Derek Strahan

Aside from running the Lost New England blog, Derek Strahan is the author of two books: Lost Springfield, Massachusetts and New England Then and Now, along with being the host of the Western Mass History podcast. Derek is a graduate of Westfield State University, with degrees in English and Regional Planning, and he currently works as a land use and environment planner in Western Massachusetts. Derek also serves on the board of directors of the Springfield Preservation Trust, and he lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife Melissa and their two sons.

Howard Street School, Springfield Mass (2)

July 21, 2015March 29, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Howard Street School in Springfield, seen from Union Street around 1938-1939. Courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

Another view of the Howard Street School, seen from the Union Street side (see this post for a view from Howard Street). As mentioned in the other post, the school was built in 1905 and was severely damaged in the 2011 tornado. It is scheduled to be demolished by MGM Springfield as soon as the Massachusetts Historical Commission gives them the green light, and the MGM parking garage will be built on the site. It shouldn’t be too controversial, though; even if not for MGM, there would be no saving the building – the tornado left it damaged beyond repair, and it was never seen as a particularly historic structure to begin with. The second photo was taken on March 24, 2015, the day of the official groundbreaking ceremony that took place on the other side of the school.

Howard Street School, Springfield Mass (1)

February 9, 2018March 29, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Howard Street School, seen from Howard Street, around 1938-1939. Courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

The Howard Street School was built in 1905, and was one of many school buildings built in Springfield around the turn of the 20th century, which included Forest Park School, Classical High School, Chestnut Junior High School, and the Technical High School. This school was used for over 100 years, and was most recently known as the Zanetti School. The Zanetti School moved to a new location in 2009, and two years later the 2011 tornado caused substantial damage to the building. It has been vacant ever since, and it is now slated to be demolished to make way for a parking garage for the planned MGM Springfield casino. The 2015 photo was taken on March 24, the day of the ceremonial groundbreaking, and the old school building is to be the first building demolished, once the Massachusetts Historical Commission signs off on it.

Bliss Street Parking Garage, Springfield Mass

July 21, 2015March 29, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The garage at 16 Bliss Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The building in 2015:

Some then & now scenes are remarkable in how much they have changed, while others are remarkable in how little they’ve changed, like this scene on Bliss Street. The two photos were taken over 75 years apart, yet nothing seems to have changed except for the cars. Even the fence around the parking lot looks like it is the same one from the 1930s. The building in the foreground is a parking garage, which was built in 1928, presumably to accommodate workers for the State Building, which was built in 1929 and can be seen behind the parking garage on the left-hand side of the photo. The State Building at 95 State Street was built as the annex to 1200 Main Street, which at the time served as the main offices for MassMutual.

Although this particular scene has been virtually unchanged since before the Great Depression, it will be changing very dramatically this year. All of the properties are within the footprint of the planned MGM casino, and the parking garage is currently scheduled to be demolished in June. The State Building was originally slated to be demolished, but as of March 2015 it appears that it will be preserved as office space for MGM. If the casino is finished according to the current plans, the location where this photo was taken will be part of the main gaming floor of the casino.

Dwight House, Springfield Mass

July 22, 2023March 27, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Dwight House on Howard Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Photo courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

The scene in 2015:

The scene in 2023:

This scene is soon to change even more dramatically than it did between the first two photos – all of the buildings in the 2015 scene are within the footprint of the planned MGM casino. Most of the buildings will be demolished, except for the old MassMutual building in the background. Strangely enough, the building in the old photo will end up outliving almost all of the ones in the present-day photo; its former site is now a parking lot across Howard Street from Red Rose Pizzeria, but the building itself was dismantled and moved to Deerfield, where it sits on Old Main Street in Historic Deerfield.

The house in the first photo, the Dwight House, was built in 1754. It was originally owned by Colonel Josiah Dwight, and later by his son, Colonel Timothy Dwight. It was originally located on Main Street, but was moved to Howard Street around 1890, where it was photographed in the first view here. By the 1930s view, it was divided into a duplex and was used as a tenement, and at this point was probably the oldest building in the city. However, developers were eyeing the property, so in 1950 it was dismantled and moved to Deerfield, as seen in the photo on the Historic Deerfield website. This arrangement preserved the building, but it also creates the odd situation of a city’s oldest building being located over 30 miles from the city.

2023 update: The casino was built on this site soon after the second photo was taken, as shown in the third photo.

Brooklyn Bridge Construction

September 16, 2015March 27, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Brooklyn Bridge, before the construction of the walkway, probably taken around 1880. Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library.

The scene in 2013:

The Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, but before the roadway could be built, the towers were connected by a narrow walkway. Although intended for the workers, it was also open to the public, and was a popular destination, to the point where bridge management had to start issuing passes in order to cross. Of course, this was in the days before OSHA regulations and other safety measures, but it actually wasn’t as dangerous as it looks. Some publicity-seeking daredevils even jumped off of it and into the East River, with varying success rates. Upon completion of the bridge, the present-day walkway opened, which can be seen around the turn of the last century in this post. Thankfully, modern-day bridge pedestrians need not balance themselves on a narrow catwalk, nor ascend and descend the two 272-foot tall bridge towers in order to cross the river.

Hanging Around the Saloon, Chicopee Mass

August 23, 2017March 27, 2015 by Derek Strahan

A group of workers hanging around outside of the Cyran & Gierlasinski Cafe on Grove Street in Chicopee, on June 29, 1916. Photo courtesy of Library of Congress.

The scene in 2014:

Social reformer and photographer Lewis Wickes Hine visited Chicopee several times in the 1910s, documenting child labor conditions in some of the city’s factories. The first photo here shows a group of workers hanging around a saloon at the end of the workday. It’s probably safe to assume that the cafe was Polish; the names of Cyran & Gierlasinski leave little room for doubt. By the late 1800s, Chicopee had become an industrial center, and many of the workers were immigrants, either French-Canadian or Polish. To this day, many Chicopee residents are of French-Canadian and Polish ancestry, some of whom are probably the descendants of the men in the 1916 photo. Today, the Cyran & Gierlasinski Cafe might be gone, but the Polish influence is still present; the site is now the parking lot for the main offices of the Polish National Credit Union.