WPA

85-87 Elliot Street, Springfield, Mass

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The building at 85-87 Elliot Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Photo courtesy of Springfield Preservation Trust.

Apartments

The building in 2014:

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This apartment building on Elliot Street, opposite Edwards Street, was built in 1907.  During this time, many of the single and two-family buildings that once lined many of the streets in the downtown area were being replaced by larger apartment buildings, as the downtown grew and demand for housing increased.  The building was built by Gagnier & Angers, two French Canadians who built many of the apartment buildings in this part of the city in the early 1900s.  Presumably, not much changed in the buildings exterior appearance between its construction and the first photo in the late 1930s, and not much changed in the ensuing 75 years.  All of the buildings from the 1930s photo are still there, including this apartment building, the wood duplex to the left, and the brick apartment building behind it.  Together, they make up part of the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District, part of the National Register of Historic Places.

Turnverein Block, Springfield, Mass

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The Springfield Co-Operative Bank building at 81 State Street, Springfield, Mass, around 1938-1939. Photo courtesy of Springfield Preservation Trust.

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The building in 2014:

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This building at 81 State Street was built in 1888 as the home of the Turnverein Society, a German-American social club.  In the 1920s, the façade was renovated in line with contemporary styles, although the rest of the building reveals the earlier architectural design.  By the time the first photo was taken, it was Springfield Co-Operative Bank, and the building continued to be used as a bank until at least the 1980s.  Today, the building is within the footprint of the planned MGM Springfield casino, and will be demolished, along with the tall annex to 1200 Main Street, which is seen directly behind the Turnverein Block.

Corner of Main & Bridge Streets, Springfield, Mass

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The northwest corner of Main and Bridge Streets in Springfield, sometime in the early 1880s. Photo courtesy of New York Public Library.

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Main and Bridge in 1938-1939.  Image courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

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The same location in 2017:

The building in the first photo was the home of W.D. Kinsman’s store, which was described in the 1884 King’s Handbook of Springfield as a “fancy dry-goods and novelties establishment.”  According to the book, Warren D. Kinsman opened the business in 1866 and moved to the location at the corner of Main and Bridge Streets in 1880.  However, the engraving in King’s Handbook shows a building that is five bays wide on the Main Street facade, as opposed to the three which are seen in this photo.  This would seem to suggest a date of around 1880 for the first photo; the building must have been expanded to the right sometime soon after.  The Kinsman building was demolished by the 1930s, and Kresge’s 5 and 10 cent store was built on the site, as seen in the second photo.  Today, Kresge’s is also gone; it was replaced by the former Federal Building, which was renovated in 2009 and is now an office building.

51-55 State Street, Springfield, Mass

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The building at 51-55 State Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Photo courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

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The scene in 2014:

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I don’t know much about the apartment building in the first photo, except that it was built sometime between 1882 and 1899, and was demolished by 1958, when the present 55 State Street building was built.  It is directly across State Street from the Hampden County Hall of Justice, and it reflects the hideous architectural styles of the mid-20th century.  Sadly, this building will not be among those demolished to make way for the casino, although the buildings in the distance to the left will be.

104-108 State Street, Springfield, Mass

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The buildings at 104-108 State Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Photo courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

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The scene in 2014:

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These photos were taken facing just to the right of the ones in this post, and the 1930s photo shows the building once occupied by The Hub Restaurant.  As mentioned in the other post, this building was probably taken down around the same time as the Court Square Theater to make room for the present-day parking lot, although the building to the right of it still survives; this is the Shean Block, which was built in 1927 at the corner of Main and State Streets.

Notice the “No Parking” sign in the foreground – I’m not quite sure why parking was restricted from 4:45 to 5:45; perhaps this was to accommodate rush hour traffic?  At the time, State Street was part of Route 20, so this section of road was probably pretty busy in the pre-interstate days.  There is also a clue as to the date of this photo – a sign in the second floor window reads “Springfield Free Press,” which was published starting in September 1939.  If the estimated date range of 1938-1939 is accurate, then the photo was most likely taken in the fall of 1939.

102 State Street, Springfield, Mass

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The building at 102 State Street in Springfield, around 1938-1939. Photo courtesy of the Springfield Preservation Trust.

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The scene in 2014:

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Both the Century Cafe and The Hub Restaurant are long gone, as are the buildings that they once occupied.  In the 1930s photo, these buildings fronted State Street, and behind them was the Court Square Theater, which was part of the Court Square Hotel.  The hotel part of the building is still there, to the left and in the background of the 2014 photo, but the theater itself was demolished in 1956 to make room for the parking lot.  It was probably around this time that the buildings on State Street were demolished.