{"nrhp_refnum":"02000904","name":"Our Mother of Sorrows Monastery and Retreat Center","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"110 Monastery Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Springfield","county":"Hampshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.118791339500035,"lon":-72.63211469462371,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-08-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Religion","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Passionist monastery and retreat house at 110 Monastery Avenue, West Springfield, Massachusetts, built in 1925 with a northern retreat house addition in 1955, set in landscaped grounds with devotional sculpture.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the complex as a work of the Pittsburgh firm Comes, Perry & McMullen in Spanish Colonial Revival style, with a 1955 addition by Brother Cajetan Baumann. It also documents the Passionist order's arrival in western Massachusetts and the growth of the Catholic retreat movement in the Diocese of Springfield.","narrative":"Our Mother of Sorrows Monastery and Retreat Center occupies a hilltop in West Springfield with a view east over the Connecticut River valley. The three-story, C-shaped building is faced in Quincy granite and brick and covered by a red tile hipped roof. Pittsburgh architects Comes, Perry & McMullen designed it in 1923, and the first three segments were built in 1925 in Spanish Colonial Revival style. Brother Cajetan Baumann added two northern segments in 1955, including a retreat house and chapel in more modern materials. The grounds hold Stations of the Cross, statues and a sunken garden. Inside, plain monks' rooms contrast with a two-story refectory and an ornately carved choir with a painted cedar ceiling. The monastery grew from a 1922 request by Bishop Thomas Mary O'Leary that the Passionists establish a house in western Massachusetts. It was built on the former Hyde family property known as Brush Hill Farm, and it served both the order and lay retreatants.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Comes, Perry & McMullen (1925 building); Brother Cajetan J.B. Baumann, O.F.M. (1955 retreat house addition); building contractors J. G. Roy & Sons","architectural_style":"Late 19th & 20th C. Revivals/Spanish Colonial Revival; Modern Movement/Modernistic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Current function is listed as domestic/multiple dwelling; the interior is described as largely unchanged since 1925.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:05.137225-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/7954/63795497/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/02000904.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000904/dbe0fe2a3f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000904/dbe0fe2a3f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WestSpringfieldMA_FormerMonastery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WestSpringfieldMA_FormerMonastery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795497","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Mother_of_Sorrows_Monastery_and_Retreat_Center_(West_Springfield,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715803"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampshire-county/our-mother-of-sorrows-monastery-and-retreat-center-02000904/"}