John A. Denison

John Avery Denison (August 17, 1875 – March 7, 1948) was an American politician and judge. He was Mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts and a judicial appointee of Calvin Coolidge.

John Avery Denison was born on August 17, 1875 in Chicopee, Massachusetts (near Springfield, Massachusetts).

His father, George Denison, was the great-grandson of the founder of the Connecticut colony—Captain George Denison (b. Dec. 1620) of Mystic, Connecticut.

His mother, Elizabeth Chapin Denison, was the granddaughter of Samuel Chapin—a prominent early settler of Springfield, Massachusetts—whose statue stands in Springfield’s Merrick Park. Through his mother, Denison was a close relative of United States Presidents Grover Cleveland and William Howard Taft, abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe, financier J.P. Morgan, and poet and playwright T.S. Eliot.

The Denison family’s home (Pequotsepos Manor) was built in 1717 and has been continuously held by the same family since that date—one of the oldest homes to have been retained by the same family in the United States. Today, the Denison Homestead includes regional museum and the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center—a 300-acre wildlife sanctuary, natural history museum, and educational facility in Mystic, Connecticut.

Denison graduated with honors from Springfield High School and, like his father, attended Harvard University where he received his undergraduate degree in 1898 and his law degree in 1901. He was editor of the Harvard Crimson from 1896-1898.

Denison was elected Mayor in 1912 after serving as President of the City Council.

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