Old Town Hall, Springfield Mass

Springfield’s old town hall building on State Street near Main Street, around 1892.  Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

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The scene in 2015:

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The building in the first photo once served as Springfield’s town hall before it was incorporated as a city.  It was built in 1828, and Springfield became a city in 1852, at which point a more substantial building was needed for the municipal government.  So, in 1855 Springfield City Hall opened across from Court Square, in approximately the same location as the present-day City Hall.  Meanwhile, this building on State Street continued to be used for a variety of purposes.  The first floor was home to several different businesses, including a meat market and wallpaper store, as seen in the first photo.  By the 1880s, the second floor was still owned by the city, and the third floor by the Masons.  It was demolished around 1937, and today the location where it once stood is now part of the MassMutual Center.

Market Street, Springfield Mass

Looking north on Market Street from East Court Street in Springfield, c.1892.  Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892)

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Market Street in 2015:

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Market Street once ran parallel to Main Street from State Street to Harrison Avenue, and these two photos show the northern section of the street toward Harrison Avenue.  This was never a major thoroughfare in the city – in fact, in the 1892 photo it looks more like an alley running behind the buildings on Main Street.  Today, the southern section of Market Street no longer exists at all; the section from State Street to East Court Street is now part of the MassMutual Center.  North of here, the street still exists, but it is a pedestrian-only walkway.

Most of the buildings from the first photo no longer exist.  On the right-hand side, F.B. Taylor once supplied builders with doors, windows, lumber, and paint; today this spot is occupied by the MassMutual Center.  In the distance is the steeple for Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, which once stood on Bridge Street.  Today, the congregation still exists at the large stone church on Sumner Avenue.  The only building in the first photo that survives today is the Springfield Five Cents Savings Bank building, seen on the far left.  The Main Street facade of this building has since been substantially altered, but from the rear it is still recognizable as being the same one.

Springfield Republican Building, Springfield Mass

The Springfield Republican Building at the corner of Main Street and Harrison Avenue in Springfield, around 1892. Image from Picturesque Hampden (1892)

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The scene in 2018:

The Republican in Springfield was established in 1824, and over the years it has been headquartered in a number of different buildings in downtown.  The building in the first photo was completed in 1888, and was located directly across Harrison Avenue from the Union Block, part of which had once been occupied by the newspaper’s offices.  At some point after the first photo was taken, the building was enlarged.  Two stories were added probably around the first decade of the 20th century, as seen in the historic photo in this post.  I don’t know how long the newspaper stayed here, but today both the building and the lot that it once occupied are gone.  The western end of Harrison Avenue was changed to cross Main Street at present-day Boland Way, so the street now passes diagonally through the lot of the old Republican building.

Saint John the Baptist Church, Ludlow Mass

Saint John the Baptist Church on Hubbard Street in Ludlow, c.1906-1913.  Image courtesy of the Hubbard Memorial Library.

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The church in 2015:

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This church, like Saint Paul’s Methodist Church just down the street, was built on land donated by the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates.  Because of its location along the Chicopee River, this part of Ludlow was developing into a mill town, and as a result many Catholic immigrants began moving into what had previously been a Protestant town.  Catholic mill workers had previously traveled across the river to Indian Orchard to worship, but in 1906 Saint John the Baptist Church opened as the first Catholic church in Ludlow.  To the left of the church is the rectory, which was completed in the same year as the church.  Today, it’s no longer the only Catholic church in town, but it remains an active congregation , and its appearance hasn’t changed much in the past century.  The angle of the present-day photo is a little off, though.  The spot that the original photo was taken is now a house, which was probably built for workers at Ludlow Manufacturing who attended the church across the street.

Saint Paul’s Methodist Church, Ludlow Mass

Saint Paul’s Methodist Church, at the corner of Hubbard and Sewall Streets in Ludlow, around 1905-1913. Image courtesy of the Hubbard Memorial Library.

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The church in 2015:

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Saint Paul’s Methodist Church was built here in 1905, and the first photo shows how it appeared not long after its construction.  It was built on land donated by the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates, whose factory was just a few blocks down Sewall Street.  In 1917, a parsonage was built to the right of the church, and can be seen in the 2015 view.  Despite nearly 110 years in between the two photographs, the church is still easily recognizable.  The exterior now has modern siding instead of shingles, so the building did lose some of its Victorian style, but otherwise the building is very well preserved today.

Morgan Hall, Amherst Mass

Morgan Hall at Amherst College in Amherst, around 1904. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

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Morgan Hall in 2015:

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Morgan Hall was built in 1853, and was the first library building at Amherst College.  Its Italianate architecture was popular in the United States in the mid 1800s, and it was constructed of gneiss that was quarried from nearby Pelham.  The building served as the library from its completion until 1917, when the college’s holdings outgrew both the original building and an 1880s addition that had expanded the capacity to over 30,000 books.  From 1874 to 1877, Melvil Dewey served as the Acting Librarian here, where he established the Dewey Decimal Classification.  This library became the first to use the classification system, which today is used in about 200,000 libraries around the world.  During its time as a library, this building would have also been used by future president Calvin Coolidge, who graduated from Amherst College in 1895.

Since the first photo was taken, the building has seen several renovations.  When the library moved in 1917, the building was converted into classroom and office space, and today the building houses several academic departments.  It is also home to the Bassett Planetarium, which was installed in the second floor in 1960.  Today, Amherst College’s main library is across the street and is named for Robert Frost, who taught English at the college from 1916-1920, 1923-1924, and 1927-1938.  Melvil Dewey would be disappointed to learn, however, that like most other academic libraries the Robert Frost Library now uses the Library of Congress Classification instead of the Dewey Decimal Classification that was pioneered here.