I'm posting this photo in the hopes that someone can identify it. It is a school photo, probably from around 1900, most likely from Springfield. What is unusual about this photo is that most of the students are identified on the back -- so maybe you will find your ancestor' [...]
I picked up a neat glass negative of the Springfield City Library. This negative apparently belonged to a former photographer from the Springfield Union, it was taken in 1887, just a few years after the library was built (in 1871). Most other photos I have seen of the library have [...]
This church once stood at the corner of White and Orange Streets. I identified the photo in two ways; first, the sender of this postcard mentioned that she lived at 175 White St., and that the church was across the street. Second, she mentioned that Mr. Means was the preacher, [...]
A row of four duplexes -- houses that were a single building, but owned by two separate people -- once stood on Elliot Street. Today, only a single duplex of this era remains and its future is very much uncertain.
Here is a photo from the only wooden duplex of the [...]
I went to "Papermania" in Hartford this weekend, the biggest ephemera show in the Northeast. It is held every year in the beginning of January.
I picked up a stereoview that I can't identify. It is of a school, and the pencil writing on the back simply says "Springfield Mass School". [...]
Springfield's GIS system is available online; it is a great way to find out information about various buildings in the city. However, I have come to find that the dates in the system are not always accurate.
I purchased this picture on eBay a couple of months ago, the photographer [...]
I picked up a great book on eBay, called the "Homestead Album". It was published by the Springfield Homestead, a local weekly newspaper that existed in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Unlike the nationally-bent Springfield Republican, The Springfield Homestead focused mostly on local issues, and is a great [...]
In response to a question about bridges across the Connecticut River, I thought I'd post the answer as an article.
Memorial and Toll Bridges
The photo is from a postcard, and shows the brief period of time when both the Old Toll Bridge and the [...]
News has broken today that St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, situated on the corner of Howard and East Columbus Avenue, has been sold by the Springfield Diocese for $1.2 million to the Colvest Group of Windsor, CT.
Given Colvest's history of developing parcels into CVS [...]
I like to point out old and unusual buildings to my daughter Nora. Once, I pointed to a building and said "that looks like it used to be a factory. What kind of factory do you think it was". She blurted out with glee, "I think it was a chocolate [...]
When a building is moved today, it is a rare sight, so it is a pretty big event. But 100+ years ago, moving buildings was very common. After all, it took a lot of time to build a building, and New Englanders are known for their frugality, so why waste [...]
This is a Google Map with links to the location of each of Springfield's Schools in 1900. They are color-coded to show buildings that are still standing (green), buildings that have been demolished (red), and buildings that might have been significantly reconstructed into still-standing structures (purple).
Before the present-day White Street School was built in 1904 across from Stratford Street, there was another White Street School. It was an mixed grade school, and it served the rural population in that area of the city. It was described in the 1900 City Report as having just a [...]
Of all the houses that have disappeared from Springfield, I am strangely drawn to the Elizabethan style house that once stood at 120 Sumner Ave.
I have four separate turn-of-the-century images of this house, the most I have seen of a single residential property other than the Wesson mansion or the [...]
This blog has been a little quiet lately -- it actually takes more time than I expected to assemble a coherent article on Springfield's history. Plus, I'm a procrastinator.
I've recently been focusing on stereoviews, which were produced between 1850 and 1900, but were most popular in the 1870's. They are [...]
