What The Hotel Charles Saw

But the program was one from a grant from the Springfield people wind up. And by the members of 57. In December 1996 after years of often angry debate and months of planning the Wrecking Crew has moved in to start tearing down the old hotel charts once a proud Springfield landmark. More recently a symbol of urban blight and decay. Charles and its predecessor on the spot stood near the railroad hundred forty nine three years before Springfield even incorporated as a city. And so the century and a half from the founding of police to the demolition of the charms gives us the story not only of this building but of Springfield itself as it grew and changed. Good times and bad came to be the city.

When Justin Cooley decided to come to Springfield in 1848 Springfield was a POW. It was not yet a City Springfield geographically was much bigger than we know it today because it included chicken which had not yet broken away from Springfield. That was to happen later on in 1840 leaving Springfield with a very small population of just about 10000 people. The city fathers had hoped to go ahead for incorporation as a city very soon and it left them with too small a population. So they set their minds to living with status of town for a few more years. It was on April 12th 1850 too that Springfield officially incorporated as a city of the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts the first mayor was elected winning office by a plurality of just four but Springfield was changing in other ways too. The railroad had come to this sleepy town on the banks of the Connecticut. The railroad was new to Springfield Springfield at that point in time we're still relying on other modes of transportation but the railroad very very clearly was coming into the forefront and it shifted the focus for the first time ever since settlement by William pension away from court square where the meeting areas were the church was where Town Hall was over. Northward to where the tracks in the deeper work. So Springfield was on the cost of some very major change. It was about to grow into adolescence and Lee its early tiny status as it was a rather small and slowly growing place into the

boom years of being a big city. Springfield until eighteen forty eight had no reason to have many hotels. It was sufficient to have a few in here and there because think it was not a place that people came to want for that matter through there but the railroad gave people new reason to come here and this railroad was at a crucial crossroads because this is where all the lines began to hook up so sprinkler was the place. It became a destination point and to be a destination point really transformed the complection forever. The coolie house holy house started out as one structure and then land was acquired and two parcels put together and there was an addition in the 1860s and they on for use was needed and so for us there was a lease and then a further acquisition and even that was was just

bulging at the seams because people were coming there and staying there they were eating there. There were reading rooms they are bottom of the street level have shops. It was every bit a big city hotel in the ground in honor. What hotel saw all around it in its earliest years was a small very provincial community. Most of Springfield's buildings in that era were not more than three stories high. It was not a city which included large buildings largely because fire fighting was very limited. Springfield had at that point I'm not put an awful lot of money into its fire department and so people were fearful of constructing anything terribly much larger sprinkler is very slow in introducing any public transportation. So you would have seen down on the street the level of Main Street and layer of the pattern which it is laid is not so different than you would see each day you would

recognize the main street you would see people walking about. You would see lots of horses lots of congestion with horses in carts and carriages. There were many schools in Springfield in those years Springfield certainly was not known for its good schools in fact it had rather neglected them. So if you look down on the horizon you wouldn't find many educational institutions at all. And Springfield at that point in time still have no libraries. Unlike a lot of smaller towns that surrounded the town of Springfield It was very sluggish on promoting culture it was a town with lots and lots of limitations and it still needed to grow up and to work. All of America would soon grow up and mature through four years of brutal civil war in a Springfield merchant would play a key role in events leading to that. John Browne a partner in the Brookings and Brown Bull business you're vehemently opposed slavery. Brown worship

at the Stanford Street Church Springfields first African-American congregation. It is now St. John's Church. John Browne used his wool warehouse as a hideout for runaway slaves escaping the south heading for Canada on the Underground. Ron would later be hanged by the federal government for his attack on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry where he sought weapons to arm Asli insurrection. Springfield Technical Community College history student Jim Westbrook has extensively researched this period of Springfield's past to create an African-American heritage trail. She says John Brown's Franklin Street home also showed evidence of his help for runaway slaves when it was demolished back in the early 70s they found tunnels underneath the house and possibly those were that was a hiding place for slaves and his house was said to be not furnished very well. You know his family decided to. Spend the extra money and helping runaway slaves.

The Springfield woods we're going to roll are also said to have been part of the slaves escape. That was one of the drop off points when pieces of slaves entered the city. That was a drop off point there and also there was a bright would choose as a place they had a house there where they could have them stay instead of staying in someone's home if it was dangerous to have them stay in John Brown's home. They would get things here as far as I understand that would help them survive the trip. For instance clothing when they were coming from the south they have a different climate. They needed clothing they needed to be able to do your will the winter or whatever whatever kind of climatic changes that they were going to be in the hundreds. Springfield was home to a significant African-American population. It was a reasonably affluent community in other words you did not have a lot of people that would be living below what we would call the poverty line today. Very family oriented. A good deal of social life particularly for

African-Americans would have been with the church and the church would have provided a great deal of activity. And after the Sanford Street Church became St. John's Church it did an awful lot about trying to help people get employment and to do your work. Many of the problems that they had they dealt with them in a very communal way. We had people like Thomas Thomas who owned a restaurant and walk right into the street. A very successful restaurant along with Aaron Brown was a founding member of the legal bill of rights and we have promised Mason who was originally from MIT. Months of mass were found well in doing various jobs such as undertaking dead animals to splitting a bit in most purchasing parcels of land that weren't in the area such as Mason Square area. One hundred sixty seven Springfield men would give their lives for the union in the civil war. Two hundred fifteen men from across western Massachusetts died in the battle of Gettysburg alone.

Springfield them this period was a time of enormous growth. The federal armory established here by George Washington turned out many of the weapons that would win the war for the North. Gormley writes about local history for the Springfield Journal. I think they're producing their hype about nickel and rifles that believe but one of the things that the armory it now maybe provided the weapons that the Union Army would like but it also developed a tremendous amount of craftsman and these 2 are tool makers machinists and other other individuals who when the war was over you know they still continued working in other industries in the area and it took quite a strong nucleus of really well-trained talented and kind of. Step the stage

or frankly a commune in that industrial age. There are a substantial number of people who have made this raid during the Civil War in lying communities who worked in the armory related and those related industries would include the automobile and is the twentieth century Dawn Springfield was at the center of efforts in this country to produce a marketable horseless carriage. Then the only part of the century which might be a would really the heart of the automobile industry in the country and certainly in New England at one time we had 20 different automobile companies located in the area with the brothers. They were the first car in America in 1903 and then the other companies like Knox for example Knox who was really one of the major

auto video doctors in the area and 1895 built and sold 13 of its gas powered automobile and became the first automobile manufacturer to incorporate in the first to publish a catalogue of its products. The company by then Stevens your yang would make its last car there in those years. Even the British automaker Rolls-Royce established a factory in Springfield to produce its cars for the American. In the first decades of this century Springfield was an economic powerhouse. In 1990 total assessed property stood at nearly one hundred eight million dollars in the city and one thousand a population of just under eighty nine thousand. Roughly eight times what it had been just 60 years before. In 1013 the magnificent new municipal buildings City Hall symphony in the company of bell tower were dedicated with former President William Howard Taft guestimate. And while the economy continues to soar as the armory was again called on to arm our forces heading off to Europe

for the first 8000 Springfield resident served 165 never 920 Springfields population was roughly 130000 and a massive three million dollar project was getting underway to construct a magnificent new bridge across the Connecticut there was a tremendous amount of discussion over it before they finally got ready to even start building the bridge. You're talking about going into the era of the automobile. Following World War 1. When people were ready to make a change it was a major project. This employed hundreds of men. The celebration when the bridge was finally ready for a dedication was basically like a three day that and a group

of people the governor the state and some other dignitaries good men and it was just one massive three day there to celebrate the great completion of a bridge between two cities and west through the 20s and into the 30s new modes of transportation continue to be a part of the Springfield picture. The local craftsman the grandmothers building and flying their aircraft sitting in Springfield. As the boom years of the Roaring Twenties were coming to a close. A huge new railroad union station was being built in Springfield and the old hotel next door was adding an 11 story tower. It also had a new name hotel Charles honoring its owner Charles Sheen and his business associate Charles Tenney timing for expansion however. Good night at the hotel Charles decided to go ahead with a major expansion as quickly as possible to

meet the needs and again take advantage of the economic opportunities presented by this new union station. In all the people that it was going to deliver right into the immediate area it was decided to take advantage of a very small parcel of land and since it could not expand outward it would have to expand upward and it did. The tower as it was called was constructed and it was ready in 1929 just in time for the stock market crash and the beginning words of the Great Depression. And that Charles the fancy new Charles with its new Looming Tower never became that four star hotel that it was supposed to or it was that era. Twenty nine thirty six thirty seven

when there was a moment of some odd of on them. And people would travel much certainly. People were traveling for why you're like the entire nation Springfield felt the pain of the Great Depression with thousands out of work. And as elsewhere the federal government stepped in in Springfield in 1983 alone 4000 people found work in government sponsored programs. When President Roosevelt introduced the programs of the year some of the other program. And what that meant is that when you get a job a job that would pay them enough money to help support you know there were great projects that went on in the city of Spring Hill at that time. For example the South Branch Parkway and North Bridge Barclay area all of that was built with primarily with labor but with

on for example that the area is hard to park we all built by that federal money that if that only employed people it would take the second world war to make the economy here and across the country healthy again and once more the Springfield Armory was booming and hiring as the 1040 employment reached the peak of ten thousand people and I think the major parts when they were women and who were working in both the State Street and the water and they were the largest employer in the area at that time. Westinghouse had a major plaid that norm and there were just a number of industries and Springfield was bend that they for the hotel Charles. This period marked a final period of prosperity. You would not see again. When World War Two ended so did the era of the big downtown

hotels that depended on rail travelers for much of their clientele. Now the automobile was king and if you were taking your car when you traveled you needed a place to park a motor hotel motel parking right at the door to your room propped up on the outskirts of most cities including Springfield. The area of downtown itself. Center of city life was in two people were no longer traveling by train at one time. During World War II who had 900 trains that day were coming in well and already people were buying cards again. When the railroad transportation declined that really I think that you could see the change where people started to move to the suburbs and then what happened you begin to see the decline of TV started the demand. People did make the movie.

You started the closing the movie you began who the wine stores in the area. By 1960 Springfields population stood just shy of one hundred and seventy five thousand people postwar continued. Cities factories and workshops turned out electrical and metalworking machinery firearms and textiles. Eleven years earlier in 1949 the trolley tracks had been taken up downtown. Another victim. There was still public transportation. A bus ride in Springfield cost 25 cents in 1961. An important part of Springfield's industrial life was about to become history in the 60s. In 1964 the Department of Defense announced plans to close the federal armory here ending 170 years of production of weapons used in every war by the United States. Despite intense lobbying by armored workers and Massachusetts politicians which did delay the shutdown. Springfield

Armory finally closed its doors for good. In 1968 the armory shutdown wasn't the only shock. The 60 rock in Springfield there was on rest here and across the country as African-Americans fought for equal civil rights and economic opportunity. In August of 1965 one thousand Massachusetts National Guard troops and three hundred police were called out when 900 demonstrators marched to Springfield city hall protesting racial conditions in the city. In the 1600s David Duncan was the first African-American to serve on and later chair Springfields police commission. Duncan remembers the Springfield of that day as a place that was socially if not legally segregated by race and he remembers the hotel Charles as the kind of place that symbolized that separation for him that child doesn't leave really favorable members to me because I know young men who try to work down there.

You could try to hustle street shot and you know they chase them away but I would go out and you know there were several African-Americans working there but you know they were working and we waited for like we would be walking by today because the waiters were black and the maid you deal with black and in most cases they knew everyone. So you know that we were been a big problem there with something that you were putting money into a person's pocket. We really didn't want you did that once you got what you wanted to do. I personally got in you know go to play. Like the 60s also brought a new term to American cities. Urban renewal the idea was to tear down old buildings and neighborhoods to make way for modern development. Charles with its historic status was spared but it was still a victim when the city of Springfield embark in the late 1960s mid-1960s on the massive north and urban renewal

plan. The hotel Charles was left standing like an island in the midst of nothing. It's because there was nothing. Everything around it all of its old neighborhoods all of its old connections architectural and they were all bulldozed history. And so there is still an a la the Charles was no longer a home away from home to business travelers and distinguished visitors people like baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig both of whom once dated the Charles. Now it was home to the poor and the elderly retirees and welfare recipients could afford nothing better. In 1988 who told Chas would suffer one more indignity on June twenty ninth of that year. Fire ripped through the oldest most historic portions of the building that dated to the coolie. It was a devastating fire and having walked through as much of the building as one sort of safe like. You could

see the ravages and the fact that it was going on. Still the Charles was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it would be another eight years before all the legal and financial hurdles could be cleared and the Charles would come down. Richard Wilkins project manager for architects incorporated in Hampton firm hired to bring the Charles down. Luke recalls what he found on his first inspection as he prepared for the demolition. Everything was lost everything was broken up the doors the elevator doors stairwells were half gone and some places just an awful awful story. And to renovate it would cost. I couldn't give you a figure but it would be millions. There's no there was no code compliance. OK I mean you had well handicapped if you were everything you'd have to bring up about about 10 days to clean every single floor out we would clean a floor a day. In other words taking the mattresses

the furniture your bed springs you name it that bicycles were in you know I mean magazines all kinds of stuff. The wrecking ball and another demolition tool called the spear each weighing three tons were the primary tools of destruction and the spear turned out to be worked out wonderfully kind of able to snap the rivets right off the steel girders and just kept popping them away you know the theory was always to remove the brick away from the building so you could grab the steel and snap it but apart. This looks like people are building apart. And you work your way from side to side. OK. You would take a couple stories in a couple stories now and do the same on the other side. So you keep total balance of the building. If you want all one way you could lose the building. Initial plans called for bringing the Charles down quickly and it was hoped inexpensively with explosives that idea had to be dropped in part because of all the especially its most obvious vessels in the on the pipes.

Of those 11 pipe cases that went up to feed all the heaters for the building. We got to open up my case and clean out all the inspections ring type building and that was that was a deal in itself and there was a number of issues why we didn't elect to go to building number one. It was still attached to Union Station. OK. Number two you have to block off all the other hand or you're going to surround windows for quite a distance. Never got that far along. I'll probably have to go. The building is built on clay and if you drop 11 stories on clay you can imagine the ripple effect you would get not only with the railway station but downtown but the Charles resisted demolition with its sturdily constructed ceilings and especially its thick wall and they were all fill six horses that were all put together and at first I did notice that it looked like it wasn't going to go on all day and then finally when I used these rubber depicted in the

side of the building and expose the steel then it made it easier. Very well built. The whole building and you can see now where the basement and you can see the footings in the basement and the columns. This thing with together very well put together. All the ceilings were white a lath and plaster wood with girders going across from each room. OK there was no like drop ceilings and stuff like that. This is this was solid This is a good very well built building. Hotel Charles has been a symbol of blight in Springfield for so long it has hindered economic development in my opinion that end of the city. And as much as I would have liked to have preserved it the fact was that we went out to our heat several times it was no interest by any developer the fact was that it was going to cost three or four hundred dollars a square foot were new construction about 50 or 60 dollars a square foot just was going to happen. It just didn't make any sense for me to keep it up any longer. Or Mayor Michael albino bringing the Charles down became a key to bringing new economic

activity to the northern fringe of downtown. And just as the Charles from its beginnings at schoolies hotel has mirrored the growth and change of Springfield for a century and a half now too in its demolition can be seen the seeds of what may be downtown Springfield future really becomes a fascinating concept to lure people in into downtown Springfield. Every major city has to have a strong central business core and that would be what we envision here and that has economic benefits to the outlying districts as well. Any time you get into an older urban area such as Springfield you're going to have to do these types of things to make the city vibrant again to be competitive. And if you don't do that and you remain stagnant then you lose in this business. It means that we're not going to just continue to look at the past that we have a new vision for the future of the city. The

preceding program was for the people.