From Dave Brigham:
A child of the Great Depression, my dad moved around a bit in his early childhood, due to the fact that his father had lost his business. Eventually, the family settled in Springfield, Mass., where my dad spent his formative years. He went to his hometown school, Springfield College, and talked about the city on occasion when I was growing up, mentioning Indian motorcycles, which used to be manufactured there, and the invention of the game of basketball on his school's campus.
I visited the original Basketball Hall of Fame, which was on the college campus, when I was a kid. I also went to a cemetery in the city when my grandmother died in 1989. But other than that, I hadn't spent time there until the spring of 2014 (see April 14, 2014, "Coincidence?"). I finished that post with these words: "I hope to get back to Springfield in the near future to explore more cool buildings, and to learn a bit more about the city that helped shape the great man who was my father. Rest in peace, dad."
I made my initial visit to Hoop City just two weeks before my father passed away. I finally returned 11 years later, less than a week after my mother passed away. Springfield has taken some economic blows over the decades, but I found plenty of signs of life, as well as great old buildings, restaurants, bars, signs and more in the Metro Center area that I explored.
Located in the northwest quadrant of the city, near I-91 and the Connecticut River, Metro Center is the beating heart of Springfield, "with more than 60 clubs, restaurants, and bars — numerous festivals, cultural institutions, educational institutions, and significant historic sites," per Wikipedia.
As I often do, I researched online ahead of time to find a good starting point. The old Paramount Theater on Main Street fit the bill (but it is the final site in this post). Around the corner, on Lyman Street, hard by the railroad tracks serving Springfield Union Station, I happened upon what for me is a rare find: a lovely bit of novelty architecture.
A.W. Gifford, Inc., a full-service locksmith, has been in business since 1866. This building rose in 1950, but I haven't been able to find out anything about the architect. I wish more buildings had designs connected to their use.
A short distance away, heading northeast, is the Powers Block, which dates to 1873 and was built for the Powers Paper Company.
In more recent years, this complex was home to W.F. Young, which was founded in 1892 as a manufacturer of horse liniment. In the photo below, you can see the "W" of the company's name in the lower right corner.
W.F. Young is now located in neighboring East Longmeadow. The company's products include ones that provide wound care and joint support for horses, as well as snacks for cats and dogs.
I crossed Chestnut Street to get a shot of the very cool work of art someone created using elements of a ghost building.
These phantasms are working hard, lugging things up and down the stairs, imagining a time when the Collins Block was a busy warehouse of cotton waste for the E.F. Collins Company. The building dates to 1910, and is currently quite derelict. I haven't found out who painted this.
I made my way to Taylor Street, which parallels Lyman Street to the southeast. I shot the rear of the Baystate Corset Block, which was a mish-mash of paint colors and add-ons and industrial and restaurant space.
"This large block was built in 1874 to house two woodworking concerns," according to MACRIS. "P.P. Kellogg, who had bought the building five years earlier for his paper products business, built an addition along Taylor Street. Ten years later, Bay State Corset began manufacturing their 'women's and children's waists.' They remain located here through 1920.
"During its peak years, Bay State Corset Company produced 5,000 corsets daily," MACRIS continues. "The top floor was devoted to cutting rooms, the middle two floors to over 400 sewing machines run by young women workers. In all, 75 to 80 different styles of corset were produced. The firm was one of the largest makers of corsets on the continent and sold its goods to wholesalers and retailers nationwide."
I shot an old corset manufacturing building in Worcester back in late 2023, one of dozens that used to operate in that city (see February 3, 2024, "The Shire of Worcester, Part the Second").
The old Baystate Corset Block is occupied in part by Smokey Joe's Cigar Lounge and CreepSheek Studio, which strives "to bring eclectic, whimsical, unapologetically acceptable out of the box beauty to Springfield."
As for the restaurant facade along Taylor Street, below, I guessed it was an Italian eatery.
I assumed it was closed, but the Internet tells me that 350 Grill Steakhouse is alive and well (unlike its main course - bada bing!). While there is Italian food on the menu, I wouldn't call it an Italian eatery.
Continuing southwest on Taylor Street, I came to the Stacy Building, which was built in 1893 for a company that manufactured and dealt in machinery and mill supplies, according to MACRIS. But there's more!
The Stacy Supply Co. leased out the upper two floors in the early days. According to MACRIS, one of the tenants was J. Frank Duryea, who, along with his brother, invented the first gasoline-powered automobile in the United States - right in this building!
After some initial work and testing, "Duryea decided to build a car 'with the Machinery (sic) well concealed in the body....Built with a 2 cylinder, 2 cycle motor, my (??) gear and clutch transmission giving 3 speeds and reverse, this vehicle had its first test on the top floor of the E.S. Stacy building late in 1894,'" according to MACRIS. "Tests were promising and after the engine was converted to four cycles, this was the car that J. Frank Duryea drove to win the Times-Herald race on Thanksgiving Day 1895 in Chicago. This was the first automobile race in America, and the Duryea entry was the only 'American made gasoline car to start.'"
Near Taylor Street's intersection with Main Street is a complex of old mill buildings that have been converted to the Silverbrick Lofts.
These buildings are part of the Powers Block complex mentioned above.
Across Main Street, at the corner of Worthington Street, is the Bowles Building, which houses a Springfield institution that I'll get to in a minute. Hold your horses!
This place dates to 1858 and has been "altered beyond recognition" and is known historically as the Fort Block, per MACRIS. The name comes from the site's history as the location of a fort built by John Pynchon in 1660 to protect townspeople during King Philip's War. The block was erected by Springfield's first insurance company, Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Co. Over the years, banks, newspapers and business schools occupied the space.
The upper floors have been vacant since 1997, and there is a redevelopment plan in the works (I think) for the 66,000-square-foot building, according to this Rebuild Springfield document. The plan is for the ground-floor retail to remain, and for the upper floors to be converted to office or residential use.
OK, let's get to that ground-floor retail/restaurant space, located on Fort Street.
Finally we arrive at a place where I know my dad spent time: Student Prince and the Fort.
Established in 1935, the Student Prince was originally smaller, with just a bar and space for booths, and a small collection of beer steins. In 1946, according to the eatery's web site, ownership added the dining room. Over the ensuing decades, the place grew into a local landmark and the stein collection grew to be one of the largest in the United States. Go to the Gallery page on the restaurant's web site to see the inside of this place, including some steins.
I don't recall my dad mentioning this place, but one of my cousins said she's sure that her dad and mine had been to the Student Prince over the years. It seems like an obvious Springfield College hangout.
I've been there twice. The first time was in 2010, the morning after seeing my favorite band, the Flaming Lips, at Mountain Park in nearby Holyoke. The second time was during the aforementioned trip to Springfield a few weeks before my dad passed by. I recall eating too many sausages and being completely floored by the stein collection.
At the end of Worthington Street, where it meets East Columbus Avenue, is a fantastic old building.
Known as the Homestead Building or the Phelps Publishing Company Building, this Romanesque Revival beauty dates to 1903. "The Homestead Building served as the general offices for the Phelps Publishing Company," according to MACRIS. "The company published a local weekly, the 'Springfield Homestead' and three other weeklies including the 'American Agriculturist of New York which enjoyed a wide rural circulation. In 1932 this building was taken over by the Blue Line Transportation Company and it was at this time the first floor facade was altered and an entrance was placed in the corner at the base of the tower."
Take note of the town crier blowing a bugle above the entrance to Noir, a nightclub that may no longer be in business.
At this point, I doubled back to Main Street, where I made some photos of the old Worthy Hotel, which I featured in my Springfield post from 2014.
This is a gorgeous building. I'd like to think my father went to an event of some sort here in his younger days, perhaps escorting a young woman from his high school or college. Built in 1895 as a six-story building, the hotel was raised by two stories in 1905, and then expanded into a neighboring office building four years later.
Now an apartment building, the Worthy has two ground-floor retail spaces. City Jake's Cafe has been in business for more than 30 years; Kim & Lee is a jewelry store that sells, among other things, gold teeth name plates.
Across a small plaza is the Fuller Block, a splendid Romanesque Revival building that dates to 1887, and which I didn't get the best photo of.
From MACRIS: "It was reported at the time of construction that the Fuller Block was the 'first to include every metropolitan convenience, passenger elevators, steam heat, a mail chute, running water in each suite of rooms.' It was also reported the first to have Georgian marble floors and wainscoting and a marble staircase. The building attracted a high class of tenants with two or three first quality clothiers on the first floors and several physicians on the upper floors."
All mod cons, as the Jam would say. Today's tenants include architecture and design firm Dennis Group.
I doubled back to Worthington Street, this time heading northeast. I was happy to see signs for Theodore's (Blues, Booze & BBQ) and Smith's Billiards. I'm guessing these businesses are related.
Theodore's has been in business for more than 30 years. Smith's traces its history back to 1902 as a billiard academy. They are located in Smith's Building, which was built in 1897 and was constructed in the Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne's styles, per MACRIS. From its first days until 1913, this block was occupied by McIntosh Shoe Company, which was "not only the oldest but the largest inland boot and shoe jobbing house in the New England States," per MACRIS.
In 1914, "Fred Smith moved his billiard parlor and bowling alleys to this block," MACRIS continues. "He had begun business in 1903 in the block next east of this one, and had acquired a number of pool and billiard tables from the 1905 St. Louis Exposition. In the new setting the second floor was utilized as a billiard parlor, and the upper floors for the bowling alley. Before World War II 'the center of candlepin bowling in Western Mass. was located in downtown Springfield in the upper three floors of the Smith Building.'"
Across Worthington Street is the King Block (on left).
Home to Offsite 2twenty2, this little building has a big history. Originally a five-story addition to the building just to its west, it was used by a wholesale and retail paper dealer when it was built in 1892, according to MACRIS. In 1900, George Hendee, a "national bicycling champion from 1882 until 1887," moved his bicycle manufacturing business to the fifth floor of the King Block.
"At this time Hendee was developing an interest in motorized bicycles. After meeting Oscar Hedstrom, an engine designer from Brooklyn, he decided to develop a motorcycle for general use. Within a year the first machine was completed and named the 'Indian Motocycle.' The year 1902 was the first quantity production year with 142 being produced."
Eventually, Hendee moved one block west, and then, as sales increased, took the company to Winchester Square, which is now known as Mason Square. I'm pretty sure that my dad grew up close to Mason Square, which is probably why he talked quite a bit about Indian Motorcycles when I was a kid.
Meanwhile, back at the King Block: it eventually became home to the John Boyle O'Reilly Club, "probably the largest and longest lasting Irish American social club in Springfield," according to MACRIS. The club was formally incorporated in 1933, and was located here until the late 1940s.
Next door is the Royce Block, which was most recently home to Dewey's Jazz Lounge. The venue closed in April.
This Italianate building rose in 1887 for Charles Royce's laundry business. The company moved to larger quarters by 1915, and this building was used as a hotel and boarding house for many years afterward.
This area of Metro Center is a prime destination for eating and entertainment, as you may have guessed. These places are equidistant from scores of vacant lots that were once factories of various sorts, and the MGM Springfield, a casino complex that opened in 2018. I will feature a few shots of the casino in a future post.
There are two cool murals along Worthington Street that really liven up the street.
This "Wizard of Oz" artwork made me chuckle. My dad, you see, acted in community theater for most of his life, and over the years he took on several roles in this play, from the Tin Man to the Wizard to an apple tree.
I believe this mural was painted as part of Springfield's City Mosaic initiative, which over the past two decades has completed multiple projects across the city.
Perhaps the most ambitious project is the recreation of a wall mural on the side of the Driscoll Building for the defunct Bloom's Photo Supply.
"Several years ago, [artist] John [Simpson] and I were approached by State Representative Sean Curran who thought it would be a great idea to paint a mural and restoration on a building on Worthington Street, whose wall faces the neighborhood which was once a thriving entertainment district," Evan Plotkin, a local businessman and board member of City Mosaic, says on the group's web page about this project.
Initially, the team rejected the idea of restoring the mural, which had faded quite a bit over the prior six decades. "After several meetings and listening to members of the Historical Commission, who spoke to us repeatedly and passionately about the intrinsic value of the old advertisements and the historic value they represented, we changed our minds," Plotkin said.
The restoration, unveiled in August 2022, is remarkable. It is vivid and bold and detailed and pays homage to many sectors of Springfield's past and present. "The wall is no longer a wall," Plotkin says. "It is a piece of art, and it is more than just art. It is a window to the past, a vibrant, colorful part of the present, and a bridge to the future."
Well said, and well done.
Simpson worked with at least two other artists, who are featured in a photo on the City Mosaid web site, but not named.
Below is a video of Plotkin, Simpson and others discussing the spark for the City Mosaic project.
We move from that big, beautiful mural to a smaller, but no less important one, painted on a shuttered watering hole tucked into an old train bridge that crosses Main Street near Union Station.
The Stone Wall Tavern opened in the 1940s, I believe, and closed for good several years ago. The building was originally a food shack for train workers according to the video below.
The tavern's name echoes with the name of the famous New York City gay bar that was the scene of a 1969 police raid in which bar patrons fought back, a watershed moment in the LGBTQ community (read all about it here). I mentioned the riot, and one of the prime instigators, in a well-after-the-fact post in February 2022 about a visit to NYC (see February 5, 2022, "New York Flashback: Views While Strolling and Shopping").
The Springfield tavern is so named because it is literally made of stone, and the back wall of the place is part of the stone bridge over Main Street. Still, it makes for a great symbiosis between the well-known historical event and a local group working to support LGBTQ youth. If I'd known the significance of the mural, I would've made better images of it. The work was painted as part of the Common Wealth Murals initiative, which "collaborates with communities to create powerful public art that honors histories, celebrates local heroes, and inspires bold visions of the future," according to the group's web site. Common Wealth partnered with Out Now, which calls itself "[t]he only queer youth organization in Springfield."
"The story of this mural, it's a comparison between the experience that queer youth have in school now, and then a radical reimagining of what school would look like if it was conducted in a way that was really supportive of queer youth," according to Britt Ruhe, director of Common Wealth Murals, in the video below.
The mural project was led by Mimi Ditkoff, working with members of Out Now. I will feature another of her murals in the next Springfield post.
Last, but not least, is the old theater I mentioned at the top of this post.
Located on the opposite corner of Main Street from the Stone Wall and known most recently as the Hippodrome, the theater opened as the Paramount in 1929, inside the former Massasoit Hotel. The hotel closed three years prior, and the space was converted to offices, according to this After the Final Curtain blog post.
The hotel opened in 1843 in a separate building on this location, I believe. The current building dates to 1857; it was substantially rebuilt in 1912, according to MACRIS. The hotel served as a stop on the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War, according to this article from the Springfield Museums.
The Paramount was a 3,200-seat theater offering movies, vaudeville acts and concerts, among other entertainment. By the mid-1960s, live concerts had become more popular for the theater. "In 1969, the Paramount closed for the first time," according to After the Final Curtain. "It reopened In 1975 and was renamed the Julia Sanderson Theater, after a Broadway actress from Springfield. Live shows continued at the theater until 1979, when it became a revival movie house, and its name was changed back to the Paramount. A new screen, and a speaker system taken from the recently closed Victory Theatre, were installed. It closed for a second time in 1986, but was used occasionally until 1999."
In December 2000, after spending $1.3 million to upgrade the facility, Paramount Realty Investment/Creative Theater Concepts reopened the space as the Hippodrome, a live entertainment and nightclub space, according to After the Final Curtain. "The Hippodrome was a popular nighttime downtown destination for most of the 2000s," After the Final Curtain indicates. "In 2011, it was purchased by the New England Farm Workers Council (NEFWC) for $1.7 million. They operated the theater sporadically until closing for good after a shooting in April 2015."
The NEFWC sold the theater for $750,000 to Sachdev Real Estate Development Inc., a Connecticut corporation based in Suffield, last September. I'm not sure whether a redevelopment plan has been unveiled. Let's hope for something great at this place that, let's face it, my dad probably visited at least once during his time living in Springfield.
(Entrance to the Massasoit Building. The plaque on the right indicates it was built in 1843, and restored in 1986.)
Make sure to check back for the second part of my Springfield expedition.
No comments:
Post a Comment