On a chill Spring morning in 1968, amid speeches and farewell addresses, the men and women of Springfield Armory bid each other goodbye as the 'Stars and Stripes' were lowered for the last time. After nearly two centuries of continuous production of rifles and muskets used by America's armed forces in every war in the nation's history, the armory closed its gates and fell silent. Begun as a major arsenal under the authority of General George Washington early in the Revolutionary War, the first national armory began manufacturing muskets in 1794. Within decades, Springfield Armory had perfected pioneering manufacturing methods that were critical to American industrialization. Reopened in 1978 as the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, the original 1840s arsenal houses the world's largest collection of historic American military firearms. Year-round public programs, exhibits, and special events are hosted on the grounds of the National Historic Landmark.

More Info

Until 1968 this site was a part of the nation's first armories and weapons production facilities. For nearly two centuries, the US Armed Forces and American industry looked to Springfield Armory for innovative engineering and superior firearms. Springfield Armory National Historic Site commemorates the critical role of the nation’s first armory by preserving and interpreting the world's largest historic US military small arms collection, along with historic archives, buildings, and landscapes.

Springfield Armory

This tour includes several museums, cultural sites like Symphony Hall, and historic buildings such as the Springfield Armory and Paramount Theatre. The tour begins at Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and includes the Springfield Museums complex. The tour concludes with the Indian Motorcycle Factory and Winchester Square Historic District. 
Be sure to also visit the childhood home of Dr. Seuss which is located just south of this tour and also included in Clio.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is named after the late Dr. James Naismith who is credited for inventing the game. Naismith was a physical education instructor and introduced this new game to his class of 18 young men in a quite unremarkable gymnasium at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, MA. The game was first played on December 21, 1891. The winning team in that first game only scored one basket.&nbsp;
 
The National Association of Basketball Coaches took up the cause to&nbsp;&nbsp;initiate&nbsp;a capital campaign to erect a memorial to late Dr. Naismith&nbsp;and the game he created. However, America's entry into World War II in 1941 postponed any thoughts of a Hall of Fame. In 1949, the NABC renewed its commitment to honor the game and its inventor. Ten years later, despite the lack of a physical structure to call home, the Basketball Hall of Fame was incorporated and announced its first inductees.&nbsp;
 
During a pivotal time for the sport, the original Basketball Hall of Fame opened on February 17, 1968. A month before its opening, on January 20, 1968, Elvin Hayes led the University of Houston to a close 71-69 victory over Lew Alcindor and the Bruins of UCLA in college basketball's version of the "Game of the Century." That night, more than 50,000 fans filled the Houston Astrodome and millions more watch from their homes as this thrilling battle was the first regular season game to be broadcast live on national television. To be nominated and potentially inducted&nbsp;into the Hall of Fame there are requirements for the&nbsp;people that made a impact on the sport. A player has to be retired from the game of basketball for 5 years and in their 6th year of retirement they are eligible for the Hall of Fame Notable players are Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Larry Bird. A coach has to be retired for 5 years or had to had been a full time coach on the high school, college or pro level for at least 25 years. Notable coaches are John Wooden, John Callipari, and Jim Calhoun.&nbsp;A referee has to be retired for 5 years or had to have been refereeing the game of basketball for 25 years. Notable referees are Hank Nichols and Dick Bavetta. <div> </div>

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has 361 inductees that were either players, coaches, refs, contributors, or teams. Also called Hoop Hall, The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has honored and celebrated basketball's most influential people that was involved with the sport since 1959. Interactive exhibits, skills challenges, live clinics, and shooting contests make this Hall of Fame more enjoyable than the average museum. This landmark structure is one of the world’s most distinctive monuments highlighting the Springfield skyline.

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Originally known as “The Municipal Auditorium,” the Symphony
Hall building was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century (between
the 1911 and 1913). The Auditorium was extensively refurbished and reopened in
1980 as Symphony Hall, and the interior of the building was renovated in 2004. &nbsp;&nbsp;The Springfield Symphony Hall is current home to the Springfield
Symphony Orchestra (SSO). They performed their first concert in the Hall in 1944.
They hold Education Connection Youth Concerts annually, with Maestro Rhodes
welcoming thousands of grade school children to Springfield Symphony Hall for
special symphonic performances.



The Hall is also home to Broadway-style theatre, with theatrical
performances including comedies, dramas and musicals, therefore internationally
recognized speakers, as well as numerous concerts and performances.&nbsp;

Located in the heart of the city, Symphony Hall and The CityStage, have joined forces to bring professional theatre to the Pioneer Valley. They are Springfield's professional, not-for-profit Theater Company, and the only destinations for live, professional theatre performances in Springfield, MA. The house of the Symphony Hall is well known for its excellent acoustics and its triumphant, Greek Revival architecture. 

Symphony Hall and The CityStage, Springfield, MA

The Paramount Theatre opened on September 29, 1929. The theatre—with 3,200
seats—took three years to build and was completed at a cost of just over $1
million. This was the era of “movie palaces” and the Paramount, with its ornate
detailing and architecture was one of the most opulent on the East Coast and
the finest in western Massachusetts. The theatre featured a Wurlitzer 3/11 Opus
2011, Style 230 theater organ.&nbsp;

In the theatre’s opening week, the New York Symphony Orchestra
performed. In the coming years, numerous entertainers would appear at the Paramount,
including Ethel Barrymore, Jack Benny, and Lillian Gish.&nbsp;

The Paramount continued to serve as a movie theater until 1966, when it
came to be used for live performances. It closed for a time in the late 1960s
and early 1970s before reopening as the Julia Sanderson Theater, a venue for
live performances. In 1979, the theatre was again reinvented as a revival movie
house under the name Paramount. It continued operating—often sporadically—through
the 1990s.&nbsp;

In 2000, the theatre reopened after a $1.3 million transformation.
Known as the Hippodrome Theatre, it was a lavish night club, and its
transformation meant that the seats on the main floor were removed. The Hippodrome
was a popular downtown entertainment spot for most of the early 2000s.&nbsp;

In 2011, the property (along with the adjacent Massasoit hotel building)
was purchased by developer Heriberto Flores, who is president of the New
England Farm Workers Council. As of this writing, the council is planning a
massive, $41 million redevelopment of the theatre as well as the Massasoit
building. Flores plans for the Paramount to be used as a performing arts
center.

Once one of the grandest movie theatres in the eastern United States, Springfield’s Paramount Theatre was built in 1929 at a cost of more than $1 million. It operated as a movie theatre until the 1960s, when it began to occasionally be used for live performances. Since that time, the theatre has changed hands and is currently—as of 2018—undergoing an extensive restoration. The theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Paramount Theatre

Springfield has given the world many "firsts" over the course of the city's history. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the city was an industrial center and a railroad hub. It was in Springfield that Charles Goodyear first patented vulcanized rubber and it was the birthplace of Smith &amp; Wesson revolvers. The company is still headquartered in Springfield. But of all the landmark developments to come from Springfield, perhaps none was as significant as the development of the first American gasoline-powered automobile.&nbsp; In 1893, when the idea of automobiles still seemed far-fetched to most people, Charles and Frank Duryea, brothers and Springfield natives, built and tested the first American-built gasoline-powered automobile. The brothers previously built bicycles but became interested in the new gasoline-powered engines. They built the automobile, which they called a Duryea Motor Wagon, in the Stacy Building on Taylor Street and tested on the streets of Springfield. The brothers built the earliest cars by hand. The brothers made history again when Charles Duryea won America's first-ever road race. He won the Chicago Times Herald race, driving at an average speed of 7.5 miles per hour. After winning the race and beating out competitors such as Daimler Benz, Duryea Motor Wagons surged in popularity. In 1896, Charles Duryea founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, the first American company to build and sell gasoline-powered automobiles to the public. For a time, the cars were highly sought after by the well-heeled of the late nineteenth century; buyers included George Vanderbilt. In 1896, a Duryea Motor Wagon was involved in another "first." A motorist in New York City hit a pedestrian, who suffered a broken leg. The incident is the nation's first recorded traffic accident. Financial disputes led the brothers to go their separate ways by the late 1800s, although Charles continued manufacturing the motor wagons until the 1910s.&nbsp; The Stacy Building, where the Duryea brothers perfected their motor wagons, was built in 1893 for Edwin S. Stacy, who supplied mills. His business occupied the first two floors and the top two were rented out. It was on the top floor of the building that the first Duryea automobile was designed and built. The building is well-preserved and now houses a dental practice. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Springfield was an industrial center. Much of its industry was based in munitions manufacturing, but by the early 1900s, the emerging automotive industry was also developing in Springfield. In 1893, the Duryea brothers built the first American-built, gasoline-powered car. The car was built by hand in the Stacy Building on Taylor Street, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Stacy Building 

The Springfield Museums' origin dates to 1857 when the City Library Association was formed. The first collections were located in a room in&nbsp;City Hall.&nbsp;

The Springfield Museums is one organization comprised of five museums that cover art, history, and science. The museums are: 

- the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, which was built in 1896 and features various artworks from around the world. These include Japanese lacquer items, arms and armor, Greek and Roman artifacts, American 19th century paintings and the largest collection of cloisonné outside of Asia.

- the Springfield Science Museum, which was founded in 1859 and moved into the current building in 1899. Its exhibits and collections cover natural history, anthropology and physical science; there is also a planetarium that contains one of the oldest star projectors in the world.

- the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, which was built in 1933 and houses American, Asian, European paintings, prints, drawings and other works of art. It also holds the largest collection of lithographs in the world.

- the Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, which opened in 2009 and serves as the repository for local history and research (this includes records of the Connecticut River Valley). It also houses the largest Indian motorcycle collection in the world and also the largest collection of Smith & Weston firearms in the world.

- and, The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, which opened in late 2016 and honors the legacy of Theodor Seuss Geisel. It features interactive exhibits and a recreation of his studio. Also on the museum grounds is the Dr. Suess National Memorial Sculpture Garden which was completed in 2002.

Springfield Museums

Born in 1904, Theodore Seuss Geisel would later be internationally known by his pen name, Dr. Seuss. His first children's book And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937), was inspired by a street in Springfield, Massachusetts. After his death in 1991, his wife Audrey greenlit the creation of The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield, MA. The memorial opened to the public in 2002, and The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museums opened nearby in 2017. Dr. Seuss is best known for his children's books such as The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.

The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden was officially opened in 2002. Sculptures include Horton the Elephant, Sam I Am, characters from The Cat in the Hat, The Grinch, Dr. Seuss, The Lorax, and Yertle the Turtle. Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss)'s stepdaughter,  Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, created over 30 statues for the memorial.

Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden

The Masons have a long history in Springfield, dating to 1817, when the first Masonic lodge was established in the city. From that point until the early 1920s, the Masons met in a number of locations throughout Springfield, including city hall. They built their first dedicated space in 1893, but the ground floor of the building also housed retail establishments.&nbsp; In the late 1800s, Springfield's Masons began planning to build a temple that would be dedicated entirely to the Masons. They began raising funds in the early 1920s and the architects Charles Craig and Edward McClintock, both of whom were Masons, were chosen to design the building. Construction began in 1923 and the building was dedicated in 1924. The four-story building was built from limestone and brick and totals 77,600 square feet. The temple was designed with an auditorium that seats 1,600, a pipe organ, a banquet hall, two chapels, and an art gallery. The building's entrance opened up into a two-story foyer with floors and a staircase of marble. By the late twentieth century, the Masons no longer used the grand building, and in 2007 it was acquired by the Archdiocese of New England of the International Communion of the Holy Christian Orthodox Church. During the time that the church owned the building, it made substantial renovations to the structure, but financial problems eventually led the church to sell the building at a foreclosure auction. In 2014, the building was purchased by Sage Engineering &amp; Contracting. At present, the&nbsp; firm plans to rehabilitate the building (which had been cited for code violations in recent years), which will then house the Springfield Conservatory of the Arts School.&nbsp;

Springfield's Masonic Temple is one of the most striking buildings in the downtown area. Built in 1923, the four-story building was completed for $1 million. Prior to its construction, Springfield's Masons used various locations for their meetings, and the current building was the first permanent structure in the city devoted solely to the Masons. The temple is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Masonic Temple (Springfield, Massachusetts)

The church now known as St. John's Congregational Church has occupied a central place in the history of Springfield and its African American community for generations.&nbsp; One of the oldest African American churches in New England, it was founded in 1844 as the Sanford Street Church. Within a few years, it was known as the Free Church, and many of its members were actively involved in the Underground Railroad and in the movement to abolish slavery.&nbsp; From its inception, the Free Church was associated with prominent figures, both local and national. One of the church's founders was a personal acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln. The church's first pastor, Rev. Leonard Collins, publicly debated famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass on the issue of whether African Americans should establish their own independent churches.&nbsp; Perhaps the most famous member of the Free Church was John Brown, who lived in Springfield from 1846 to 1849. Brown was already a committed abolitionist before moving to the city, which had a well-established reputation as a hotbed of anti-slavery activity. During his time in Springfield, Brown not only attended the Free Church, he was also closely associated with the African American community, becoming friends with Thomas Thomas and his family, and meeting Frederick Douglass when he visited Springfield. A rocking chair that Brown gave Thomas's mother is on display at the Wood Museum of Springfield History. The church proudly displays a Bible once owned by Brown. In 1892, the Sanford Street Church merged with the Quincy Street Mission to form St. John's Congregational Church, which was named in honor of John Brown. By the late 1890s, the church was nationally known for its neighborhood outreach programs. Among the programs run by St. John's were night classes for women who worked as domestics and Camp Atwater, the longest continually-run camp for African Americans in the United States.&nbsp; In the twentieth century, the church continued its long tradition of involvement in social justice causes by becoming involved in the civil rights movement in New England under the leadership of Rev. Charles E. Cobb. A well-educated man, Cobb led a campaign to force the Springfield School Board to end its discriminatory practice of not hiring qualified African American teachers. Cobb was also one of the first religious leaders to address "environmental racism," such as dumping toxic waste in communities where most residents were poor people of color.&nbsp; St. John's Congregational Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

The church now known as St. John's Congregational Church has a long and proud history in Springfield. The church is not only one of the oldest African American churches in New England, but was founded by abolitionists and was actively involved in assisting runaway slaves. For a time in the mid-1800s, the church was known as the Free Church and often hosted well-known abolitionists as speakers. John Brown attended the church during the three years that he lived in Springfield and a Bible donated to the church by Brown is on display. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

St. John's Congregational Church (Sanford Street Church, Free Church)

Industry developed early in Springfield, driven by the power harnessed from the Connecticut River. In the eighteenth century, numerous mills were established in the city, and the establishment in 1794 of a United States Armory in the city led to increased industrial development. Industry continued to flourish in the nineteenth century following the construction of the Springfield and New London Railroad in 1870, and the city gradually became a railroad center as well. In the late nineteenth century, a number of industrial buildings were constructed near the intersection of State Street and Wilbraham Road, which was near a stop on the newly constructed Springfield and New London Railroad. Because of the presence of the Armory in Springfield, munitions manufacturing had long been a major part of the city's economy, and the first building constructed on what would become Winchester Square was the Bullard Repeating Arms Company, which was built in 1883. The Bullard Repeating Arms Company didn't last for long, and eventually the building that housed the company was purchased by George Hendee, who moved his motorcycle company to the site. His company, originally known as Hendee Manufacturing Company, was later renamed the Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company (the "r" was originally left out of motorcycle). Hendee greatly enlarged the building's size, adding two stories to the original building and adding other structures as well. The company would eventually occupy a triangular parcel between State Street and Wilbraham Road, a far larger space than the original Bullard building. By 1914, Indian, known as the first American motorcycle, was world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles. Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company continued to operate out of the Springfield facility until 1953, when it closed. Since that time, the buildings have been used for numerous purposes and some have been demolished. The original building was preserved and after sitting vacant for a number of years, it was recently restored and converted into apartments. Winchester Square was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

For much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Springfield was known as "the city of firsts." Industry was an important part of the city's economy, and Springfield produced numerous "firsts"--the first gasoline-powered automobile and the first motorized fire engine, to name just two. It was also in Springfield that the Indian Motorcycle was created, its developers becoming the first successful motorcycle manufacturers in the United States. The massive Indian Motorcycle was located in what is now the Winchester Square Historic District, home to much of Springfield's industry. The district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 


Highlights of Springfield Massachusetts Tour

Springfield Armory

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Additional Information