State Street Springfield

Art Museum, Springfield, Mass

by

The Art Museum in Springfield, around 1912-1920. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

379_1910-1920-2Bloc

The museum in 2014:

379_2015

Known today as the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, it was established in 1896 and is the oldest of the museum buildings in The Quadrangle, which consists of two art museums, a science museum, and a Springfield history museum.  The building is named after its benefactor, a New York City carriage maker who left the business when he was 35 to collect art. Today, the building is still there and it still houses his collection, although at some point it was expanded to the left, making this facade more or less symmetrical.  In the foreground is the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, which celebrates the work of the Springfield native who was attending high school across the street from here around the time that the first photo was taken.  On the far right of both photos is the back of the Central Library building, which opened in 1912.

Church of the Unity, Springfield Mass

by

The Church of the Unity, photographed in 1959. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey collection.

216_1959-loc

The same view in 2014:

216_2014

The Church of the Unity is also featured in this post, although the photo in that one is close to 100 years older than this “before” one is.  As mentioned there, this church was significant as the first commission of architect Henry Hobson Richardson, and was built between 1866 and 1869.  However, it was demolished only two years after this photo was taken, and was replaced with a parking lot for the Springfield Public Library.

State Street from the Armory, Springfield, Mass

by

The view looking east on State Street from the sidewalk along the Armory grounds, sometime in the late 1800s. Photo from Springfield: Present and Prospective (1905).

The scene in 2019:

The buildings in these photos are the same as the ones in the previous post; the only difference is that they are seen from the opposite direction.  Although these two photos were taken well over 100 years apart, many of the buildings are still there, including the Gunn Block and the two adjacent buildings in the background, which date to the 1830s, and the three buildings in the center of the photo, which likely date to around the time of the Civil War.  Even one of the businesses from the first photo almost made it to the present-day; the sign for William Kavanagh is barely visible on the sign above the awning on the building to the far right.  Today, the building is gone, having long-since been replaced by a newer Kavanagh building, with a newer sign.  However, Kavanagh Furniture closed in 2008, although it was probably the longest-lasting of all of the businesses from the first photo.

 

 

State Street from Walnut Street, Springfield, Mass

by

State Street looking west from Walnut Street, around 1895. Photo courtesy of James Ward Birchall Collection.

212_1895-smugmug

The view in 2019:

As with the photos in this post, the historic Gunn Block (far left) is visible, along with the other two adjacent buildings, which also date back to the 1830s, making them among the oldest commercial buildings in Springfield; only Byers Block at Court Square and the Guenther & Handel’s Block on Stockbridge Street are of similar ages.  Further down State Street is another historic block of buildings; I couldn’t find specifics on these buildings, but based on the architecture they likely date to around the 1860s.

Corner of State and Walnut Streets, Springfield, Mass

by

The corner of State Street and Walnut Street, looking east, sometime around 1892. Photo from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

The scene in 2019:

The building on the left in the first photo is the Rockingham House, which is discussed in this post. To the right is the Gunn Block, which was built in 1836 and has served a variety of purposes over the years, originally as a store selling “West Indies Goods” but later as a meeting place, offices, a bar, and apartments. The building is now vacant, but it is owned by the organization Develop Springfield, and will hopefully be restored in the near future.

 

Rockingham House, Springfield, Mass

by

The Rockingham House, on the southeast corner of State Street and Walnut Street, sometime around 1892. Photo from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

The scene in 2019:

Built in 1796 diagonally across from the Armory, the Rockingham House was originally called the Armory House, for obvious reasons.  Along with being used as a lodging place for people associated with the Armory, it was primarily used by teamsters in the early part of the 19th century.  Long before railroads and Jimmy Hoffa, teamsters were the primary means of overland transportation from Springfield to Boston.  It was common for them to bring loads from riverboats up the hill.  The inn was conveniently located right at the top of the hill, so they would often stay overnight there before heading out the next morning.

Once the railroads linked Springfield to Boston in 1839, this part of the inn’s business declined, and it began to be used instead as a boarding house.  As mentioned in the 1884 King’s Handbook of Springfield, “It ceased to be a stopping-place for transient guests some time ago, but is still a pleasant home for some residents who do not care to keep house.”

Obviously, the Rockingham House no longer exists, although it wasn’t demolished to build a Burger King.  Rather, it was replaced by a gas station – a 1974 article from the Springfield Republican indicates that it was demolished “several years ago.”