Wollison-Shipton
Historic Office Building
One Hundred Fifty North Street Pittsfield Massachusetts
In the process of researching my family history years ago the name Charles D. Beebe appeared and subsequently his relation to a Carrie Wollison (this subject will be covered in subsequent features I hope to write). These names were both familiar to me from my life experiences and history research. The Wollison building has always been of interest to me since my childhood. With the recent sale and purchase of the building much of its history has been published in the Berkshire Eagle and the Berkshire Trade and Commerce publication, who supplied me the real estate marketing brochure which I have edited, corrected and made additions. In researching this article I find that the Wollisons were neighbors of my ancestors for 2 generations and undoubtedly knew each other. Enjoy!
History Of The Wollison-Shipton Building
The story of the
Wollison-Shipton Building really begins over 200 years
ago, when Abner Stevens moves his drum building operations from Hancock
Massachusetts to
North Street in Pittsfield around 1809. Abner’s
reputation for fine instruments spread quickly throughout the young United States at a time when
most towns maintained a militia
including fife and drum players.
In addition to
local musicians, larger
military operations carried approximately 2 fifers and
2 drummers for each 100
men in a company. The onset of the War Of 1812 brought a tremendous demand for Abner Stevens’ drums from both the US
military plus municipalities in most states
and he soon found himself quite
wealthy. In the subsequent
years Stevens used a fair part of
his fortune to invest in local real estate
including North Street and other sections
of Pittsfield. Part of his holdings included
three contiguous parcels
between Fenn Street
and Cottage Row (now known as Eagle Street)
when he died in 1842.
His drum making
operations and his son Angelo’s home were thought
to be on this land. With Abner’s
estate divided amongst
his spouse Sophia and subsequently his five children, very little happened with further
development for decades.
Beginning in the 1870’s
Abner’s youngest child, Mary Helen Stevens
(1826-1902), who had married Reuben Draper
Wollison (1823-1909, son of George
and Maria Royer Wollison) in 1852, began to acquire the
various partial interests
in her father’s property on North
Street back from
her relatives including
heir Angelo’s daughter Ella Stevens Keith.
By 1876 Mary Helen
Stevens Wollison
reunited the
remaining interests from the original property she did not already
control, with herself as the sole owner, and sold the most southern
parcel to Rosa England
of the England Brothers
Department Store family (the first England Brothers building is on part
of that parcel. The building now houses Barrington Stage offices, etc.). In what might have been an early declaration of women’s
suffrage, on the
part of the pre-printed deed form where it
said “Known By All Men” Mary and Rosa crossed out “Men” and wrote in
“People”. In 1884 Mary H.S.
Wollison acquired property
to the east of the North Street parcels
running all the way back to
Renne Ave. In 1886 the barns on this latest
acquisition were moved with
an
eye toward something
big. The razing of Angelo’s old house marked the destruction of the last dwelling
house from Park Square to
Cottage Row, the first two blocks of current
downtown Pittsfield.
In the spring of 1887 the Pittsfield Sun reported
that Wollison had hired noted local
architect H. Neill Wilson to draw
up “specifications for the grand new Wollison
Block”. The paper claimed “the architectural appearance
is richer than any block yet built in Pittsfield”. Ground
broke for the new structure
June 16, 1887.
June 16, 1887
Springfield Republican: "It is expected that the demolishing of the old
Commercial hotel, which is to give way to the new Wollison block, will be begun
this morning. Work will be pushed on the
new structure and the builder hopes to finish it by October."
The sketch below is
believed to be part of
these 1887 preliminary plans.
Neill Wilson’s later projects
would include the renovation of the
Red Lion Inn, Stockbridge and Shadowbrook, Lenox which Andrew
Carnegie purchased
for his summer “cottage”. At the time of Carnegie’s acquisition Shadowbrook was thought
to be the second largest
private residence
in the United
States. Andrew
Carnegie passed away there in
1919.
Construction continued roughly on schedule with D.C. Munyan in charge of the general carpentry. Other historically significant buildings erected by Munyan include the former Berkshire Athenaeum (now the registry of deeds), Berkshire County Courthouse and the Academy of Music immediately north of the new Wollison Block. The final opening of the new stores and offices ended up delayed several weeks in part because of the Great Blizzard Of 1888. Just before the scheduled opening April 1, 1888, some reports indicate up to five feet of snow fell from March 11 to March 14, 1888. One of the first known photos of the building shows drifts near second story windows.
We celebrate the birthday of the Wollison Block as April 12, 1888, the day the upstairs anchor tenant, the YMCA, held their grand opening. Located on the second floor, the YMCA offered a gym and hot baths for their members, a rarity in those days. Other original upper floor tenants included a large photography studio complete with living quarters and a dress maker. In the retail stores the first tenants included an agricultural supply house, a printer / stationery maker, a rubber goods store and a home furnishings store. By 1890 records indicate the addition of the painting and wallpaper business of Mary and Reuben Wollison’s son Herbert, an electric goods distributor, a doctor, dentist, insurance agent and the Sunday Morning Call newspaper. In those days it is thought that several people lived in their offices including S.S. Wheeler who took over the 4th floor photography studio and commissioned the huge sign on the south side of the building, likely painted by Herbert or Reuben Wollison as seen in the 1893 photo below. It could be S.S. Wheeler actually took this picture.
Mary Helen Stevens
Wollison died after a short illness on New Year's Day 1902. She left the
Wollison Block to her three sons, with a provision that her husband get a stipend
from rents of $500 each year.
Mary and Reuben lived at 4 and then 58 Union Street. Before the end of that
year Herbert sold his share to
his brothers who
had moved from Pittsfield to practice dentistry
years previously. On
August 12, 1905 Robert, dentist to
Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry, personal dentist
(for over 30 years) to the Czar in Russia,
sold the building
to James Shipton. "The largest
real estate deal in Pittsfield in a number of years", "The price
being paid about $100,000.00" said the Berkshire Eagle. "The block
was built about 18 years ago by Contractor George Foote and is one of the best
constructed and finest appearing in the city."
In the 1905 Pittsfield
City Directory Herbert Wollison's business is listed as Painter, Wall Paper,
Paper Hanger, Artist's Materials, Photo Supplies and Picture Framing, etc. at
148 North Street in the Wollison Bldg. He lived at 18 Maude Street. His father
Reuben was listed as a Master House Painter and Paper Hanger.
Herbert S. Wollison entered the paperhanging business with his
father when a youth, later spending some two years in a large concern in New
York city. While there he attended a trade school, and won the first prize.
Returning to Pittsfield he engaged in business for himself in 1889, opening at
first a salesroom on the second floor. Business increased to such an extent
that better facilities as well as more space became necessary, and he now
occupies a store on the ground floor, devoted to interior decorations, shades,
pictures, frames, and photographic supplies. During the busy season he gives
employment to about forty men; he has gained a high reputation for completing
his work in a thoroughly artistic manner. He is also interested in real estate
and has charge of the Wollison block.
Shipton had left Pittsfield for many years to finally return to his roots and join his father-in-law’s insurance and real estate firm in 1893. After the purchase of the block Parker and Shipton Insurance moved into the building and James changed the name on the center stone to Shipton.
By 1939 James Shipton built a second building behind the original Wollison Block fronting on Renne Avenue. For many years the anchor, and perhaps the only tenant, stood as the Ben Franklin Press printing company. As not to block delivery entrances to the original edifice, the rear structure featured a tunnel style alley right through the building. In 1946 James Shipton passes away leaving his real estate holdings to his heirs who run his properties including taking out a mortgage on a group of them. By the 1970’s the Shipton heirs run into trouble and lose the Shipton building to foreclosure. By this time the rear building lies vacant.
Soon afterwards the new owners experience a fire which damages the original building. By 1986 a new owner had renovated the original structure including adding a new elevator and having the building included on the National Registry Of Historic Places.
Late that year the current owners group took over for the most recent improvements. The rear building, by that time abandoned for many years, became completely rehabilitated with its own elevator. The original Wollison Block and Shipton’s second building were then joined as one to create the Wollison-Shipton Building as it is known today. Central air conditioning became a part of all office spaces, a relative rarity for Pittsfield at the time. Many areas of the building which would have been outdoors prior to 1986 retained their original feel with exposed brick, windows and skylights. Occupancy of the Wollison-Shipton building remained very strong over the years including some of 1986 tenants still in place and many others in the building 5 to 10 years or more.
Now comes the
next chapter for the Wollison-Shipton Building, the
one the new owner will write, as old traditions continue and new ones come to
life.
A fairly comprehensive
family tree of the Wollison family (a work in progress) can be downloaded at
our website, www.berkshirefamilyhistory.org in a new section of Historical
Local Family Trees
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Article ended.
Supplemental information follows:
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1906
Advertisement
1905 City Directory:
144-156 North Street: Wollison Block
144 Kingman Bros.
144 Kingman's Orchestra.
144 Edward J. Spall
148 Herbert S. Wollison
150 Carl Escher
150 John Hancock Life Insurance Co.
150 Conrad Fisher
150 William H. Lyons
George Tucker
Columbian National Life Insurance Co.
150 Mrs. Edith Campbell
George C. Hubbell
Fred S. Smith
Harrington and Company
Dr. F. A. Robinson
154 Grand Union Tea Company
156 Jacob F. Kirchner
Next door:
158-198 Academy of Music
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NEW YORK COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY.
The seventeenth annual commencement of the
New York College of Dentistry was held in Checkering Hall, New York, on Tuesday
evening, March 6, 1883, at 7.45 o'clock.
The
valedictory address was delivered by Henry V. Wollison,
D.D.S., of the graduating class, and the address to the graduates by Eev. William M. Taylor, D.D.
The
number of matriculates for the session was one hundred and thirty-eight.
January 2, 1902
August 13, 1905
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Wollison%E2%80%93Shipton_Building
The Wollison–Shipton
Building is a historic commercial block located at 142-156 North
Street in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts. Designed by architect H. Neil Wilson,
it was built in 1888 when the area north of Park Square developed as a
commercial and retail part of downtown Pittsfield.
Description and history
The
building stands in downtown Pittsfield, on the east side of North Street,
roughly midway between Fenn and Eagle Streets. It is a four-story steel and
masonry structure, built out of Philadelphia pressed red brick with rusticated
brownstone trim. It has a central full-height section, seven bays wide, capped
by a hip roof, which has flanking three-story mansarded
wings. The ground floor has four storefronts, two on either side of the main
building entrance, each now redone with modern plate glass display windows
flanking recessed entrances. A belt course of sandstone separates the first and
second floors, and brick pilasters separate the middle seven bays from the
outer ones. Windows are rectangular sash, except for the central fourth-floor
windows, where eight are set in round-arch openings. Windows in the outermost
two bays on each side have stone sills, and are topped by a course of brickwork
that extends across the width of the outer sections. In the central sections,
the outer windows are grouped in threes, each individually topped by stone
sills.[2]
At
the time of its construction in 1888, this building was relative rarity for the
type of brick used and for its cast iron detailing, which has since been
removed. The second floor was the first home for the local YMCA. The architect was H. Neill Wilson, a prominent local architect, and the builder was D.C.
Munyan, who was responsible for the construction of a number of other nearby
buildings, including the adjacent Academy of Music (burned 1912), the Berkshire
County Courthouse, and the Berkshire Athenaeum, both prominent structures on Park Square.[2]
The
building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 30, 1982,[1] and was included in an expansion of the Park Square Historic District in 1991.[3]
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EX-CZARINA WORKED FOR
GERMANY DURING WAR.
TAIHAPE DAILY TIMES,
VOLUME XI, ISSUE 3461, 15 APRIL 1920 (New Zealand)
EX-CZARINA WORKED FOR
GERMANY DURING WAR.
Dr H. V. Wollison, of
New York, was dentist for over thirty years to the family of the late Czar of
Russia. For the first time he has conveyed to the public. his impressions of
the Romanoffs, and although he reveals nothing that is not already well known,
he emphasizes the attitude of the unfortunate Czarina in a way that confirms
the worst as to her intriguing on behalf of reactionary statesmen in Germany.
Dr Wollison is, at the same time, evidently quite fair to the Czarina. “She
was,” he states, a far more likeable woman than people who had never seen her
and who knew nothing of Russian court life seem to think. It was impossible
when one was with her to believe the scandal that was abroad about her
relations with Madam Wiraboff and with the monk,
Rasputin, whose mistress Madam Wiraboff was Supposed
originally to have been.
SENT PILES OF MONEY
TO GERMANY.
“To one who met her
as I met her she was exceedingly charming, and Madam Wiraboff,
for that matter, was a fat, jolly, likable sort of a girl, although rumour had
it, and facts substantiated the supposition, that she was one of the
greatest intriguantes
about the court. The Czarina was German clear through and through. There was no
mistaking that, and it was through her
that the Germans gained most of their influence at court. She sent untold sums
of money into Germany during the war.
Dr Wollison did not
entertain at high opinion of the Czarevitch. “He was
all mischief,” he declares, although the incident he supplies illustrative of
his precocity suggests the jolly rather than the petulant, anemic creature that
he is generally supposed to have been.
“Not long before the
Czar began his last journey,” Dr Wollison relates, “from general headquarters
to Petrograd, he was at headquarters with his father. Several of the generals
of the Czar's staff were having luncheon in the garden at headquarters and
poring over problems of strategy as they ate, when suddenly a great stream of water
struck squarely in the middle of the table and then was plied about the heads
and shoulders of members of His Imperial Majesty’s high command. The young Czarevitch had found the garden hose and a faucet to which
to attach it, and was making havoc of the luncheon.
“The four daughters
of the Czar and Czarina were delightful girls, Olga. was a bit of a blue
stocking. Marie was a great German volkyrie. Tatania was a more quiet, domestic sort and Anastasia was
lovely, the very sweetest of them all. It seems a dreadful thing that such a
wholesome family of girls should have met so sad a fate. ”The Czar was far too
gentle to be a ruler, maintains Dr Wollison. Toward the last of the war Russia.
was so seeped in German influence that he could find
no support for his measures anywhere, and even when he did make suggestions or
issue commands they were rarely carried out.
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Herbert S. Wollison
Herbert S. Wollison,
a well known merchant and real estate owner of Pittsfield, was born of that
city, January 28, 1864, son of Rueben D. and the late Mary (Stevens) Wollison.
The father was born in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, January 10, 1824, Son of
George Wollison, a contractor, who resided in Valley Forge for many years and
passed his last days in Pittsfield. The maiden name of George Wollison's wife
was Maria Royer.
Reuben D. Wollison
learned the paperhanging trade in his native town, and coming to Pittsfield in
1848 (roughly the same time as my GGGrandfather
William Pierce) established himself in the painting and interior decorating business,
which for nearly 40 years he carried on with signal success. Much of his work
is still in existence to attest its thoroughness. Having accumulated a large
amount of property, he retired from active business pursuits in 1887. During
the previous year he had completed the Wollison Block, eighty-five feet front,
one hundred feet deep and four stories high, which is used for mercantile and office
purposes, and is one of the best business buildings in the city. Reuben D. Wollison married, on August 1, 1852,
Mary Stevens, a native of Pittsfield. Her birth took place on the corner of
South and West streets, where the new Wendell House now stands, May 6, 1827. Her father, Abner Stevens, kept a general
store, and also manufactured drums, which he sent to all parts of the world. He acquired a large estate in Pittsfield which
fell to his heirs. Mr. and Mrs. Reuben
D. Wollison reared three children, namely: Henry V., Herbert S., and Robert M.
Henry V. Wollison,
who is one of the most noted dentists of the world, left the United States
after completing his professional studies and went abroad, first locating in London
and then to Paris. He is now in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he has one of the
finest equipped offices and laboratories in the world, and holds the
appointment of honorary dentist to Their Imperial Majesties, the Czar and
Czarina of Russia.
Robert M. Wollison
won distinction in college previous to his majority by passing an unusually
high examination. He received his diploma at the age of twenty-one years, and
is now one of the most successful practitioners (dental) in New York City.
Herbert S. Wollison
entered the paperhanging business with his father when a youth, later spending some
two years with a large concern in New York city. While there he attended a
trade school and won the first prize.
Returning to Pittsfield he engaged in business for himself in 1889,
opening at first a sales room on the second floor. Business increased to such
an extent that better facilities as well as more space became necessary, and he
now occupies a store on the first floor, devoted to interior decorations,
shades, pictures, frames, and photographic supplies. During the busy season he gives employment to
about forty men; he has gained a reputation for completing his work in a
thoroughly artistic manner. He is also
interested in real estate and has charge of the Wollison block.
Mr. Wollison is a Freemason,
being a past master of the Mystic Lodge, and has occupied important chairs in
the Berkshire Chapter, Berkshire Commandery, No. 22,
Knights Templar, and Berkshire Council, Royal and Select Masters. He also belongs to the local council of the
Royal Arcanum. He attends St. Stevens
Episcopal Church, and has been a vestryman for several years.
Mr. Wollison married,
October 25, 1898, Miss Minnie Strait Beers, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts,
daughter of the late Elijah and Martha (Strait) Beers, of this city, formerly
of New Lebanon, New York.