Maple-Union Corners

Maple-Union Corners is a one-acre cluster of brick buildings where Maple and Union Streets meet, along the first river terrace east of central Springfield. On the east side are two detached houses: 77 Maple Street, built in 1832 as the Female Seminary by Simon Sanborn and later converted to a residence, and 83 Maple Street, a Greek Revival house of 1841 built for Solymon Merrick, inventor of the monkey wrench. On the west side stand three townhouses built by Abel Howe in 1870 and a double townhouse of 1879 with a corner tower and mansard roof. Residents included bankers, woolen manufacturers, a railroad treasurer and a city mayor. The change from large detached houses to townhouses reflects rising land values on Maple Street in the late nineteenth century. Some buildings have been altered, including the removal of a mansard story and a new facade on two townhouses in the 1940s, but the group still shows the area's development.