1900s

Trolley Barn, Springfield Mass

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The Springfield Street Railway trolley barn at the corner of Main and Carew Streets, around 1905. Photo from Springfield Present and Prospective (1905).

The building in 2023:

The late 19th century saw a dramatic growth in suburbs, and this was fueled in part by the development of inexpensive forms of mass transit such as street railways.  Although most commonly associated with electrified trolleys, these originally started as horse-drawn cars on rails.  This was the case in Springfield, where the Springfield Street Railway opened in 1870.  The original line was a single track that ran about 2.5 miles from Hooker Street in the North End, where the stables were located (not coincidentally, this is now the site of the PVTA headquarters), south along Main Street to State Street, and then along State Street to Oak Street, just past the Armory.  The line was served by four cars and 24 horses, and rides were eight cents each or 16 for a dollar.

It must have been popular, because within four years the network was expanded east on State Street to Winchester Square, and south on Main Street to the Mill River.  More lines were later opened, along Maple and Central Streets to the Watershops, and other lines to Indian Orchard, Brightwood, and along Worthington Street.  Meanwhile, fares continued to drop, first to six cents and then to five.  The biggest change, however, came in 1891, when all of the lines were electrified to run trolleys instead of horse-drawn cars.

By the end of the 19th century, the network was extended to Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, and Feeding Hills, and connections were made to street railway networks in Holyoke, Westfield, Northampton, Palmer, and Hartford.  As a result of the growth of the company, this building was built in 1897 as a new headquarters, at the corner of Main and Carew Streets in Springfield’s North End.  At the time that the first photo was taken, the company operated almost 94 miles of track, with 48 of those miles in Springfield, and operated 227 cars on the lines.

However, as was the case with trolley lines around the country, the Springfield Street Railway wouldn’t last.  Just as electrified trolleys replaced horse-drawn cars, automobiles and buses replaced the trolleys.  The trolley barn (the name itself is a holdover from when the horses were housed in literal barns) is still there, and still looks very much the same as it did over 100 years ago.

Hubbard Memorial Library, Ludlow Mass

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Hubbard Memorial Library in Ludlow, seen in 1903. Photo courtesy of the Hubbard Memorial Library.

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The library in 2015:

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Ludlow’s current public library building was built in 1889 as a gift to the town from the estate of the late industrialist Charles Townsend Hubbard, the founder of the Ludlow Manufacturing Company.  Hubbard may not have been as prolific a library builder as fellow 19th century industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (who funded 2,509 libraries to Hubbard’s 1), but he played a significant role in expanding the selection of books available to Ludlow’s citizens, many of whom worked in his factory.  The first public library in Ludlow opened in 1881 with around 400 books, but when the building opened in 1889 the town accepted a donation of 1,500 books from the Ludlow Manufacturing Company.  By 1912, the library’s holdings were around three to four thousand.

As time went on, the interior was altered to provide adequate room for the growing collections, although today the exterior looks essentially unchanged from the 1903 scene.  This is probably in part due to one of the stipulations in the original agreement to accept the building from the Hubbard estate, that “the building is to be forever maintained in proper repair at the expense of the town as a public library and reading room.”  I don’t know exactly how enforceable a “forever” clause is in this case, or what would happen if the town did decide to move the library, but stipulations aside, it is a historically and architecturally significant building that has become a Ludlow landmark, so I doubt it would be going anywhere anytime soon.

Old Post Office Block, Ludlow Mass

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The Old Post Office Block at the corner of East and Sewall Streets in Ludlow in 1903. Photo courtesy of the Hubbard Memorial Library.

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The building in 2015:

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These views were taken from about the same spot as the ones in this post, just turned a little further to the right.  The building here is the old Post Office Block, which was built in 1901, and not surprisingly housed the Ludlow Post Office for nearly 60 years.  Although Ludlow’s original town center is further away, this area along the Chicopee River grew in population in the late 1800s thanks to the factories that developed here in Ludlow and across the river in Indian Orchard.  Many of the postal customers of the early 1900s would have been workers across the street at the Ludlow Manufacturing Associates factory; some of the buildings from this facility still exist today, including the iconic clock tower directly behind where this photo was taken.

This building wasn’t just a post office though; it also had other commercial tenants, and it was one of the first large commercial buildings in the town.  The size of the building reflected the dramatic spike in population; between 1890 and 1900, Ludlow’s population nearly doubled, and would more than double again by 1920.  The post office hasn’t used the building in over 50 years, but it remains in a remarkable state of preservation 112 years later.

East Street, Ludlow Mass

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Looking west on East Street from the corner of State Street in Ludlow in 1904. Photo courtesy of the Hubbard Memorial Library.

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East Street in 2015:

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This part of East Street in Ludlow hasn’t changed much in the past 111 years, aside from the obvious changes in transportation.  The road has gone from a dirt road to a paved, four lane route through town, and a row of parallel-parked cars contrasts with the horse-drawn carriage that is hitched up along the curb in the 1904 view.  The old Post Office Block on the right is still there, as is Library Park beyond it.  However, just out of view, the left-hand side of the street has changed a lot.  The area between the road and the Chicopee River is now a modern commercial development, but in 1904 it was part of the massive Ludlow Manufacturing facility, some of which survives to this day, directly behind where these photos were taken.

Gebo’s Blacksmith Shop, Wilbraham Mass

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Blacksmith shop of Theodore Gebo on Main Street in Wilbraham, in 1905. Photo courtesy of the Wilbraham Public Library.

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The scene in 2015:

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The scene in the first photo recalls images of Joe Gargery in Great Expectations, but instead of Victorian England, it’s Main Street in Wilbraham, where Theodore Gebo (far right in the photo, wearing an apron) ran his blacksmith shop.  This shop was originally opened by Chauncey Peck in 1871.  Aside from being a blacksmith, Peck was also a Civil War veteran, a local historian, and the author of  The History of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, a book that I have used several photos from on this blog.  Peck sold the business to Gebo in the early 1900s; Gebo had been working out of a shop at the corner of Tinkham and Stony Hill Roads in Wilbraham, but Peck’s shop was closer to the center of town.

The sale was probably a good move for Peck, considering blacksmiths would soon become obsolete. However, as was the case with many other blacksmith shops, it became Gebo’s Garage, an auto repair shop.  By then, the original blacksmith shop was gone, but the property remains in commercial use, and as of 2015 was the home of FloDesign, an engineering firm.  A more detailed account of Theodore Gebo and his family can be found on the Wilbraham Public Library website.

Soldiers’ Monument, Wilbraham Mass

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The Soldiers’ Monument in Wilbraham, on Main Street opposite Springfield Street, in an undated photograph probably taken in the early 20th century.  Photo courtesy of the Wilbraham Public Library.

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The monument in 2015:

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As mentioned in this post, the Soldiers’ Monument in Wilbraham was dedicated in 1894, in honor of the 228 men from Wilbraham who served in the Civil War.  According to the inscription on the monument, it is dedicated “To the men of Wilbraham who served their country in the war which preserved the Union and destroyed slavery.  This monument is erected to perpetuate the memory of their patriotic service.”  According to the records in the town clerk’s office, 29 Wilbraham men died in the war.  However, of those 29, only six were killed on the battlefield, a statistic that is not at all unusual for the Civil War, given that around two thirds of all deaths were a result of disease rather than battle.  One particularly notable Wilbraham veteran was Watson W. Bridge, who was the captain of Company F in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, an African-American unit that was depicted in the 1989 film Glory.

The monument was built on the site of the birthplace of Lucinda Brewer, the wife of paper manufacturer Zenas Crane, founder of Crane & Co. in Dalton, Massachusetts.  Their grandson, Winthrop M. Crane, attended the dedication ceremony in 1894.  Several decades earlier, he had secured a contract to produce the paper for US currency, something that the company continues to do today.  He would later go on to serve as Governor from 1900 to 1903, and represented Massachusetts in the US Senate from 1904 to 1913.

In the years since the first photo was taken, the land behind the monument has been developed, as seen in the 2015 view.  To the left is the former Wilbraham Post Office building, and directly behind the monument is the Wilbraham Public Library.  To the right, just outside of the view of the photo, is a commercial development.