Main Street Springfield

Main Street Springfield (2)

by

Main Street in Springfield, looking south from the corner of Main and Worthington, in about 1908. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

025_1908c-2Bloc

The same view in 2017:

 

Much has changed about this scene in the ensuing 100+ years, but two prominent landmarks remain, the Fuller Block, sans roof ornaments, and the Hotel Worthy on the far left.  The building between the two, along with most of the other buildings on the left-hand side of Main Street, is gone, as are the trolleys that were once ubiquitous throughout downtown Springfield.

Main Street, Springfield

by

Main Street in Springfield, looking north between Harrison Avenue and Bridge Street, as it appeared around 1905. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

1900s

The same view in 2015:

024_2015

Not much is left from the 1905 view, but the building with the large onion-like decorations at the top is still there.  The roof ornaments are long gone, but the building itself, the 1887 Fuller Block, is the only easily recognizable structure from this scene that has survived.  The building on the far right of the 1905 photo is now the site of Center Square, and the left-hand side is now the parking garage for the Marriott.  Further down on the left, the nondescript former federal building replaced the building in the 1905 photo.

Court Square, Springfield (2)

by

Shown below is a 1909 photo of Court Square looking east, taken at the same time as the photo in my previous post. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Panoramic Photographs Collection.

006_1909-2Bloc

Fast-forwarding 103 years to 2012, the scene has changed dramatically.

006_2012

Unlike in the photo of the south and west ends of Court Square, these photos of the west (and a little bit of the north) sides of Court Square have almost nothing in common.  The old Chicopee Bank building, seen in the 2012 photo on the far right, is barely visible behind the tree on the right-hand side of the 1909 photo, and the Miles Morgan and Civil War monuments in Court Square are still there.  But other than that, everything else has changed, with the most notable difference being the MassMutual Center. Built in 1972 as the Civic Center, it replaced several city blocks, including the buildings in the center of the 1909 photo, although some of those were long gone before 1972.  Among the buildings seen in the 1909 view is the old Springfield Republican building, which is the tall building just to the left of center along Main Street.