Downtown Springfield SPT Believes Historic Preservation Is an Important Part Springfield of Making Springfield a Great Place to Live, Work, and Visit
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Founded in 1972, the Springfield Preservation Trust is a volunteer, private nonprofit organization working to preserve Springfield’s built environment. Its mission is to preserve and protect properties which have Downtown architectural, historic, educational, or cultural significance. Downtown Springfield SPT believes historic preservation is an important part Springfield of making Springfield a great place to live, work, and visit. Historic Preservation is crucial to tourism and economic development and creating a unique sense of place. It’s a means of creating jobs, attracting investment, generating tax revenue, and supporting small business. For more than 45 years, SPT has been an independent voice supporting historic preservation. We have held Springfield was founded in 1636 by English countless events to showcase how our old buildings can Puritans from eastern Massachusetts. be part of our modern lives and show off the historic places that make Springfield unique. We’ve helped pass It remained a small community until the legislation on the state and local levels that averts the establishment of the Springfield Armory in needless loss of historic places. Our online resources 1794. Significant growth occurred between help homeowners with restoration and educate the public on the beauty, quality and value of older homes. the Civil War and World War I. This walking These activities have helped save and restore tour brochure will give you a sense of our Springfield’s threatened historic treasures so that they are here for future generations to enjoy. history and heritage. For information on events and membership, call 747-0656 or go to springfieldpreservation.org. Brochure designed by: Ed Pessolano SPRINGFIELD, MA Design & Advertising Associates, LLC [email protected] Founded in 1972, the Springfield Preservation Trust is a volunteer, private nonprofit organization working to preserve Springfield’s built environment. Its mission is to preserve and protect properties which have Downtown architectural, historic, educational, or cultural significance. Downtown Springfield SPT believes historic preservation is an important part Springfield of making Springfield a great place to live, work, and visit. Historic Preservation is crucial to tourism and economic development and creating a unique sense of place. It’s a means of creating jobs, attracting investment, generating tax revenue, and supporting small business. For more than 45 years, SPT has been an independent voice supporting historic preservation. We have held Springfield was founded in 1636 by English countless events to showcase how our old buildings can Puritans from eastern Massachusetts. be part of our modern lives and show off the historic places that make Springfield unique. We’ve helped pass It remained a small community until the legislation on the state and local levels that averts the establishment of the Springfield Armory in needless loss of historic places. Our online resources 1794. Significant growth occurred between help homeowners with restoration and educate the public on the beauty, quality and value of older homes. the Civil War and World War I. This walking These activities have helped save and restore tour brochure will give you a sense of our Springfield’s threatened historic treasures so that they are here for future generations to enjoy. history and heritage. For information on events and membership, call 747-0656 or go to springfieldpreservation.org. Brochure designed by: Ed Pessolano SPRINGFIELD, MA Design & Advertising Associates, LLC [email protected] Founded in 1972, the Springfield Preservation Trust is a volunteer, private nonprofit organization working to preserve Springfield’s built environment. Its mission is to preserve and protect properties which have Downtown architectural, historic, educational, or cultural significance. Downtown Springfield SPT believes historic preservation is an important part Springfield of making Springfield a great place to live, work, and visit. Historic Preservation is crucial to tourism and economic development and creating a unique sense of place. It’s a means of creating jobs, attracting investment, generating tax revenue, and supporting small business. For more than 45 years, SPT has been an independent voice supporting historic preservation. We have held Springfield was founded in 1636 by English countless events to showcase how our old buildings can Puritans from eastern Massachusetts. be part of our modern lives and show off the historic places that make Springfield unique. We’ve helped pass It remained a small community until the legislation on the state and local levels that averts the establishment of the Springfield Armory in needless loss of historic places. Our online resources 1794. Significant growth occurred between help homeowners with restoration and educate the public on the beauty, quality and value of older homes. the Civil War and World War I. This walking These activities have helped save and restore tour brochure will give you a sense of our Springfield’s threatened historic treasures so that they are here for future generations to enjoy. history and heritage. For information on events and membership, call 747-0656 or go to springfieldpreservation.org. Brochure designed by: Ed Pessolano SPRINGFIELD, MA Design & Advertising Associates, LLC [email protected] Downtown Springfield TOUR 1 Smith Carriage Company District (c1890, 1916, 1923) 13 Byers Block (1835) Heritage23 Worthy Hotel (1894) 12 & 11-31 Park Street 3-7 Elm Street 1571 Main Street 12 Park Street was constructed to accommodate the expanding The Byers Block is one of Springfield’s oldest commercial buildings A turn-of-the-century landmark, this building was the first in carriage business of David Smith. It was a refurbished Smith and has served as the offices for many notable people: George Springfield with steel framing. Designed by Gardner, Pyne Carriage that the Duryea brothers used for their first automobile Ashmun, three-term Congressman and president of the 1860 and Gardner in the Renaissance Revival style, the elevations body. Smith Carriage successfully transitioned to making Republican Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln; George are rich with terra cotta ornamentation. automobile bodies and built two large industrial structures. Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy when the Naval Academy was founded and minister to Prussia and Great Britain; Massachusetts 24 Massasoit Building (1857, 1912, 1926) 2 Milton Bradley Factory (1867-1912) Supreme Court Justice Reuben Chapman; as well as seven of 1708 Main Street 45 Willow Street Springfield’s mayors. The Massasoit House Hotel served generations of travelers. For more than 80 years, this large brick complex housed the An 1857 section exists behind a 1912 Classical Revival facade. manufacturing facilities of the Milton Bradley Company, game 14 Court Square Building (1892) The Paramount Theatre was added behind the building in and puzzle maker. Mr. Bradley formed his company in 1860 and 13-31 Elm Street 1926. The theatre hosted major motion pictures, vaudeville had his first big success producing “The Checkered Game of Life.” The Court Square Building has played an important role in shows, big band concerts, and talents such as Jack Benny The factory has been converted to apartments. Springfield’s business life. Designed by local architect Frederick and Ethel Barrymore. Newman, it originally consisted of a five-story office block facing 3 State Armory (1895) Elm Street with the Court Square Theater in the rear. In 1900, 25 Railroad Arch (1889) 29 Howard Street a sixth floor was added to the office block and the six-story Court Main Street Designed by Robert Wait and Amos Cutting, this castle-like Square Hotel was built towards State Street. The railroad reached Springfield in 1839, and the tracks structure was built as the State Armory. The northeast tower crossed Main Street at grade level. When it was decided to features the Massachusetts coat of arms. The drill shed was 15 Court Square raise the tracks, the famed American architect destroyed by the 2011 tornado. Main Street & Court Street H.H. Richardson received the commission but died soon Long the religious and governmental center of Springfield, Court afterwards. His successor firm of Shepley, Rutan and 4 French Congregational Church (1887) Square was created in 1812 by citizens hoping to attract the newly Coolidge completed the granite arch. 94 Union Street formed Hampden County government. The President McKinley This Victorian Gothic style church was built to serve the small Memorial, sculpted by Philip Martiny, a student of Augustus 26 Worthington & but significant number of French Protestants. It was moved to Saint-Gaudens, is located behind Old First Church. Wilkinson-Wight Buildings (1873) this location from Bliss Street, two blocks away. 1585-1685 Main Street 16 Hampden County Courthouse (1874) 5 Union House (1846) Emerson Wight, a four-term mayor of Springfield and Elm Street president of the Morgan Envelope Company, owned the 1132-1142 Main Street This granite building is one of two surviving Springfield Worthington Building, whose classical façade was added Regional architect Henry Sykes designed this hotel in the buildings designed by the great American architect Henry Hobson in 1914. W.H. Wilkinson manufactured harnesses and Italianate style. It was such a posh establishment that President Richardson. Capturing both Italian and Romanesque forms, the saddles at the building on the corner of