Springfield's connections with education and culture go back to its very beginnings when it was founded in 1636.
Springfield Symphony Hall, one of the many venues that highlight culture and education in the city celebrating its 375th anniversary in 2011.Springfield’s connections with education and culture go back to its very beginnings when it was founded in 1636 by a religious scholar and writer who had the distinction of having a book he wrote be the first literature banned and burned in Boston.
After the banning of his book, “The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption,” in 1651, William Pynchon left the community he founded in the hands of his son John and returned to England in 1652.
The tiny settlement, which recorded 74 inhabitants in 1664, seemed more interested in surviving in these early years then getting involved in culture and education, save for the mandatory Sabbath teachings of its Puritan ministers. In 1677, just two years after the settlement was nearly completely destroyed in an attack during King Philip’s War, a man named Daniel Benton was employed as Springfield’s first teacher.
In 1679, the townspeople voted to construct the first public school house near the present day site of where Liberty Street ends at Interstate 91. The costs of the school house and “schoolmr’s” salary are listed in the town records along with bounty payments for dead wolves, fines for swine without yokes, and law forbidding the picking of wild hops until after September fifth.
Public education flourished in Springfield where school houses were erected throughout the settlement by the mid 19th century nearly 2,000 students were enrolled and a high school was erected in 1848 on Court Square.
Wealthy Springfield families had been sending their children to private schools and colleges with several graduating from Harvard and Yale. The Dwight family that settled in Springfield can boast two Yale Presidents, both named Timothy.
Even though Springfield’s population didn’t reach 10,000 until 1840, it was a popular stop on the lecture circuit and the town was dotted with halls and public meeting places that were used for everything from traveling minstrel shows, magic acts, and book readings. At one point in the late 1800s Springfield boasted three opera houses and theaters where the most famous actors of the day performed. One happened to be John Wilkes Booth. In 1851 citizens of the community were enthralled by Jenny Lind.
It was into this environment that permanent cultural institutions began to be established. By the late 1850s there was a library and museum on State Street. Before the turn of the 20th century Springfield College, Bay Path Institute and American International College were established. Western New England College would follow and finally Springfield Technical Community College.
The tradition of Springfield supporting the most important public speakers of the day has been carried on by the Springfield Public Forum which celebrated 75 years of providing free public lectures last year.
Add to this cultural mix, the Springfield Armory Historic Site, a world class orchestra in the Springfield Symphony Orchestra which plays out of Symphony Hall, a building celebrating its 100th birthday next year, the Basketball Hall of Fame to mark the birthplace of basketball, our own theater company in CityStage, the Community Music School to assure a steady stream of local talent for years to come, and you certainly have something for everybody.