Springfield-History.com

This is a Google Map with links to the location of each of Springfield's Schools in 1900. They are color-coded to show buildings that are still standing (green), buildings that have been demolished (red), and buildings that might have been significantly reconstructed into still-standing structures (purple).

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Before the present-day White Street School was built in 1904 across from Stratford Street, there was another White Street School. It was an mixed grade school, and it served the rural population in that area of the city. It was described in the 1900 City Report as having just a single school room -- in other words, it was a little old brick schoolhouse. It had 40 students and was heated only by a wood stove. The first teacher was Carol A. Moseley, in 1872, and in 1875 its teacher was Georgie A. Thayer.

The school operated on White Street, just before its intersection with Sumner Avenue, and served as a school until at least 1900. The building still exists today as the oldest schoolhouse in Springfield -- but for how much longer?

Of all the houses that have disappeared from Springfield, I am strangely drawn to the Elizabethan style house that once stood at 120 Sumner Ave.

I have four separate turn-of-the-century images of this house, the most I have seen of a single residential property other than the Wesson mansion or the Barney House. (And to think, I can't find a single early photo of my own house!)

This drawing is from American Architect and Building News, March 20, 1897:

When I saw this unique stereoview for sale, I just had to buy it. It depicts the downtown Springfield block that used to house the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. It isn't your typical stereoview because it shows this block right after it suffered a devastating fire.

What happened to the Magnolia Terrace lions?

I have come across many different photographs and drawings of two bronze lions that once graced the pedestals in front of Magnolia Terrace in the Forest Park Heights historic district.

Magnolia Lion

This blog has been a little quiet lately -- it actually takes more time than I expected to assemble a coherent article on Springfield's history. Plus, I'm a procrastinator.

I've recently been focusing on stereoviews, which were produced between 1850 and 1900, but were most popular in the 1870's. They are among the earliest photographic records of Springfield.

This was an exciting time in the city's history. Springfield nearly doubled in population from 1860 (11,766) to 1870 (26,703). Change was rapid - and it's always more fun to be expanding than contracting or stagnating.

A while back I picked up a couple of photos of Forest Park. They were fairly nondescript - one was a picture of a couple of swans in a pond. But then I looked a little more closely, and was pleasantly surprised.

If you collect real-photo postcards of Springfield, the line "Griswold & Steele, 37 John St., Springfield, Mass." should be very familiar to you. Of the dozens of photo postcards I've seen of our city, over 75% were produced by this company. I have over 65 different cards of theirs, and I know of at least that many more in the hands of other collectors.

But just who were Griswold & Steele? It's hard to know for sure, but I dug up some basic information on this prodigious duo.

In order to get my daughter interested in history I try to make the past mysterious and exciting for her. One of my favorite teasers is about the "Lost Fountain of Forest Park".

The fountain still exists, although it's deteriorated and overgrown with brush. It's formally known as the Bowles Fountain. Beyond that, I don't know much else about it. Here's a picture of it from a publication called "Picturesque Springfield, Mass.", published in 1895:

More below the break.