Hancock Apartment Building

Hancock Apartment Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	116-118 Hancock, 130 Tyler Sts., Springfield, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°6′24″N72°34′7″W / 42.10667°N 72.56861°W / 42.10667; -72.56861
Area	less than one acre
Built	1912
Architect	Burton E. Geckler
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP reference No.	15000662 [1]
Added to NRHP	September 29, 2015

The Hancock Apartment Building. also known as the Schaffer Apartments, is a historic mixed-used retail and residential apartment building at 116-118 Hancock Street and 130 Tyler Street on the east side of Springfield, Massachusetts. Built in 1912, it is good local example of an early 20th-century Classical Revival apartment house, built as the city's outer neighborhoods grew as streetcar suburbs. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. ^[1]

Description and history

The Hancock Apartment Building is located in Springfield's Old Hill neighborhood, at the northwest corner of Tyler and Hancock Streets. It is a four-story brick structure, with an exterior of orange brick, a pressed metal cornice, and a flat roof. Decorative brick banding joins the tops of the windows, and runs just below the sills of the upper-level windows. Some of the upper-level windows are set in decorative metal panels in groups of three. The building underwent a certified historic rehabilitation in 2014, in which interior features such as trim and pressed metal ceilings were preserved. ^[2]

The building was constructed in 1911-12 to a design by Burton E. Geckler, a local architect whose works include apartment blocks like this, single-family residences, commercial buildings, and churches both in Springfield and nearby Longmeadow. It was built for Tessie Schaffer & Company, a consortium of eastern European Jewish immigrants. It originally housed a dry goods store in the corner retail space. Many of the early residents were either native-born Americans or French-Canadian immigrants. ^[2]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Springfield, Massachusetts
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Hampden County, Massachusetts

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. "NRHP nomination and MACRIS inventory record for Schaffer Apartments". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved October 12, 2015.