Springfield Technical High School - Springfield, Massachusetts

Here are some postcard views of the former Springfield (Mass) Technical High School.   Built in 1905 on Elliot Street, it served the city for some 81 years before it was closed in 1986.

This above is was postmarked June 1910, probably sent as a keepsake of a graduation ceremony.

Here above is from 1915.  On the back a lady named Marion (?) wrote "We had a very nice trip up and the graduation was a very pretty one well worth seeing.   We went to Forrest Park here to-day.  It is a lovely big park with all sorts of amusements for children..."

Above is postmarked October 1912, with male figures drawn in front of the building.  A student wrote this at what must have been the beginning of the school year, "School in here is quite different.  I like it very much."  He writes to a lady in Monson, Mass.

The building had a capacity of 900 students.  When it closed in 1986, this school as well as Classical High School were joined together in a new school far away from downtown, but still called Central High School.  Perhaps Technical High School's most famous grads were Ernest "Bunny" Taliaferro, its greatest athlete; and Congressman Richard E. Neal.

Most of the building has been torn down, but the front section is used as the facade for the Springfield Data Center, a modern building constructed behind it.

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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War;   Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts;   States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.