South Main Street School, Springfield Massachusetts
Springfield's growth in the late 19th century was unprecedented, with increased urban density and industrial development. The formerly sparsely populated South End became a center of inexpensive housing. Large numbers of immigrants flocked to the South End, attracted in part by the area's proximity to Springfield's industrial center and by its new trolley system. During the 1880s, several new streets were laid out off Main Street and were soon lined with two-family houses. A brick three-room schoolhouse, built ca. 1840 on nearby York Street, was no longer adequate.
In 1895, the city purchased the large corner lot at Main Street and Acushnet Avenue from developers A. A. and S. T. Ball. The new school, completed in 1897, offered a vastly increased space for elementary education as well as the most up-to-date concepts of ventilation, heating, and sanitation. The South Main Street School was part of a citywide trend toward building new schools and enlarging and improving existing neighborhood schools in Springfield.
The South Main Street School is an unusually fine and well-preserved example of schoolhouse architecture. It retains its original, high-quality Renaissance Revival-style features. The building is a rare schoolhouse design from the later part of the career of Springfield architect Francis Richmond.
Francis R. Richmond (1851-1907) joined the Springfield architectural firm of Perkins and Gardner in 1870. When E. C. Gardner left the firm to set up his own practice in the mid 1870s, Richmond continued in Gardner's service. In 1882, Richmond entered into a partnership with B. Hammett Seabury, a recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The firm of Richmond and Seabury received several municipal contracts in Springfield. Surviving examples include the Oak Street (1883), Tapley (1887), and Jefferson Avenue (1888) schools. All feature Richardsonian Romanesque arches, brick and stone masonry, and picturesque massing. Richmond and Seabury also designed the Queen Anne-style Hale Smith House (1883) and E. S. Sweatland House (1886) in Springfield.
The partnership dissolved in 1891, and Richmond established his own practice in Springfield. While his first independent commissions (including the North Main Street Fire Station, 1892, still standing) continued in the same Romanesque style he had favored earlier, Richmond began to move toward Renaissance Revival styling by the mid-1890s. Symmetry and classically derived detailing marked this period of Richmond's work and continued until the end of his career. In addition to the school, other examples include the panel brick Stacy Building (1893), and the Brewer Building (1893), both commercial buildings in downtown Springfield, the Memorial Church Parish House (1894-1895), and the Springfield Industrial Institute (1895).
Building Description
The South Main Street School faces northwest on the corner of South Main Street and Acushnet Avenue in a neighborhood that mixes late 19th and early 20th-century housing with commercial storefronts. It is located in Springfield's South End, approximately one mile from the city's downtown section.
The symmetrically designed South Main Street School is rectangular in plan with a central pedimented entrance pavilion. Two five-bay classroom wings flank this nine-bay central section. Built of brick, the two-story building has finely detailed classical ornamentation of both brick and terra-cotta.
The school rests on a granite foundation topped by a brownstone water table, which acts as a continuous lintel for the high basement windows. A low flight of granite steps leads to the center entrance pavilion on the building's main, northwestern facade. The two-story building is surmounted by a low-hipped roof with a central gable. The gable's pediment, trimmed with tin cornice and dentils, contains a lunette. There are four symmetrically placed chimneys and a single roof hatch.
The main facade, on Acushnet Avenue, is dominated by the nine-bay central entrance pavilion. The entryway is recessed behind three arched openings separated by brick piers. The piers are rusticated to resemble masonry. First-story window openings surrounding the entry are grouped in pairs and have brownstone sills. A brownstone cornice and frieze separate the first and second stories of the pavilion, and "1895" is embossed on the frieze immediately above the central doorway. The pavilion's second story features a nine-bay arcade with brick pilasters, terra-cotta capitals, and arches. In the arch spandrels are eight decorative medallions, four of which contain masks said to portray Benjamin Franklin. The remaining four have oak-leaf rosettes. A classically inspired entablature defines the top of the building. Above, the tin-trimmed pediment contains a tympanum with brick frieze and terra-cotta framed lunette.
Flanking the central pavilion are two projecting sections, five bays each, set off by rusticated brick quoining. Rectangular fenestration is capped by shallow keystones, and individual openings are separated by brownstone-engaged columns. The bays are symmetrically aligned. Capping both sections is a low brick balustrade.
The school's nine-bay western and eastern facades are framed by brick quoining and capped by brick balustrades. Both have single central windows flanked by four window groups. Brownstone-engaged columns define each window opening on the western facade, while those on the east are separated by brick piers and those on the first floor are capped by a brick keystone. The western facade faces Main Street and has decorative metal letters, spelling out the school's name, between the first and second stories. A one-by-four-bay single-story brick addition extends from the rear portion of the eastern side of the building.
The symmetrical rear elevation is divided into five sections. Dominating the facade is a slightly projecting nine-bay central portion with fenestration and ornamentation similar to that on the eastern and western facades. Two recessed single-bay sections flank the center. At either end of the building, slightly projecting five-bay sections reflect the arrangement of the main facade. Roof treatments likewise echo the Acushnet Street facade, with two small gables above the entablature of each of the recessed entrances.
The interior retains its original floors, staircases, and much of its woodworking. Particularly noteworthy is the wainscotting in several classrooms.
The South Main Street School ceased its function as a full-time elementary school in the mid-1970s. For several years, the building housed special education classes, but it was vacated in 1982.
Future plans call for the school to be converted to housing for the elderly.
View of main facades
