The City of Springfield, Massachusetts features 17 distinct neighborhoods, many of which feature subdivisions known by other names, (such as The X, Hungry Hill, and Mason Square.) Springfield's neighborhoods fan out north, south, and east, from its original, colonial settlement in what is now Metro Center.
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Initially and throughout colonial times, Springfield was oriented north-south along the Connecticut River, with Court Square at its center. Springfield's second neighborhood developed after George Washington and Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory on a bluff in 1777. A neighborhood filled-in around the Armory, composed of attractive mansions and handsome apartments blocks. Springfield's third neighborhood formed when the Springfield Armory expanded its production facilities to what is now known as Watershops Pond; the neighborhood around the Lower Watershops became known as Old Hill, while the neighborhood around the Upper Watershops became knowns as Upper Hill. With the arrival of the train in the 1830s, a fifth neighborhood took shape - although much of that neighborhood was destroyed to make Interstate 291, one would now know it as southern Liberty Heights. The miles between each of these neighborhoods gave rise to Springfield's first nickname, "The City of Magnificent Distances." However, as Springfield quickly became among the most wealthy cities in country, new neighborhoods filled-in the gaps between the old ones, (as in the case of the South End,) and other neighborhoods were created from elegant designs, such as the beautiful Victorian McKnight Historic District and the gorgeous Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Forest Park neighborhood.
Springfield's first "Gold Coast," the Lower Maple, Maple-Hill, and Ridgewood Historic Districts, include Mulberry Street, made famous by Dr. Seuss' first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. In 1881, Springfield's McKnight National Historic District became the United States' first planned residential neighborhood, (featuring over 900 Victorian "Painted Lady" houses, similar to those found in San Francisco.) [1]
Since 1636, Metro Center has been the cultural, civic, and business center of Springfield. It is relatively flat along the Connecticut Riverbank and for approximately 200 meters inland. Springfield's "downtown" is high walkable – even by urban, New England standards – and features Court Square, the Springfield Municipal Group, Western Massachusetts' central business district, the MassMutual Center, the Club Quarter, Union Station, and a growing residential district. It also features the poorly-placed Interstate 91 highway, which currently slices through Metro Center and two other Springfield neighborhoods, amputating the 17 neighborhoods from the Connecticut River, Springfield's greatest potential economic and recreational resource. In 2010, the Urban Land Institute suggested ways to reunite Springfield with the Connecticut River – and the riverfront Basketball Hall of Fame – however, as yet no action been taken.[2][3] Eastern Metro Center rises steeply along a prominent bluff. Atop this bluff sit the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District, The Kimball Towers, and The McIntosh – a residential district that is partly protected by the Apremont Triangle National Historic District – and further eastward, The Quadrangle cultural district, the Springfield City Library, and ultimately, the Springfield Armory National Park. In recent years, Metro Center has become an increasingly popular residential neighborhood for those who seek an urban lifestyle without high prices – among them, bohemians, artists, LGBT residents, and empty-nesters.[4][5] As demographics have changed in Metro Center, Springfield's crime ranking has dropped significantly – in 2010, Springfield ranked 51st in the United States' "City Crime Rankings," after ranking 18th in just 2003, with its overall crime rate having fallen by over 50%.[6]
Directly south of Metro Center, along Main Street, is Springfield's South End – the center of its Italian community. The South End features numerous Feast Day celebrations throughout the year, as well as dozens of Italian restaurants, pastry shops, and cultural landmarks. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is located on the riverfront in the South End; however, it is cut off from the neighborhood, Main Street, and Metro Center by Interstate 91. Just east of the South End, along one of the Connecticut River's most prominent bluffs, is Springfield's original "Gold Coast," the Lower Maple Historic District. Off of Maple Street, the Ridgewood Historic District includes mansions and condominiums along Ridgewood Terrace and Mulberry Street, the latter of Dr. Seuss fame.
South of Springfield's South End are its Victorian garden districts, Forest Park and Forest Park Heights. Both neighborhoods ring around Frederick Law Olmsted's 735 acres (2.97 km2) beauty, Forest Park. Cited by This Old House magazine in 2011 as having the best Victorian housing stock in the Northeast, many of Forest Park's 600 Victorian Painted Ladies have been recently renovated.[7] Olmsted's Forest Park features the Zoo at Forest Park – a small, well-kept zoo with an extensive, exotic collection – numerous playgrounds, 38 tennis courts, the 31-acre Porter Lake, which features paddle-boating and fishing, numerous sculptures, dozens of walking/hiking trails, Victorian promenades, basketball courts, baseball diamonds, tree groves, an aquatic park, bocce courts, lawn bowling, the United States' first, public swimming pool (1899,) and The Barney Mansion.[1]
To the east of Forest Park is the aptly named East Forest Park, an upper-middle class neighborhood that features well-maintained bungalows and Craftsman-style houses, centered around Lake Massasoit – Springfield's second largest body of water after the Connecticut River. To the east of East Forest Park is Sixteen Acres Springfield's largest and most recently developed neighborhood, which is upper-middle class and suburban in character. Sixteen Acres is a suburb within a city and home to Western New England University, the university's renowned law and pharmacy schools, Veteran's Memorial Golf Course, and the SABIS International School, which ranks among the Top 95% of high schools in America.
The geographic center of Springfield features four distinct neighborhoods, all of which feature Victorian architecture – The McKnight National Historic District, Old Hill, Upper Hill, and Bay. Historically, McKnight had been the center of Springfield's African American and Jamaican community; however, within the past 20 years, many LGBT residents have moved into the neighborhood, changing its demographics. Currently, Bay is Springfield's primarily African American and Jamaican neighborhood. The Old Hill neighborhood features a growing Latino population, and like Upper Hill, borders scenic Lake Massasoit. Upper Hill features Springfield College. Across the neighborhood, these four neighborhoods' main commercial district is called Mason Square. Mason Square is home to the aesthetically pleasing red-brick campus of American International College.
To the north of Metro Center are the three neighborhoods that constitute Springfield's "North End" – three largely Latino neighborhoods, (which were, several decades ago, predominantly Greek and Irish) - featuring Springfield's three nationally-ranked hospitals: Baystate Health, Mercy Hospital, and Shriner's Children's Hospital. Since the 1970s, Springfield's North End has been split in two by Interstate 91, which has caused unanticipated, social problems.[8] Springfield's Brightwood neighborhood – a formerly blighted neighborhood of old mill buildings, has been adaptively re-used as a state-of-the-art medical campus for Baystate Health. Memorial Square is the North End's commercial district. To the east of Memorial Square is Liberty Heights, which features Springfield's historically Irish neighborhood Hungry Hill, as well as the attractive, leafy residential district called Atwater Park. Liberty Heights features easy access to major travel routes and to Elms College, a Catholic university just across Springfield's border with Chicopee. To the east of Liberty Heights is East Springfield, a primarily blue-collar neighborhood bordering the City of Chicopee. Springfield's most northeasterly neighborhood is Indian Orchard, a former streetcar suburb that is currently known as an artist's haven. To the south of Indian Orchard is Pine Point, a quiet, middle-class neighborhood that home to the Fortune 100 MassMutual Company, and is the proposed site of a large, new park.[9]