, nature's noblest gift, my grey goose quill, Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, Torn from the parent bird to form a pen, That mighty instrument of little men.”

— Lord Byron (1788-1824)

-Contributed by Betsy McKee, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published September 1, 2022

Kenneth B. Page's WWI Service Medals

Service Medals awarded to Pvt. Kenneth Page of Longmeadow during WWI

Kenneth Bausman Page was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 11, 1896 to Frank H. and Bertha Bausman Page

Frank Page, Kenneth's father, was the founder and president of the National Equipment Company in Springfield which became the largest manufacturer of candy-making machinery in the world. He eventually built the beautiful estate known as Deep Woods in Longmeadow in 1917 (please see here). Kenneth Page was educated in Springfield and graduated from the Choate School in 1917 and was admitted to the M.I.T. class of 1921, though he never did attend.

With the United States' entry into World War I, Page enlisted in the medical corps of the 104th Infantry Regiment which was assigned to the 26th Division (nicknamed the Yankee Division). The 104th Infantry Regiment traces its history to November 1639, when it was first mustered as the Springfield Train Band in Springfield, Massachusetts. A Page ancestor, Nathan Woodman, fought in the Revolutionary War including the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Kenneth B. Page, 1917

The 104th served in France during the war. From April 10-13, 1918 they successfully defended the Allied line by counterattacking the German attackers in hand-to-hand combat in the Ardennes. For their exceptional gallantry and bravery in that three-day battle, 116 Western Massachusetts members of the regiment were awarded the French Croix de Guerre medal, the first U.S. unit to receive that award. Fifteen of these men were then presented the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross by General John J. Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front during World War I. Kenneth Page was awarded the medal for conspicuous gallantry in running across a heavily shelled area to rescue a mortally wounded office.

There were four million “Doughboys” in the U.S. Army during World War 1. Half of these soldiers served overseas. Twenty-five percent of males ages 18-31 years served in the military during our involvement in the war from April 6, 1917 to the Armistice on November 11, 1918. There were 53,000 killed in combat, 63,000 non-combat deaths (mainly from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic), and 204,000 wounded. The Distinguished Service Cross was awarded to 6185 men during World War 1. It is the second highest award in the United States military for extreme gallantry and risk of life during combat.

General Pershing awarding the Distinguished Service Cross

Kenneth Page July 12, 1918

On July 20, 1918, Private Page was severely wounded sustaining fractures and shrapnel wounds to his right arm which required months of convalescence. This occurred during the Second Battle of the Marne, one of the more important and vicious battles of the war. During this encounter the 104th was situated in Belleau Wood, experiencing German artillery and gas attacks. At a local Rotary Club meeting at the Hotel Worthy in 1918, he stated that only 10% of the original members of the 104th remained uninjured and he advised new recruits that in battle when you hear a “sound that sounds like a freight train coming in their direction hug the ground and pray.” For his wounds, he was eventually awarded the Purple Heart Medal.

Kenneth Page married Mildred Green from Springfield on January 11,1919. They eventually moved to Farmington Avenue in 1925.

Page's Farmington Ave. home

The couple raised two daughters and Mr. Page remained in Longmeadow until his death in 1973. He was active in the American Legion after its charter in 1919 as well as veteran organizations and the American Red Cross. He was in the insurance business eventually owning the Kenneth B. Page Insurance Company which was sold in 1945. He was president of City Dye Works Custom Laundry in the 1930s, manager of the Atkinson Tavern at Storrowton in the 1940s, and eventually owned and operated the Page Tool Company until his retirement in 1968.

Kenneth Page was a local hero with a life well lived.

-Contributed by Lenny Shaker, Longmeadow Historical Society Board Member

Originally published August 25, 2022

Sources:

Genealogy Bank

Ancestry.com

National Archives

Library of Congress