Downtown, Springfield, Massachusetts

Downtown Springfield has some impressive spaces, especially the buildings surrounding Court Square, laid out in 1812. New York firm Pell & Corbett won a competition to design the Greco -Roman City Hall and Symphony Hall, including the 300-ft high Italianate Campanile. The so-called Municipal Group was dedicated in 1913 by President William Howard Taft. The Byers Block (1835) and Old Court Square Building (1892) flank the east park perimeter, now largely abandoned but sporting a whimsical tower. The Northwestern Mutual Life Building (1907), designed by Peabody & Stearns, is a Beaux Arts style building with impressive details surrounding a 3-story arch.

Up on the hill at Chestnut St. is the Van Allen Building (1902), a fanciful apartment building with a Dutch flavor. Farther up the street is the South Congregational Church (1873), called one of the finest examples of High Victorian Gothic architecture in America. It was designed by New York architect William Potter, who designed much of Princeton University.

Historic Mattoon Area, Springfield, Massachusetts

Mattoon St. can be found just west of The Quadrangle (see other post) and was developed in the period 1870-1890. The Victorian row houses are spectacular, especially the bow front houses designed by local architects Perkins & Gardner. Rev. William Faunce lived at #17 before becoming president of Brown University. The North Congregational Church (now the Hispanic Baptist Church) was built in 1872 and designed by Henry Hobson Richardson. The brownstone edifice features a 150-ft tower and Tiffany window and is one of the most important landmarks of Springfield. Elliot St., cater-corner to Mattoon St. features the Technical High School (1905) now under rehabilitation, designed by Eugene & George Gardner.

The Quadrangle, Springfield, Massachusetts

The Quadrangle consists of the spectacular Italian Renaissance City Library (1912) on State St. and the adjoining 5 museums to the rear of the Library. These include the Museum of Fine Arts, the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, the Science Museum, the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, and the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden.

The 1912 City Library is an architectural tour de force in marble and arguably a peerless building in Springfield.
It was designed by Edward R. Tilton. It was built with financial support from Andrew Carnegie. The Renaissance Revival GWV Smith Art Museum (1896) was designed by the NY firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Renwick. It is built of Pompeiian brick and has the largest collection of Chinese cloisonne in the Western world.

The Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden was sculpted by Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, Theodor Geisel's stepdaughter. Geisel was born in Springfield on Howard St.

The Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral (1874) was designed by Lord & Fuller and H.G. Wadlin of Boston of Longmeadow brownstone.

Across from the Library is the Renaissance Revival Central High School (1897), as well as a striking modern Federal Courthouse (2008), designed by Moshe Safdie..

New Croton Dam, Croton Gorge Park, Cortlandt, New York

The 1906 Croton Dam is a marvel of engineering to rival the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids at Giza. I mean this literally. I have heard some claim that the Croton Dam is the largest hand-hewn structure on planet Earth. From an engineering standpoint the most striking feature is the sideways spillway. The dam is a majestic combination of engineering and civic beauty.

The 1842 Croton Dam was built on the Croton River to supply drinking water to Manhattan on a 41-mile underground aqueduct. This Dam was rapidly outgrown and would be replaced by a mammoth dam 1100 ft in length and 100 ft high, providing capacity of 30 billion gallons (a 100 day supply). Because the bedrock is at such a deep level, if the spillway had gone over the front of the dam, heavy flows would have undermined the dam footings. The clever solution was to create a sideways spillway, which dumps water down a massive set of stone steps, set 90 degrees to the dam's face, onto a seam of bedrock close to the surface. The 200-ft steel arch bridge was rebuilt in 1999 but was not re-opened based on 9/11 security concerns until 2005.

These pictures, ironically, were taken on September 11, 2011, just days after record rainfall from Tropical Storm Lee. The raging torrents were Niagara Falls-like, with a mesmerizing, if not scary, intensity.

Muscoot Farm, Katonah, New York

Ferdinand Hopkins. a pharmaceutical executive from New York City, purchased the farm in the 1880s as a gentleman's farm. It was sold to Westchester County in 1968. The late Victorian clapboard farmhouse had both Gothic Revival and Italianate features. In 1925, the house was converted to a Colonial Revival mansion. The city of New York took 160 acres in 1897 in anticipation of the New Croton Dam's watershed requirements (see above blog post). This land grab included most of the buildings. The NYC Aqueduct Commission put the buildings up for auction, and Hopkins re-acquired them. The main house and outbuildings were moved to higher ground after 1899, using logs and a windlass. Westchester County opened the farm to the public in 1974.

Naugatuck Historic District, Naugatuck, Connecticut

Naugatuck has more McKim, Mead & White commissions that anywhere else in Connecticut. John Howard Whittemore, a wealthy Naugatuck industrialist who made his fortune through the Eastern Malleable Iron Co., engaged America's most famous architectural firm 11 times.

Many of those commissions border than town green, including the Green itself, and the Memorial Fountain (1895), the Whittemore Library (1894), and the Congregational Church (1903).

The Memorial Fountain features a Lion's head.

The Library is a spectacular Neo-Classical Revival building constructed of pink granite. It features a continuous frieze incised with names of famous authors. Fluted Ionic columns and bronze lampstands flank the recessed entrance. A fabulous rotunda under the drum has a gold and red mosaic tile floor.

Across church St. is the Congregational Church, featuring an unusual polygonal paneled spire, that can be seen from the local highway Route 8. The style is Neo-Classical revival. The adjacent Parish House (1887) is designed by Robert W. Hill. It is Romanesque Revival. The Old Post Office (1917) is along Church St. It is Spanish Colonial Revival. St. Michael's Church (1875) is also adjacent to the Green and is High Victorian Gothic. The Train Station (1910) is Spanish Colonial Revival off of Water St.

McKim, Mead & White High Schools, Naugatuck, Connecticut

Naugatuck has more McKim, Mead & White commissions that anywhere else in Connecticut. John Howard Whittemore, a wealthy Naugatuck industrialist who made his fortune through the Eastern Malleable Iron Co., engaged America's most famous architectural firm 11 times.

The Salem School (1893), facing the green, is Second Renaissance Revival constructed of brick with a central cupola. The Hillside School (1905), is Neo-Classical Revival, and sits atop the hillside above a triple flight of granite stairs. It looks like a Grecian temple. From above, one views east over the World War I Monument (1921). The sculpted limestone monument has the form of a sarcophagus. Low bas-relief figures represent Peace and War.

Above, on Terrace Ave., is situated a whimsical Victorian house.