Asa Squires Building

16 North Maple Street, Florence, MA

Built c. 1870 as a commercial building, this structure was one of six wood-framed buildings owned by Asa Squires on North Maple Street between Main Street and the railroad tracks. Squires was a carpenter and may have built them all. Like the hardware store at 12 North Maple Street and George Maine’s house at 9 North Main, this building has a high foundation, which allowed for more natural light to enter the basement and made it a usable work and storage space.

The Asa Squires building has been home to several businesses and residences over the last two centuries. In 1878, Robert H. Pease ran a grain store (a business he had purchased the year earlier from L. B. Moore) here. He built his own building across the street in 1881.

The butchers George and Julius Maine operated their meat market from this building. George’s meat market was originally located on Meadow Street (listed here in the 1875 directory), then moved to 9 North Main in the early 1880s, when that structure was built as his residence and butcher’s shop. George died in 1889 and is buried in Park Street Cemetery. (See the Maine Block for more information about George.)

Photograph of the Maine gravestone with a small American flag stuck into the ground next to it, it reads: "GEORGE W. MAINE / MEM CO. I. 16 - CONN. INE. / BORN DEC 3, 1839 / DIED FROM DISEASE CONTRACTED / WHILE A PRISONER OF WAR... [Rest not intelligible]." — George Maine Gravestone.

Julius Maine was known for his philanthropy. Each spring since the death of his wife Aurelia and daughter Florence in 1910, he organized the Marble and Penny Scramble in the center of Florence, the date of which was a secret until the last minute. He would throw handfuls of marbles and pennies at the post office corner for the children to pick up. This popular event drew up to 3,000 people. One July 4, he bought out the entire supply of sporting goods from Bird’s Store to hand out as prizes at the field day events. In memory of his brother George, he donated the lamp and water fountain for horses and dogs in the middle of Florence. He also funded a solarium for the Cooley Dickinson Hospital, donated to a Northampton home for aged women, and established a $2,000 endowment for Florence’s annual Memorial Day Parade. (First held in 1868, it is possibly the oldest continuously running Memorial Day parade in the country.) Julius donated most of the funding for a sidewalk, fountain, and landscaping at Spring Grove Cemetery and, before he died in 1922, he gave the land for what is Maine’s Field to the City of Northampton for use as playing fields.

Colortone postcard, upper left reads "Maine Memorial Fountain and Park, Florence, Mass." Lower left emblem reads "Photo by W.E. Corbin, Florence, Mass." The image shows a water fountain surrounded by trees, with a white sign behind it. — Postcard of Maine Memorial Fountain. Photograph by Walter Everett Corbin. Published by J. W. Bird of Florence. Historic Northampton (ID no. 2003.8.11).

From 1918 until his death in 1960, photographer, genealogist, and amateur local historian Walter Everett Corbin lived at this address. Corbin spent his lifetime engaged in his passion of photographing western Massachusetts, covering diverse subjects including architecture, geology, natural history, factories, and gravestones. His wife, Lottie Adelaid Squier Corbin, continued living in the house after his death. Forbes Library in Northampton maintains the extensive Walter Corbin Collection of his photographs.

Valley Community Development currently operates 11-room single room occupancy units with one shared kitchen and four shared bathrooms here. The units are reserved for individuals who have experienced homelessness. The building also houses the office of Go West SROs.