MassachusettsThe Wells Block at 250-264 Worthington Street in Springfield is a four-story Italianate mixed-use commercial and residential building, built in 1876 for Abner B. Abbey on the site of his former lumber yard; due to financial problems it was sold at auction to Jerome Wells in 1877. The upper three floors were designed as tenement housing while the first floor held two commercial storefronts. The ornate south facade is capped with a decorative metal cornice and metal eyebrow window heads, with two-over-two wood double-hung windows and brownstone sills punctuating the red brick facade, and a ground-floor storefront with cast iron moldings and pressed-metal pilaster capitals. The upper floors became a boarding house around 1900 and the Avon Hotel from 1916 until a 1946 fire; storefronts housed frame makers and the Grand Union Tea Company. It is a well-preserved example of the local commercial Italianate style whose combined use reflects downtown's transition, meeting National Register Criteria A and C, part of the Downtown Springfield Multiple Resource Area.
Wells Block
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Wells Block is a landmark in Springfield, Hampden County. It is one of 3,654 landmarks documented in Hampden County, among 3,815 historic sites cataloged across the county on MassRoam.
The site sits at 42.1050, -72.5918 near Springfield. The nearest cataloged historic site is Bicycle Club Building (landmark), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Springfield Steam Power Company Block, Stacy Building, and Driscoll's Block.
This record is drawn from public historical records. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
The Wells Block is a four-story red-brick commercial and residential building in downtown Springfield, built in 1876 for Abner Abbey on the former site of his lumber yard and sold the next year to Jerome Wells. Its ground floor held a pair of storefronts while the upper floors operated as a tenement, boarding house, and hotel until they were badly damaged by fire in 1946. For years it housed the Grand Union Tea Company, a local retailer of imported teas, and it is considered the only surviving mixed-use building of its type and period in the city, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
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