Second Saturday walking tours fall on the second Saturday of each month from April to October. These walking tours serve as educational tool, so the public may view Springfield's historic buildings. Tours are a successful advocacy tool, SPT tours are one of the most visible events of the SPT year. The SPT Second Saturday Walking Tours for the 2023 season are sponsored by the Springfield Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council. If you want to learn more about the Second Saturday walking tours please email info@springfieldpreservation.org.
PRESENT TOURS
Join us, April 8 for the “Great Houses of the McKnight Historic District” walking tour, part of our Second Saturday Walking Tour series.
The McKnight Neighborhood contains 800 homes and was developed from 1870-1900 by the McKnight Brothers. The city’s first Street Car suburb, it is still the largest intact wood frame Victorian neighborhood in New England.
Participants will learn about the history and architecture of the McKnight neighborhood and see some of the great houses that led to Springfield being called “The City Of Homes.” We will wander down Dartmouth Terrace, Worthington Street, Ingersoll Grove, and parts of Florida and Bowdoin Streets. These areas developed in the 1880s feature some of the biggest, most grand houses built in the neighborhood.
The tour will be conducted by Jim Boone, who is a long-time Springfield Preservation Trust Board Member and boasts 47 years of residency in the McKnight neighborhood. The tour begins at Thompson Triangle, the intersection of Worthington St and Saint James Ave.
The Second Saturday Walking Tour series is co-presented by the Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums, and is sponsored by a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council and the Mass Cultural Council.
The May 13th walking tour will be presented by John Bilodeau who will give a tour of the Carriage House at the Barney Estate. The Second Saturday walking tour will be at the Carriage House at the Barney Estate in celebration of the 140th Anniversary of the Springfield Park Department, join us for the Second Saturday Walking Tour of The Carriage House at the Barney Estate in Forest Park. Please enter through the Route 5 entrance, say you are there for the Carriage House and they should give you a ticket. Then proceed to the parking area and once you park the car please meet the guide at white tent. Parking is free for attendees of the tour.
Guests will learn the fascinating history behind the carriage house, built during the Victorian era. Once an integral part of the vast estate of inventor and philanthropist Everett Hosmer Barney, the carriage house is one of the only original structures still standing on the grounds. The Carriage House was built in 1890 and has been lovingly restored and reinvented. Its timeless charm and beauty is something to behold. The Second Saturday Walking Tours season is sponsored by Mass Cultural Council, Springfield Cultural Council, and the Springfield Museums.
This tour will be free. The tour group will start at the Carriage House at the Barney Estate at 10:30 AM on May 13 and leave promptly to start the tour.
Brought to you by the City of Springfield Department of Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management. The Second Saturday Walking Tour series is co-presented by the Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums, and is sponsored by a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council and the Mass Cultural Council.
The Underground Railroad in Springfield, presented with PAHMUSA
Visit locations and meet people that salute the perseverance, ingenuity, and resilience of some of Springfield’s unsung early residents. The Underground Railroad was comprised of many people and places—Springfield was an important destination for freedom seekers and activists like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and John Brown.
Join the Springfield Preservation Trust, in partnership with the Pan African Historical Museum USA (PAHMUSA) for this Second Saturday Walking Tour. Special thank you to PAHMUSA Executive Director Sam Bradley for leading the organization and research of this tour.
This walking tour departs from Tower Square. The docents will meet the tour at the Main Street entrance. The tour is free.
The Second Saturday Walking Tour series is co-presented by the Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums, and is sponsored by a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
On July 8, Bob McCarroll, board member of the Springfield Preservation Trust since its establishment, will lead the Springfield Art Walking Tour, which will explore historic works of art scattered throughout Downtown. The tour will depart at 10:30 a.m. from Springfield Museums
This walking tour departs from the Springfield Museums. The tour is free for Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums members, and is $5 for non-members, payable at the outset of the tour.
The Second Saturday Walking Tour series is co-presented by the Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums, and is sponsored by a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Counci
Curious about food history in Springfield? Come learn about the city's delicious past—and taste a bit of the beauty along the way!
Join James Johnson, Executive Vice President of Springfield Preservation Trust, on the August Second Saturday Walking Tour. This walking tour will leave from Springfield Museums and be filled with historic buildings of restaurants and local attractions. Additionally, there will be extra surprises on this tour for each visitor—if you want to learn what those might be then you must attend the tour! This walking tour departs from the Springfield Museums.
The tour is free for Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums members, and is $5 for non-members, payable at the outset of the tour.
Join local historian Derek Strahan on a walking tour of the Forest Park Heights Historic District neighborhood. The tour will focus on the homes on the southern side of Sumner Avenue, with an emphasis on the variety of architectural styles within the neighborhood. The tour will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 9 at the Florentine Gardens circle and will last approximately 1.5 hours. The tour route is about 1.5 miles in length, on mostly level ground.
On-street parking is available on the neighborhood streets. Please be sure to not block driveways or fire hydrants.
The Second Saturday Walking Tour series is co-presented by the Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums, and is sponsored by a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Maple-High & Six Corners Neighborhood | Second Saturday Walking Tour
Learn about the legacy, architecture, and neighborhood that surrounds one of Springfield’s most important historical business figures—Daniel B. Wesson, of Smith & Wesson fame.
On this walking tour, Preservation Trust Board Member Katherine Anderson Benson will provide a history of the Wesson Hospitals, the C.W. Porter School, and the beautiful homes that line the streets of the Six Corners neighborhood, where these structures reside. The walking tour departs from the rear of the High School of Commerce (Springfield Honors Academy entrance) and ends at the same.
The Six Corners neighborhood of Springfield once encompassed two of the city's premier medical facilities—Wesson Memorial Hospital and the Wesson Maternity Hospital—founded by Daniel B. Wesson, also the co-founder of Springfield-based firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson. Surrounded by beautiful homes, the neighborhood was also once home to Miss Charlotte Porter's School, a preeminent private school for girls.
The tour is free for Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums members, and is $5 for non-members, payable at the outset of the tour.
The Second Saturday Walking Tour series is co-presented by the Springfield Preservation Trust and Springfield Museums, and is sponsored by a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
PAST TOURS
On November 12, Jim Boone, long time member of the Board of SPT and resident of the McKnight Neighborhood for 46 years, led a free tour of the Historic McKnight Neighborhood. The free tour started at Thompson Triangle, intersection of Worthington and Saint James Ave. Thank you Mass Cultural Council and Springfield Cultural Council for sponsoring the 2022 tours.
On October 8, Kira Holmes led the Second Saturday walking tour Successes and Losses of the Most Endangered List at 10:30 a.m. Buildings on this tour might have started before the SPT Most Endangered List. The tour departed from Springfield Museums for $5 if you were not an SPT or Springfield Museums member. This tour explored some historic Springfield buildings that are currently on the SPT Most Endangered List. Additionally this tour explored how some previously endangered buildings have moved off the list to successful futures or have been lost to future generations. The SPT walking tours this season were sponsored by the Springfield Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council.
Guy McLain led the Second Saturday walking tour on September 10 at 10:30am. The tour departed from Springfield Museums and costed $5 if you were not an SPT or Springfield Museums member. Mark Twain described America in the late nineteenth century as a Gilded Age. A significant portion of the wealth created at this time was funneled into the arts. Museums, libraries, colleges, orchestras, and opera houses were established at a rate that seems astounding today. Springfield, just 25 miles north of Twain's home in Hartford, was a perfect example of the prosperity that he was describing. During the Gilded Age Springfield citizens founded most of the cultural institutions, monuments, and civic buildings that still serve the city today. Also influencing art and architecture at this time was the City Beautiful Movement. This walk explored around downtown Springfield and the legacy of this important era. The SPT walking tours this season were sponsored by the Springfield Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council.
Robert McCarroll will led the Second Saturday walking tour on August 13 at 10:30am. The tour departed from Springfield Museums and cost $5 if you were not an SPT or Springfield Museums member. This tour explored the older buildings behind newer facades. The SPT walking tours were sponsored by the Springfield Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council.
Derek Strahan led the Second Saturday walking tour on July 9 at 10:30am. It will started at Riverfront Park, at the parking lot directly across from the end of State Street. No fee was charged. The Springfield Preservation Trust walking tours in 2022 were sponsored by the Springfield Cultural Council and Mass Cultural Council.
This Second Saturday Walking Tour was titled Underground Railroad. The tour began outside of Springfield Museums. If you were a member to Springfield Museums, Springfield Preservation Trust, or PAHMUSA you were free. If not you paid $5 at Springfield Museums. This tour taught the history of Springfield's unsung early residents. Please if you had questions email info@springfieldpreservation.org. The Second Saturday walking Tour season was sponsored by the Mass Cultural Council and the Springfield Cultural Council. Thank you so much!
The first Second Saturday Walking Tour was titled Springfield’s Advent Campgrounds. Everyone who attends will learn the story of relocating summer cottages to make way for a new neighborhood of Craftsman style homes. The tour departed at 10:30am on May 14 from the Intersection of Phoenix and Freeman Terraces (off Carew St. in the Hungry Hill neighborhood). The tour was free and led by Ben Murphy. Please if you have questions email info@springfieldpreservation.org. The Second Saturday walking Tour season was sponsored by the Mass Cultural Council and the Springfield Cultural Council. Thank you so much!
The SPT Spring House Tour featured homes in Forest Park Heights. The tour was held in the area north of Sumner Avenue, which was developed in the early twentieth century by the McKnight family.
Featured were Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival style homes on Riverview Terrace, an American Foursquare style home on Mountainview Street, and English Cottage style homes on Randolph and Oxford Streets.
generously sponsored by
Groups led by docents visited six graves of interesting nineteenth-century Springfield residents where costumed interpreters spoke about that person. Hour-long walking tours departed every fifteen minutes starting at 3:00 PM from the former chapel at Oak Grove Cemetery, 426 Bay Street.
generously sponsored by
This Spring House Tour featured distinct homes in four different historic districts of Springfield. Lovely homes in the Forest Park, McKnight, Lower Maple, and Mattoon Street historic districts opened their doors. Starting May 23rd, tickets will be available at Flowers, Flowers, 758 Sumner Avenue, The Flowers Box at 596 Carew Street, or by purchasing them online below. Tickets will also be available on the day of the tour from 12:45 to 2:30 on Thompson Street near Worthington Street in McKnight.
generously sponsored by
Groups led by SPT docents visited six graves of nineteenth-century Springfield residents, including philanthropist Primus Mason, chain store pioneer Lyman Besse, and other interesting residents of Springfield’s past. Costumed interpreters spoke at each stop about that person. Hour-long walking tours departed every fifteen minutes from the former chapel and seasonal refreshments were served.
90-acre Oak Grove Cemetery was opened for burials in 1882. The Springfield architectural firm of Richmond & Seabury designed the brownstone entrance arch and Romanesque hillside chapel, behind which bodies were stored in winter to await the thaw for burial.
Voices from the Grave Cemetery Tour generously sponsored by
DABOUL FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST
Few accessory buildings such as carriage houses survive in the city. Once they were no longer needed, they were replaced or allowed to fall into ruin. This tour highlighted how some of them continue to function in a variety of uses. Featured were a carriage house now an apartment on Bowdoin Street, one now offices on Temple Street, one now a house on Crescent Hill, one with its original stables on Bellevue Avenue, and one now an apartment on Longhill Street. Additionally, a renovated Victorian home on Temple Street was open.
in Partnership with the Mattoon Association
in Partnership with the Mattoon AssociationIn the 1860s, the east side of Chestnut Street was lined with large estates. In 1870, William Mattoon, a wholesale grain dealer, purchased one to open a new street through the property and began selling lots. Over the next twenty years, local builders constructed attached brick houses, making Mattoon Street one of the few streets in Western Massachusetts lined with such urban structures. Forty years ago, the Springfield City Council and Mayor Frank Freeman established the first local historic district in Springfield to protect this unique area.
SPT and the Mattoon Association are both marked their 40th anniversary. They are volunteer, private, nonprofit organizations. SPT works to preserve Springfield’s built environment. The Association works to maintain its neighborhood and sponsors the annual Arts Festival.
This tour breaks new ground for SPT by featuring homes developed after World War II. Little construction had occurred during the Great Depression and the war leading to a building boom being in 1945 to meet the pent-up demand for housing. Widespread automobile ownership opened areas not previously accessible by bus and streetcar. Garages changed from being detached structures in the back yard to being attached to the house. Lots grew wider to accommodate the garages and houses became less compact since walking to public transit was no longer required. Expansive front porches disappeared in favor of private patios in back yards. Homes from the late 1940s and early 1950s include one-story Ranches-a style imported from California–and one and a half story Executive Capes-adapted from our own New England tradition. In Springfield, these homes often were decorated with Colonial Revival features.
The tour will open six grand Victorian-era homes dating from the 1880s and 1890s on Worthington Street, Florida Street, Ingersoll Grove, Clarendon Street, and Dartmouth Terrace–all within easy walking distance. McKnight is the largest, most intact, late-nineteenth-century, a wood-frame neighborhood in New England. Among its more than 800 houses are some of the most elegant homes in the Pioneer Valley. Join SPT to tour some of these lovely homes at this magical time of day and season.
The McKnight Twilight Tour generously sponsored by
The 2011 Spring House Tour in Atwater Park featured five homes in the area of Atwater Terrace and Springfield Street. Much of the Atwater neighborhood was developed from the 300-acre estate of George Atwater, founder of the Springfield Street Railway. Ten years after his death in 1902, the Atwater heirs hired the Boston firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to create a plan for a pleasant residential area. Chestnut Street Home
Several noted local architects were involved in designing houses. Eugene Gardner and his son George worked on more than a dozen homes. Napoleon Russell and his partner Fred Knowlton designed numerous homes and also helped develop the area around Shefford and Caseland Streets. Max Westhoff, who designed the old Shriners Hospital and the Connecticut Valley History Museum, also worked on homes.
The neighborhood’s park-like setting, proximity to Springfield Hospital, and access to the trolley line encouraged development. Prior to the Great Depression, many houses were built in the popular Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles. Noted residents over the years include early aviatrix Maude Tait Moriarty, impressionist painter Harriet Randall Lumis, cork-centered baseball inventor Milton Reach, and Mass Mutual president Betrand Perry.
The Atwater Park Tour of Historic Homes generously sponsored by
The Springfield Preservation Trust held a tour of homes throughout the historic neighborhoods of Springfield to celebrate the spirit of the season. The tour featured six historic homes decorated for Christmas or Hanukkah in Forest Park, McKnight, and Downtown.
The 2010 Spring House Tour in Forest Park featured six homes in the area south of Sumner Avenue, between Dickinson Street and Forest Park. Much of the area was developed as Entry Dingle Heights, located in a section of Longmeadow annexed to Springfield in the early twentieth century. Construction of most homes in the neighborhood took place between 1920 and 1940 and reflects the popular Colonial Revival style and English Cottage style, a variation of the Tudor Revival style. French-Canadian builders such as Joseph Chapdelaine, Joseph St. Laurent, Maurice Angers, and Zephrine Lassonde were prominent in the creation of the area.
Besides being Springfield’s largest local historic district, Forest Park Heights is one of the most elegant turn-of-the-century neighborhoods in Western Massachusetts. Residential development was spurred in the 1890s by the expansion and electrification of the trolley system, which connected the suburban neighborhood to Downtown. Creation of nearby Forest Park was a further incentive for people to live in the area. More than 600 houses were constructed over a 35-year period. The area north of Sumner Avenue was primarily developed by the McKnight family, which also developed the McKnight and Ridgewood areas.
The Springfield Preservation Trust Spring House Tour focused on homes on and off the length of Maple Street, one of the city’s oldest streets. Maple Street was opened in the early nineteenth century to connect Downtown to the various mills along the Mill River. Homes on the tour ranged from the Queen Anne style 1897 George Merriam house to a unit in the 1989 Wyndhurst Condominiums. Also, open was a portion of our current rehabilitation project, the 1832 Female Seminary.
Developed between 1870 and 1900, McKnight is the largest and most intact, wood-frame, a late-nineteenth-century neighborhood in New England. Among its more than 800 houses are some of the most elegant homes in Springfield. The tour featured homes built between 1886 and 1903. They reflect Stick, Queen Anne, Tudor Revival, and English Cottage styles, including the Besse Mansion, one of the largest homes in the district.
Forest Park Heights is the largest and most elegant late nineteenth/early twentieth-century neighborhood in Western Massachusetts. Residential development was spurred in the 1890s with the expansion of the electrified trolley system and the creation of Forest Park. The following 30 years saw the construction of the 600 houses now protected as a historic district.
The Springfield Preservation Trust House Tour will open homes south of Sumner Avenue. Colonial Revival and Shingle-style homes predominate in this area, developed by the Forest Park Heights Company headed by Lewis Newman.
Much of the Atwater neighborhood was developed from the 300-acre estate of George Atwater, founder of the Springfield Street Railway. Ten years after his death in 1902, the Atwater heirs hired the Boston firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. to create a plan for a pleasant residential area.
Several noted local architects were involved in designing houses. Eugene Gardner and his son George worked on more than a dozen homes. Napoleon Russell and his partner Fred Knowlton designed numerous homes and also helped develop the area around Shefford and Caseland Streets. Max Westhoff, who designed the old Shriners Hospital and the Connecticut Valley History Museum, also worked on homes.
The neighborhood’s park-like setting, proximity to Springfield Hospital, and access to the trolley line
encouraged development. (A remnant of the trolley tracks can be seen at Atwater Road and Crestwood Street). Prior to the Great Depression, many houses were built in the popular Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles. Noted residents over the years include early aviatrix Maude Tait Moriarty, impressionist painter Harriet Randall Lumis, cork-centered baseball inventor Milton Reach, and Mass Mutual president Betrand Perry.
Forest Park Heights is the Pioneer Valley’s largest local historic district and one of its most elegant turn-of-the-20th century neighborhoods. Development was spurred in the 1890s by the expansion of the trolley system as well as the creation of Forest Park. Over the next 35 years, more than 600 houses were built.
Bellevue Avenue and Marengo Park were laid out as “Belmont Heights” by local builder and industrialist Diodate Swan. Mr. Swan died in 1895, and his children developed the area. Most houses were constructed after 1900 in the popular Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles. All three of his sons as well as his widow lived on Bellevue Avenue.
Homes featured today are Colonial Revival style, which began after the Centennial Exposition of 1876 sparked renewed interest in the country’s colonial past. It soon became the most popular style in the East. Such houses were more symmetrical than Victorian houses and featured classically inspired decoration.