Springfield-History.com

I have a lot of postcards in my collection that are probably from Springfield, but remain unidentified. From time to time I stumble across a house by complete luck, but for the most part that is difficult because it is limited to areas I frequently travel.

Springfield's GIS system is available online; it is a great way to find out information about various buildings in the city. However, I have come to find that the dates in the system are not always accurate.

I purchased this picture on eBay a couple of months ago, the photographer is listed as W.O. Greene, Springfield Mass.:

348 Hancock St.

I was scouring old maps today for a Baptist church that might have been on Central Street, and came across this little section of Central:

When most people turn on the faucet, they give little thought to where the water comes from. But Springfield has one of the best water systems in New England, water that has been ranked nationally, all due to the foresight the city had over 100 years ago.

I picked up a new source of photos of Springfield this past weekend, entitled "Architectural Sketches and Designs", by F.S. Newman. Unfortunately, it was not a complete copy of the publication, I only got about 15 pages from it, but what I got was pretty neat.

I picked up a great book on eBay, called the "Homestead Album". It was published by the Springfield Homestead, a local weekly newspaper that existed in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Unlike the nationally-bent Springfield Republican, The Springfield Homestead focused mostly on local issues, and is a great resource for local research.

In response to a question about bridges across the Connecticut River, I thought I'd post the answer as an article.

Memorial and Toll Bridges

The photo is from a postcard, and shows the brief period of time when both the Old Toll Bridge and the Hampden County Memorial Bridge were standing. In a display of Yankee frugality, the Toll Bridge is being dismantled board by board.

News has broken today that St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, situated on the corner of Howard and East Columbus Avenue, has been sold by the Springfield Diocese for $1.2 million to the Colvest Group of Windsor, CT.

Given Colvest's history of developing parcels into CVS and Starbucks, I'm not very optimistic that their plan includes renovating and preserving this church. Odds are that it will be demolished, yet another church steeple gone from the downtown horizon.

I like to point out old and unusual buildings to my daughter Nora. Once, I pointed to a building and said "that looks like it used to be a factory. What kind of factory do you think it was". She blurted out with glee, "I think it was a chocolate factory!" Oh, to be four years old again.

It turns out that there once was a chocolate factory in Springfield. The building is still standing, and I bet many of you have driven by it without even knowing what it once was.

When a building is moved today, it is a rare sight, so it is a pretty big event. But 100+ years ago, moving buildings was very common. After all, it took a lot of time to build a building, and New Englanders are known for their frugality, so why waste a perfectly good structure?

I think it might surprise people to hear that one large, significant building, no longer standing, was moved in Springfield in 1911: the old city library.