USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 42
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A stone skatinghouse on Barney Pond, built of salvaged paving block in 1907, was later converted into the useful and interesting trail- side museum.
The first large playground in the city, the Emerson Wight, was given by Nathan Bill, in 1908, and he continued in later years to make other gifts of the same sort. The rose garden in Forest Park was started in 1914, but the war period saw other kinds of gardens laid out and in one year 6,000 bushels of potatoes were raised as well
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as many cabbages, beets, turnips and summer vegetables. When normal times returned a dam was constructed and nearly forty-five acres of swamp were flooded to make Porter Lake, in memory of Sherman D. Porter, who gave $10,000 to the park about this time. Memorial Grove, of one hundred and forty pin oaks, was planted in honor of the soldiers who did not return from the World War.
The iris garden, started in 1923, has since come to be a rival of the rose garden in beauty and interest. Blunt Park was developed about this time and the Franconia golf course, made possible by the gift of $50,000 from Mr. Bill, was a great addition to the city's recreational facilities. The Springfield park system now covers nearly 2,000 acres, scattered well over the city, which has been fortunate in having an unusual number of public-spirited citizens interested and able to assist in the work.
On January 24, 1881, the "Springfield Republican" recorded that the Blair and Fiske Company, which manufactured lawnmowers in the Steam Power Company's building on Taylor Street, experimentally lighted their plant with electric lamps for all night work. Four days later the exterior of the Taylor Street plant was illuminated for about one-half hour by one outdoor lamp, and on March 22 of the same year two lamps were used to illuminate Springfield's skating rink. In April, as a matter of safety, wires were placed underground, the conductors in those early days having been run over the buildings.
The Springfield Electric Light Company, as it was then called, was formed in 1881, shortly after these events. Its capital was $10,000, but an indication of its growth may be seen when six years later it had jumped to five times the original investment. Soon the Springfield Electric Light Company was organized into the United Electric Light Company, with a capital of $100,000. The station, which produced incandescent lighting by means of electric motors, was located in the Steam Power Company's building. It later expanded and the station was moved to its present quarters on State Street, and as the city grew various substations were built to accommodate the added load. It is worthy of note that Springfield was perhaps the first city in New England to have an electric power company. Boston was toying with the idea, but did not have an electric light company until some time after 1881.
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The Springfield Gas Light Company was organized as far back as 1847, although gas was not used for lighting purposes until two years later. For years the company lagged because the people had no confidence in the new fuel. It was only when the Gilbert and Barker Company, after a hard struggle, had perfected gas-producing apparatus and the technique of gas utility that expansion came. Gas was not used in Springfield for industrial appliances until 1866.
At that time the consumer using gas in Springfield paid a rate of $3.50 per thousand cubic feet. Its use was a real luxury, far beyond the poor man's purse, and there were no quarter meter machines to bring the fuel within his means. Since then the rates have dropped, and in 1911 they had gone down as far as eighty-five cents per thou- sand cubic feet. H. Haile was president of the company and S. J. Fowler manager.
In 1901 a utility commission took up the management of the company and made many improvements. A few years later the plant moved into new quarters at its present location, under the leadership of Charles H. Tenney.
Springfield's first great disaster from fire was in June, 1675, when thirty-two of her forty-five dwellings were burned, together with twenty-four barns and the jail, nearly three-fourths of the little settle- ment's buildings going up in smoke in one day. Regulations for the prevention of fire were early made and the first apparatus consisted of hooks, fire poles and buckets. The first fire company of which we have record was organized in 1794, and each member was required to keep two fire bags and buckets hung up by the front door of his house. An old print shows the burning of the armory in 1824. Two lines of men, possibly seventy-five in each, form the bucket brigade, reaching from a well or cistern to the wildly blazing building, against which a ladder is leaning. One line passes up the full buckets while the empty ones are returned along the parallel row of helpers. The first crude fire engine was named the "Lion" and purchased in 1792. It had five feet of hose and was kept in active use up to 1824, being housed in a shed built for the purpose. In 1827 the town voted to build an enginehouse to properly care for the hook and ladder wagon and one hundred feet of new hose, as well as a suction engine. The first steamer, called the "Monitor," was purchased in 1862. Volunteer companies at first
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manned the fire fighting apparatus, but the time came when the city was obliged to finance them.
It was an honor in those days to be connected with the fire depart- ment and Robert O. Morris recalled with what pride he saw his father in red shirt and white helmet, carrying a trumpet bedecked with flow- ers, attending a muster on Court Square, where the companies vied with each other to throw a stream over the rooster on the old church.
The most destructive fire that ever visited Springfield broke out on May 30, 1875, and raged furiously for three hours, sweeping through the business section of the city. The fire originated on Tay- lor Street, the center of planing mills and mattress factories. The wind put the fire beyond control almost at the start and after crossing Main Street to Bridge Street it pushed on down to Water Street. The fire destroyed about forty-five buildings, about thirty of which were homes. Many were made homeless and about two hundred thrown out of employment, but there was no loss of life. Holyoke knew nothing of the fire until news was brought there by a railroad engine, as no operator could be found at the depot to send a telegram for aid. But in thirteen minutes the Relief Steamer and the Mt. Tom Hose companies were on their way. A special train was ordered out on the Athol Railroad to Indian Orchard and brought in a steamer. The steamer from Chicopee, with two companies, arrived in time to render good service. Two steamers were loaded on a train at Hart- ford and made the run of twenty-eight miles in twenty-five minutes. Alderman Brigham mounted a horse at the Richmond stables and started for Westfield, but the horse was exhausted before arriving there and a woman passing in a carriage galloped her horse to the town and gave the alarm. The Westfield engine was hustled on to a train and made the distance of nine miles in eighteen minutes. People expected the whole city to be destroyed, and a general movement of goods to some safe place was begun and even the river was dotted over with boats loaded down with goods. Upon the arrival of out- of-town assistance, which included police from Chicopee and Holyoke, things quieted down, and before dark the danger was over.
The fire alarm system was installed in 1868, and prior to that time all alarms were given on the city hall bell, different numbers designating the various wards.
In the afternoon of the seventh of March, 1888, about forty employees in the office of the Union Publishing Plant on the fifth floor
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of the Wight Block on Main Street were making preparations to go home. A volume of dense smoke burst suddenly from the elevator shaft, and as the many windows were closed, the place was quickly filled with the stifling smoke. The occupants at first did not realize the seriousness of what was happening, but went to the elevator and rang the bell. As they waited and the elevator did not come their fears mounted into panic. By a strange coincidence, as was discovered later, something had gone wrong with the elevator only a few minutes before the fire broke out.
The panic-stricken occupants milled about, trapped in the building ; they were advised by Managing Editor E. A. Hill to go to the roof and this many did. About fifteen people, however, rushed for the rooms in the front of the building to wait for the firemen, and about eight or nine of these crowded into a front corner room. Smoke poured out of doors and windows as the terror-stricken, white-faced people at the windows cried for help to the crowds far below. The fire apparatus reached the scene, and a ladder was raised as a cheer broke out from the watching throng, but the cheer died quickly into the silence of horror when it was discovered that the ladder was four- teen feet too short to reach the trapped occupants. One woman, in desperation, leaped from the windows and was killed on the pavement. As the tongues of flame came nearer the group at the windows prayed. All hope of escape was shut off.
Carpets and mattresses were spread below by the frantic crowd. Thomas Donohue leaped into a blanket held as a life net, but it did not hold and he was killed on the pavement. Others jumped and were killed in the same way, and before the horrible fire had finished it had taken a toll of eight lives. The cause of the fire was unknown, but the tragedy did have one significant effect. Agitation was imme- diately started to give the fire department more modern and complete fire-fighting equipment, to guard against any recurrence of the short ladder episode. Today Springfield has one of the finest equipped and best trained fire fighting forces in the country.
The old city hall, in January, 1905, was destroyed by a blaze which started when a monkey in a show going on at the time knocked over a kerosene lamp. The damage to the building, which had been standing since 1853, a year after the incorporation of Springfield as a city,
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amounted to about $100,000. The old bell, which weighed 4,000 pounds, fell and cracked during the fire, and there were thrilling rescues made by the fire department.
The Highland Baptist Church burned in a spectacular fire the following year, and in 1907 came the fire which destroyed the Phelps Publishing Company. This blaze was on a bitterly cold night, which made conditions for fighting the fire almost impossible. The fire had been discovered by a night watchman, in the cellar, and he and another watchman thought they succeeded in extinguishing the blaze. They left the cellar and only a few minutes later returned to be greeted by a hot burst of flame. Meanwhile some outsider noticed the fire and sounded the alarm. The flames seemed to devour the antiquated wooden building almost in a flash, and a withering blanket of heat from the roaring furnace kept the firemen at a distance. Less than fifteen minutes after the fire had been discovered the building was a mass of flames. Another quick fire was that which consumed the Springfield News Company, in 1910. Thirteen persons were rescued by the firemen and the loss suffered was $ 50,000.
Another fire catastrophe came in 1931, when the East Court Street Hotel Fire occurred. It was in December and a bitter cold wind froze the streams of water which ran from eighteen lines of hose. The lad- ders, coated with ice, were dangerous to climb and the firemen wore safety belts as they mounted the precarious rungs to fight the fire that was rapidly destroying the hotel. The loss in money was $100,000, a sum that was modest compared to some of the other Springfield fires, but the loss of eight lives in the fire was the tragedy. These people, awakened from their sleep, were trapped in the building, and more than a dozen were carried to safety by heroic firemen. The year following witnessed another terrible tragedy when an explosion occurred in a building on Ferry Street, killing five people.
In 1893 the affairs of the department were placed in the hands of a fire commission and from this time on until 1905 the working force was almost doubled. There were then four engine companies, five hose companies and three hook and ladder companies. The hose wagons were drawn by horses, and Amoskeag steamers were used, as well as Leverich trucks and Babcock aerial ladders.
There are today in Springfield fifteen fire stations, including head- quarters at Court Square, and Chief Root, at the head of the depart-
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ment since 1904, has brought in the most modern fire apparatus available and constantly instituted new and more efficient fire-fighting methods. The two-platoon system came in under Chief Root's admin- istration, which allows two separate shifts of men to work instead of having one shift on duty the entire twenty-four hours. The personnel of the department consists of about three hundred and fifty-seven men, including officers. The Fire Prevention Bureau, an agency for pre- venting fires through inspection and educational propaganda, consists of a chief and four other inspectors.
A feature of the Springfield fire-fighting force is the department school, first instituted in 1908. This "drill school" was primarily for rookies, but for years every man in the department had to attend, and many of the firemen from the small outlying towns came to the drill school for instruction. The rookie who takes the department school training must come out with a thorough knowledge of fire hazards and the methods of fighting fires before he is given his ranking grade. A drill is held at each station at least once a week, and the benefit of this expert instruction and constant drilling may be seen in the fact that since the turn of the century no fire has occurred in Springfield that was not under control in a very short time.
The Springfield Police Department is the natural successor of the "watch" who made his nightly rounds in the old days, lantern on arm, calling the hours and adding "all is well"; of the "tything man," who saw that Sunday laws were kept; and of the various officers, such as "hog reeves," who protected the highways from being cluttered up with stray animals. Then, those who were brought into court were charged for the most part with trivial offenses, such as failing to "ring" swine, neglecting to maintain fences properly, and absenting themselves from town meeting. Drunkenness, theft, assaults and the like were uncommon.
At first only one constable was needed to preserve the majesty of the law, and "wise and discreet" men were supposed to be selected. Apparently it was not an office which was much sought after for the selectmen attached a forfeit of twenty shillings for refusal to accept it. Miles Morgan, who now turns his back on the police depart- ment in Court Square, was once a constable. Men were not obliged to serve in this position two years in succession, and though the pay was small and made mostly in products, few declined to serve.
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The constable had to see that no man cut, without permission, a tree suitable for a "canoe tree," or that undesirable persons, who might become burdens on the town, were harbored in the homes. There were parking problems of a sort in those days, too, for drivers who kept teams across the river in the spring of the year to plough there, were forbidden to let them "damnify" other people's property, but must keep them in some house or yard until the first of May or otherwise properly restrain them. Part of the constable's pay came from individuals, as each family was ordered to pay him six pence in wampum or a peck of Indian corn for beating the drum before meet- ings, and the shilling he was granted later for ringing the bell for marriages and burials was to be collected from those employing him. Elizur Holyoke, of a prominent family in Springfield, was constable at a time when the duties included "ringing ye bell and sweeping ye meetinge house."
During a wave of "unpleasantness" which struck the community, it is recorded that a servant was given twenty lashes for profaning the Sabbath; Jean Miller was summoned to answer to the charge of calling her husband a "fool, toad, vermine"; Samuel Ely was fined for selling cider to the Indians; and Goodwife Hunter was gagged and made to stand half an hour in the stocks for sundry "exorbi- tancys of ye tongue." Lawless youths gave the constables consider- able trouble, and several boys were arraigned on a June day for pro- faning the Sabbath. These young offenders were fined, and their fines were to be paid by their "Governors," presumably meaning fathers, in default of which they were to be publicly whipped by the constable.
In 1775 the number of constables had been increased to five, and they were quite unable to cope with a force of one hundred and fifty men who broke open the jail and released the prisoners. The con- stable system was abandoned at the first meeting of the city council in 1852, and from then on there was a police force, consisting at first of only seven men, though eleven more were soon added.
With the coming into force of the civil service law, in 1894, a new era was begun in the police department, and the system of mental and physical examinations became more rigid. A policeman must be at least five feet seven inches in height, and the weight range was placed between one hundred and thirty-five pounds and one hundred and
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seventy-five pounds. A bicycle squad was an innovation, but an effec- tive one, and finally the police alarm telegraph signal was installed, much to the benefit of both the force and the city.
An innovation in municipal affairs was instituted in 1902 when the first police commission was formed, and five years later William J. Quilty, who died in 1935, at almost eighty years of age, was named first police chief to succeed a line of police marshals. Chief Quilty retired from service in 1932, having spent forty-five years in the department, and twenty-five of them as its executive head. He was outstanding not only from point of long service, but also because of his splendid detective work and his efforts toward maintaining the depart- ment on an efficient basis in line with modern and up-to-date police methods.
He was born in Springfield in 1855 and received his early educa- tion in the old Elm Street School. He first worked for the Kibbe Candy Company and later as a grocery boy for his brother. After a trip to San Francisco, where he was engaged in the grocery business, Chief Quilty returned to this city, but the wanderlust took him again and he shipped to Africa on an old New Bedford whaler. He was stricken with fever on that continent, but miraculously recovered.
He was appointed to the police force on March 7, 1887, by Mayor E. B. Maynard and in 1891 promoted to the rank of inspector. City Marshal John Rice made him a permanent police inspector the fol- lowing year and on August 10, 1907, he was made city marshal. At the time of his appointment the Springfield police force consisted of about forty men, and since then it has grown to about three hundred men. Under Chief Quilty a number of beneficial changes and addi- tions took place in the department, and among these was the estab- lishing of a detective bureau and also a vice squad.
Chief Quilty was a shrewd and able detective and took part in a number of exciting incidents. Two of his most notable feats were the capturing of the assailant of Dr. Fred Brigham, who was on his way to a midnight case, and the capture of Palmer and Sheedy, notorious burglars, in 1910.
Not only did Chief Quilty keep in touch with individual members of the force, but he also kept in touch with new methods elsewhere, and in cases where they were applicable used them in his own depart- ment. His prestige grew steadily from the day he was appointed city
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marshal. Recognition of his fine public service came in tangible form when he received the William Pynchon medal for outstanding public service to Springfield. An oil portrait of the chief is now in the Connecticut Valley Historical Society building.
As a traveler approaches Springfield from an elevation so that the city lies before him in panoramic view, his eyes are instantly drawn to the three white buildings in the center, about which the rest of the city buildings seem to be clustered as satellites. Between two massive structures rises a tall straight spire reaching three hundred feet into the sky, and on each side near the top is a huge golden-lettered clock. Plain, yet classic in its beauty and construction, the auditorium, admin- istration building and campanile tower form a municipal group unrivaled in any other city the size of Springfield.
A feature of this group lies in the fact that none of the utility has been sacrificed in the name of beauty. The auditorium, with a seating capacity of 4,000, is a busy center of both business and cultural activity. It is here that great artists and speakers are heard, also that great trade and political conventions gather, because of the ideal conditions it provides in seating capacity, acoustics, ventilation, light, and convenience of location. There are a number of galleries, yet from every seat the stage may be seen clearly and the speaker or the musician heard distinctly. The basement floor is ideal for exhibition booths, for holding banquets, and for other purposes auxiliary to the great hall upstairs. Impressive as the auditorium is on the outside, with its fluted Corinthian columns and its majestic rise of steps, it is every bit as impressive in the interior.
The administration building, from the outside virtually a twin of the auditorium, is quite different on the inside. Here the government of the city of Springfield is housed, and the offices flanking the long corridors contain the multiple municipal divisions of the city. A mag- nificent flight of marble steps leads to the upper floors, where there are still other offices.
The most interesting and unusual building of the three, however, is the campanile tower. Its design was adopted from the St. Mark's Square campanile in Venice. Like a hollow rectangular tube inside, its walls are sheer and unbroken except for a few tiny windows and a single small balcony. From this balcony just above the clocks, to which the elevator running up the shaft quickly travels, a sightseer
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may view the entire city of Springfield and the surrounding region. Then there are the great bells in the tower belfry, which chime. at every quarter hour, and from which on certain occasions deep and impressive music comes. The sound of these bells may carry eight miles north and south up and down the valley, conveyed on the sur- face of the river which flows past, and to the east and west a somewhat less distance. At the very top of the tower is a bright yellow beacon light.
The building of the municipal group came about through necessity. The old city hall was destroyed by fire in January, 1906, and the city government was left homeless. The city hall up to that time had not been particularly outstanding as far as beauty was concerned, although it served its purpose well enough, and a movement was started to have the new quarters of the municipal government impres- sive in design and yet adequate to serve the needs of the city for many years.
There was much opposition in the council toward building a pre- tentious structure, due to the cost that would certainly be entailed. After much discussion, a building commission was appointed by Mayor Francke Dickinson, in May, 1906, with George Dwight Pratt as chair- man. There were eighty-two separate designs submitted in competi- tion, and that entered by Pell and Corbett, of New York, was finally adopted in November, 1908. The contracts were awarded for the foundations and superstructures the following year, but it was not until 1910 that the corner stone was laid. In 1913 the three Indiana limestone buildings were completed.
One morning early in April of 1911 the startling news spread through the city that someone had tried to dynamite the new municipal tower, then still in the early stages of construction, but fortunately, the explosive charge was not sufficient and was so placed that the dam- age was slight. Watchmen were stationed about the buildings and an investigation followed. There were at that time a series of dynamite outrages all over the country, and it was finally revealed that a man named Ortie McManigal, who was employed by the officials of a structural steel workers' organization, had made the attempt to blow up the tower as a part of a premeditated plan to terrify the employers of such labor throughout the United States. This sensational episode came close to costing a large sum of money and possibly some lives.
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It was because of McManigal's lack of knowledge concerning high explosives that the work went on without serious interruption.
In the entire work of construction there was only one fatality, a good record considering the magnitude of the work done. About a year after the McManigal incident, three of the workers were busy fastening the cornice to the northeast corner of the building when a large section gave way. One of the three men who fell was killed, and the other two seriously injured, while still another man who was working below was hurt by falling débris.
The contractors in the process of building were subjected to one delay over which they had no possible control. Skyros marble was used in great quantity in the fine staircase of the administration build- ing and also in paneling the walls of the corridors in front of the city council rooms and elsewhere. This marble, the same which many years ago was used in ancient Asian or Grecian palaces and temples, came from an island in the ÆEgean Sea, and was imported here at great expense. Trouble broke out in the Near East, when Greece, who for many years had been crushed under the harsh rule of the Ottoman Turk, allied herself with other peoples of the Near East and threw off the yoke. While this was going on there was little exporting of materials and the marble was delayed for some time.
In any large public and spacious building the problem of acoustics invariably rises. In the auditorium of the municipal group, the acous- tic situation is a happy one, since there is little or no rebounding of sound through the hall. When Madame Schumann-Heink, the world-renowned singer, gave a concert here, she was delighted with the hall from this point of view, and paid the city a high compliment. Later, Paderewski, the great pianist, declared publicly that the hall was the finest he had ever played in.
The approximate total cost of the municipal group, after its com- pletion, was about $1,900,000, or a per capita cost of about nine- teen dollars per person. The buildings are modeled somewhat on the style of the famous Parthenon in Greece. The bells in the cam- panile are not church bells, but community bells, and Ernest Newton Bagg is the official bell-ringer. There are about a dozen bells in the belfrey, and these were cast by the grandson of Meneely of Troy, who in 1856, cast the old city hall bell. Each of the bells is a gift, the largest being from the city of Springfield. On one side of it is
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the same inscription as that contained on the old city hall bell, and on the other side is inscribed: "Municipal Campanile, Springfield, Mass., July 4, 1913. 'For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday.'" The other and smaller bells were given by the school children of Springfield and by individual citizens.
On holidays such as Easter and Christmas the song of the bells in appropriate hymns rings out over the city. The bells are also rung when a visiting personage comes to the city. When Marshal Foch came to Springfield shortly after the World War the "Marseillaise" was the principal song, although other military airs, both American and French, were played. It is also the custom for the bells to ring before a convention, and on Sundays various anthems are played.
The campanile bells were the first in the United States to sound an old Hebrew tune, the "Hatikvah," or "Song of Hope." The request for the hymn came from a rabbi, when a Jewish assembly was convening in the city, and the bell-ringer was amazed, when he looked down, to see a number of orthodox and devout Jews bowed in prayer as the sound of the bells rang forth.
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