Rare, Historic Treasure Hits Springfield Housing Market

It's been called the Loomis House and the Wesson House.

Now 220 Maple St. in Springfield could become your house. The nearly 150-year-old home has had more restorations than renovations and is a historic home owner's dream come true.

This surviving home from 1874 is part of the Ames/Crescent Hill Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, an area that was devastated by the Greater Springfield tornado of 2011.

Luckily this home survived, though it did need some serious exterior/interior work after the storm. All the work done, however, kept the house looking Gilded Age-ready and just adds to the house's amazing history.

This architectural wonder was constructed in the late 19th century and was designed by the Boston firm of Ware & Van Brunt. That pair is best known for their design of Harvard’s Memorial Hall and they were highly sought-after High Victorian Gothic architects.

It was Francis Loomis who hired the firm. She was the widow of cigar manufacturer Calvin Loomis, who died in 1866. Shortly after his passing, she started work on the Loomis house and in 1874 it was complete. Sadly she passed just three years after moving in and the home was sold to Frank L. Wesson, the son of Smith & Wesson co-founder Daniel B. Wesson.

Wesson moved in with his family but only lived here about a decade before he was tragically killed in a train accident in Vermont. For years after Frank's death the house remained empty, but by 1920 his oldest son Harold had moved into the estate.

It remained the Wesson house until the 1940s when the family sold the property and the home began to change hands multiple times.

Lucky for any history buff interested in this house, most owners never made any major changes to the estate. Though restorations were made and modern technology put in, not too many major overhauls were done to the home's interior or exterior.

The striking center staircase is still intact, there are stained glass windows in several rooms and the hand-carved fireplaces all remain and work. You do get a modern kitchen, the addition of an inground pool, and of course, all the modern heating and plumbing 1874 never offered.

What remains is a beautiful period piece building that those who enjoy hand craftsmanship and history would love to call home. See for yourself in the gallery below.