Churches

State & Myrtle Streets, Springfield, Mass

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The State Street Methodist Episcopal Church at the corner of State and Myrtle Streets, around 1873-1885. Image courtesy of the New York Public Library.

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The same location, around 1905. Photo from Springfield Present and Prospective (1905).

The scene in 2019:

The first photo shows the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, which was situated opposite the main entrance to the Armory, and likely served many of the workers there.  The church wasn’t here for too long, however, because in 1899 they merged with another congregation, and this property was sold.  The apartment building seen in the last two photos, identified in Springfield Present and Prospective as the Oxford Apartment House, was built on the site and was completed in 1901.  Given its location, it was probably home to many Armory workers, and today the exterior hasn’t really changed at all.  The only major difference between the last two photos is the massive Masonic Temple, which was built in 1923 and can be seen behind the apartment building.

 

 

South Church, Springfield Mass

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The old South Church building on Bliss Street in Springfield, probably around 1865-1875. Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library.

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The location in 2015:

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For many years, the First Church in Springfield was the only church in town; it wasn’t until the first half of the 19th century that other churches started to form.  Many of these were offshoots from the first church, some of whom left because of doctrinal differences, such as the Unitarian Church.  However, others left the church on better terms, in order to form new congregations to meet the needs of the growing town (and soon to be city).  The South Church was one of these.  They were formed in 1842, and originally met in the parish house of the First Church before building their own church a few blocks away on Bliss Street.

The first pastor was Noah Porter, who served from 1843 to 1846, when he accepted a position as a professor at his alma mater, Yale College.  He later went on to serve as president of Yale from 1871 to 1886.  Following Porter’s departure, Dr. Samuel G. Buckingham became the pastor, and served for 40 years.  Buckingham was also an author, and he wrote a biography of his brother William Alfred Buckingham, who was Governor of Connecticut from 1858 to 1866 and a US Senator from 1869 to 1875.

During Buckingham’s tenure as pastor, the church outgrew the building on Bliss Street, and in 1875 they moved to a new location on Maple Street.  South Congregational Church is still there, and still meets in the 1875 building.  Meanwhile, on Bliss Street, the old church was demolished by 1884, which was the year that the Women’s Christian Association built a boarding house on the site.  That building is still there as of 2015, serving as the home of the Springfield Rescue Mission, although it is scheduled to be demolished later in the year to make way for the MGM Springfield casino.

Glendale Road, Wilbraham Mass

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Looking north on Glendale Road in Wilbraham, toward the intersection of Monson Road, around 1914. Photo courtesy of the Wilbraham Public Library.

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Glendale Road in 2015:

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Topographically speaking, the town of Wilbraham is divided into two major sections: the western half of the town is part of the Connecticut River valley, and is mostly flat.  This was the area that was first settled in Wilbraham, as it provided decent farmland and a close proximity to Springfield.  However, the eastern part of the town is very different.  Just east of Main Street, the terrain abruptly rises, with a ridgeline over 500 feet above the center of town.  The land on the other side of this ridge is very different; it tends to be steeper, more rocky, and less arable than the valley, so this area was slow to develop.

It is this eastern section of town that is seen in these two views, an area known as Glendale.  When the 1914 photo was taken, it had a church, a cemetery, a school (out of view beyond the church), and a few farmhouses.  It was never really a village, just a crossroads.  The first photo was taken at a time when automobiles were beginning to become more common, but it’s unlikely that too many would’ve ventured out into this area, given the condition of the roads.  The ruts in the foreground indicate that the road probably got fairly muddy, and based on looking at the slope, it appears that this section of road would probably get washed out fairly easily in a rainstorm.

The only building in this scene is the Glendale Methodist Church, which was built in 1868 to serve the farmers in the eastern part of town, who would’ve otherwise had to venture up and down steep grades to reach the Methodist church in the town center.  Across Glendale Road from the church, on the left-hand side of the photo, is Glendale Cemetery, which is actually substantially older than the church itself; the earliest gravestone dates to 1787.  Today, the church building is still there, barely visible beyond the trees, but the congregation itself disbanded in 2006, and the building has been vacant ever since.  Glendale and Monson Roads are still there, although the grade of the intersection has been raised substantially by filling in some of the swampy area along the stream that passes under the roads.

Old Methodist Meeting House, Wilbraham Mass

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The Old Methodist Meeting House at the corner of Main Street and Mountain Road in Wilbraham, probably around 1913. Photo from The History of Wilbraham, Massachusetts (1913).

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The building in 2015:

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The old Methodist meeting house in Wilbraham hasn’t been used as a church for over 180 years, but some of its defining architectural features are still visible, including the long windows on the Main Street side of first floor.  It was built in 1793, as the first home of Wilbraham’s Methodist congregation.  It was used for 40 years, before being sold and renovated into a house.  As built, the church only had one floor, with windows that extended all the way up the side of the building.  When it was converted to a house, the second floor was added, and the windows were split, although the pattern is still noticeable here.

At the time that the church was built, Methodism was still in its infancy in New England.  Several important figures in Methodist history visited this church in the late 1700s and early 1800s, including Francis Asbury, who was one of the first bishops appointed by founder John Wesley, and Jesse Lee, who later became Chaplain of the US House of Representatives from 1809 to 1814, and Chaplain of the US Senate from 1814-1815.  During the first years of this church, the interior was rather spartan; the pews were just wooden benches, and a stove was not installed until 1815, after some 22 cold New England winters without any heat.  Something as novel as an organ would take even longer; the congregation didn’t purchase one until 1850, long after they had moved to a newer church building.

The Methodists built a new church across Mountain Road in 1833, and this was in turn replaced in 1870 by the stone church visible behind and to the left of the church in this photo.  Today, the building is one of the oldest existing church buildings in Western Massachusetts, and according to the 1963 History of Wilbraham book, it is the oldest existing Methodist church in New England.  Today, it is maintained as a museum by the Wilbraham Atheneum Society.

French Protestant Church, Springfield Mass

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The former French Protestant Church on Bliss Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

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The church in 2015:

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This church on Bliss Street was built in 1887 as the French Protestant Church, thanks in part to the efforts of Daniel B. Wesson, whose Smith & Wesson factory was just on the other side of Main Street from here.  Many of his workers were French-Canadian Protestants, and he wanted them to have a French alternative to the Roman Catholic church.  However, the congregation disbanded in 1909, and several other churches used the building until 1919, when it was purchased by the First Spiritualist Society, who remained at the Bliss Street location until 2013.  The property was purchased by MGM Springfield, and while several historic buildings will be demolished to build the casino, the church will be moved to a new location on the MGM property and renovated as a restaurant.

Memorial Chapel, Wilbraham Mass

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The Methodist Church in Wilbraham, around 1903. Photo courtesy of the Wilbraham Public Library.

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The building in 2015:

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The Memorial Chapel at the corner of Main Street and Mountain Road in Wilbraham is right next to the Wilbraham & Monson Academy campus, but it wasn’t always a part of the school.  It was completed in 1870, and was the third meeting house for Wilbraham’s Methodist Society.  The society was established in 1793, and their first meeting house was used until 1835, when it was converted into a private home.  It is still standing, directly across Mountain Road; I took this photo from right in front of it.  The church in this photo was used by the Methodists from 1870 until the 1920s, when they merged with the Congregational Church to form the Wilbraham United Church.  The Academy acquired the church in the 1930s, and now uses it as a library and as a venue for concerts and all-school gatherings.