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Date: 10/26/2022
WESTFIELD – The lecture series from the Westfield 350th Anniversary celebrations in 2019 is making a limited return next month as Bob Brown will repeat his talk on the Lost Homes of Westfield.
Brown’s presentation will take place Nov. 2 at the First Congregational Church. He will again take a look at different prominent houses in Westfield that no longer exist.
“The most spectacular one, the photo I start the presentation with, is a house that stood where the Burger King now sits on Main Street,” said Brown. “It was a magnificent three-story home with pillars on three sides. It was probably one of the biggest and fanciest homes in Westfield.”
Another house he will discuss is what Brown says may have been the largest home to have ever been built in Westfield. Where the Big Y and its parking lot currently sit on Broad Street, there once stood a mansion with somewhere between 27 and 30 rooms. The mansion came down in 1950, and now all that remains of the property is the fountain that stood in the front, which was discovered buried in the earth about eight years ago, Brown said.
A common theme throughout the presentation is what happened to these houses and what replaced them. For the most part, Brown said, they were replaced with parking lots or chain businesses.
Some older homes still exist in Westfield, but many are falling apart with age. Brown said he hopes to see a greater effort to preserve some of these homes, lest their original architecture be lost forever.
Historical Commission Chair Cindy Gaylord said her group hopes to put on three or four historical lectures in 2022 and 2023.