Scientific American Building Edition - A MODERN COLONIAL RESIDENCE AT SPRINGFIELD, MASS

Taken from Scientific American, Building Edition. May 1901

A MODERN COLONIAL RESIDENCE AT SPRINGFIELD MASS.

WE present on page 88 a modern residence of Colonial treatment which has been erected for Arthur H. Merriam, Esq., at Springfield, Mass.

The design is admirable. The detail is most excellently executed in the Colonial style. The underpinning is built of red brick laid up in white mortar. The superstructure is of wood, and the exterior framework is covered with sheathing, paper, and clapboards, the latter painted Colonial yellow, with ivory-white trimmings. The roof is covered with New Brunswick cedar shingles and stained a deep dull red with Cabot's shingle-stain. The blinds are painted bottle-green.

Dimensions: Front, 34 ft; side, 38 ft. Height of ceilings: Cellar, 7 ft; first story, 10 ft; second, 9 ft; third, 8 ft.

The vestibule has a tiled floor and is trimmed and paneled with oak. The hall is trimmed with English oak, and it has a paneled wainscoting, above which the walls are covered with paper of a dark-green effect. The ceiling is beamed with 5-inch oak beams, forming panels, the space between the same being filled in with "pacrusta" (paper pulp) and tinged a delicate blue-green. This hall contains a paneled divan and an ornamental staircase with turned newel-posts, balusters, and rail, and also an open fireplace trimmed with green enamel tiling and a mantel of English oak extending up to the ceiling.

The parlor is trimmed with white pine and is treated with white enamel woodwork, white and gold paper on walls, and a ceiling which is frescoed in a cream-white, with stucco work of white and gold. The dining-room is trimmed with oak, and it has a paneled wainscoting 4 ½ feet in height, and a paneled ceiling with 5-inch oaken beams. The walls are covered with a dark dull red, and the ceiling is covered with "pacrusta," touched up with gold, and has a china-cabinet built in.

The butler's pantry is trimmed and fitted up with drawers, dressers, and cupboards. The kitchen is trimmed and wainscoted with Northern pine, and furnished with all the necessary fixtures, including a gas range with hot-water attachment.

The second floor is trimmed with ash, and it contains four bedrooms, large closets and bathroom; the latter is wainscoted and provided with a "Standard Mfg. Co." porcelain-lined tub and fixtures, with nickelplated trimmings.

The third floor contains two large bedrooms and one large storeroom. A cemented cellar contains a laundry, with set tubs of slate, coal, wood, and ash bins, and furnace-room containing a "Royal" furnace, made by Hart & Crouse, of Utica, N. Y.

The cost is $4,000 complete.

Messrs. J. D. & W. H. McKnight, of Springfield, Mass., were the architects and builders. Mr. John Kennelly, of Springfield, Mass., was the plumber.

This house is located at 7 Dorchester St., in the McKnight neighborhood of Springfield, MA