By JEANETTE FLECK
WSU Intern
William G. Bates and the Medical Arts Building
The beautiful building sitting at 30 Court Street in Westfield is currently housing miscellaneous businesses, with an independent insurance agent, a counseling service, and an audiology company prominent among them. Interestingly enough, these businesses echo, if only faintly, the purposes of their Greek Revival building during two of the three previous phases of its existence.
Around 1833, the lot on which the building stands was purchased by the then-future State Senator (1840), District Attorney (1853), State Representative (1868), and holder of many other distinguished offices, the Honorable William Gelston Bates. At the time, Bates had already begun establishment of a public library in Westfield – which would eventually become the Athenaeum – and was becoming well-known as a lawyer. A wooden house already stood on the lot, so Bates had it moved to Mechanic Street, and began construction on the brick building still recognizable nearly 200 years later.
Of all his accomplishments, William Bates is best known locally for his assistance to the early Westfield State University. In 1841, the college, still known as Barre State Normal School, came in danger of closing for good with the death of its first principal. Bates, who at the time was also a member of the State Board of Education, along with Reverend Emerson Davis, believed that the school would do best in Westfield – as the town was easily accessible via railroad lines – and worked through the politics of the day to ensure that, in 1844, the school was relocated here, with Davis taking over as principal. Both men have buildings named for them on WSU’s current campus.
Bates’s residence on Court Street was frequently host to prominent visitors to the normal school, but more often it was simply the place where the gentleman lived until his death on July 5, 1880. The residence was inherited by his daughter, Jeanie Ashley Bates Greenough, and her husband, James C. Greenough. Greenough had an even stronger connection to the college, which will be discussed next week. The residential phase of Bates’s building finally ended on December 4, 1924, with Greenough’s death.
Within a year, the building had been converted for business purposes, and became the home of the United Casualty Insurance Co. (seemingly not connected with the modern company of the same name). That company stayed there until 1940, after which a group of medical men purchased the Bates House and dramatically renovated the interior into doctors’ offices. It was renamed the Medical Arts Building, and remained so for at least 40 years. Around 1980, the first non-medical business entered the building, and steadily the building accumulated its current assembly of businesses, at least one of which is still medical. However, the sign marking 30 Court Street as the Medical Arts Building is gone.
