A commercial block on Boston Road in Springfield’s Pine Point neighborhood, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.
The building in 2015:
Springfield’s Pine Point neighborhood was developed in the early 1900s, and consisted primarily of middle class, single-family homes. This section of Boston Road was the commercial center of the neighborhood, and the first photo shows a variety of businesses here, including two grocery stores, a dry goods store, and a dry cleaners. Just out of view to the left was the first Friendly’s restaurant, which opened a few years before the photo was taken. These buildings were probably built around the 1920s or 1930s, and although the stores have changed, the buildings themselves are still standing.