By JEANETTE FLECK
WSU Intern
One of the oldest places in town is also the most recognizable, if not always by its historic name. Morgan Block has faced the Green, at the lowest odd numbers on Court Street, since its construction in 1820. Major Archippus Morgan, originally from Pittsfield, built it, along with his private residence, both on the corner of Court and Broad streets. The Block contained his grocery store, but he also rented out the other two addresses to other vendors, and made it possible for residents to buy shares in the Hampshire and Hampden/Farmington canal, in which Morgan himself was a large investor.
Little else could be found about him, except that he died in September of 1857, and that his property was owned afterwards by Sarah Morgan Way and her family. She carried out minor renovations on the building at some point during her ownership, including the addition of Italianate “door hoods” over two of the addresses’ entrances.
About a decade after Morgan’s death (c. 1866), the Westfield YMCA was founded. Its first premises were in one of the addresses in the Block, before they moved to Elm Street and built their own premises. Several other businesses filtered through before 1950, most prominently including the Green Shutter restaurant/tea room (which had been at number five, in the middle of the block).
Around 1945, O’Donnell Insurance, the first real estate company to occupy any of the three addresses, moved in at number three, but the company that has occupied the Block for the longest, and lent their name to the building in casual conversation, is the Roger Butler company, then a family-owned company dealing in both insurance and real estate, which now specializes in insurance. They moved into number five in 1949, after having been in business since 1902, and several years later, merged with the Herbert Lyman Agency (the company that sold Westfield’s first ever car insurance policy to Gilbert Loomis in 1897). Today, the company is still in business, and still owned by the same family.
Also in 1950, a doctor’s office was established at number seven, and this practice has also lasted into the present day, its ownership also remaining in the same family. Other businesses came and went, sharing premises with the three companies above, but all were gone by 1980.
Number three, under the differently-colored roof, is the only address that has changed since then. After the O’Donnell Insurance Agency left the building, the address was owned by Stearns and Yerrall Realty. They stayed from the mid-1980s into the ‘90s, it, though no business occupies the address now. The most obvious change, though, is the absence of the fourth door, which was once in the middle of the address front.
