Springfield High School of Science and Technology

Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy (formerly Roger L. Putnam Vocational-Technical High School) is an American vocational high school located in Springfield, Massachusetts, next to the Springfield High School of Science and Technology. Led by principal George Johnson and operating under the authority of the Springfield School Committee, Putnam Vocational provides academic and vocational instruction to students in grades nine through twelve throughout the Springfield area. The school is receiving Title I funds from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The history of Springfield, Massachusetts dates back to the colonial period, when it was founded in 1636 as Agawam Plantation, named after a nearby village of Algonkian-speaking Native Americans. It was the northernmost settlement of the Connecticut Colony. The settlement defected from Connecticut after four years, however, later joining forces with the coastal Massachusetts Bay Colony. The town changed its name to Springfield, and changed the political boundaries among what later became the states of New England. The decision to establish a settlement sprang in large part from its favorable geography, situated on a steep bluff overlooking the Connecticut River's confluence with three tributaries. It was a Native American crossroad for two major trade routes: Boston-to-Albany and New York City-to-Montreal. Springfield also sits on some of the northeastern United States' most fertile soil.Springfield flourished for the decades after its founding, operating as a trading post surrounding by numerous colonial farmsteads. The nearby Indian tribes were gradually displaced by colonial settlement and by the late 17th century became gradually confined to a palisaded fort on Long Hill. During King Philip's War, a pan-tribal effort to expel the colonists from their settlements in New England, a successful Indian attack on Springfield destroyed the settlement. After being rebuilt, Springfield's prosperity waned for the next hundred years but, in 1777, Revolutionary War leaders made it a National Armory to store weapons, and in 1795 it began manufacturing muskets. Until 1968, the Armory made small arms. Its first American muskets (1794) were followed by the famous Springfield rifle and the revolutionary M1 Garand and M14s. The Springfield Armory attracted generations of skilled laborers to the city, making it the United States' longtime center for precision manufacturing (comparable to a Silicon Valley of the Industrial Revolution). The Armory's near-capture during Shays Rebellion of 1787 was among the troubles that prompted the U.S. Constitutional Convention later that year.Innovations in the 19th and 20th centuries include the first American English dictionary (1805, Noah Webster), the first use of interchangeable parts and the assembly line in manufacturing (1819, Thomas Blanchard), the first American horseless car (1825, again Thomas Blanchard), vulcanized rubber (1844, Charles Goodyear), the first American gasoline-powered car (1893, Duryea Brothers), the first American motorcycle company (1901, "Indian"), an early commercial radio station (1921, WBZ), and most famously, the world's third-most-popular sport of basketball (1891, Dr. James Naismith).

Upper Hill is a neighborhood in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Bay neighborhood is located in Springfield, Massachusetts. It covers 556.5 acres of land, making it one of the city's smallest neighborhoods.

American International College (AIC) is a private university in Springfield, Massachusetts.

WAIC (91.9 FM) is the college radio station of American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is operated by the Five College Consortium's National Public Radio member station, WFCR, and serves as a relay of the all-news format airing on WFCR's sister station, WNNZ.

The Mill River is a 1.25-mile-long (2.01 km) tributary of the Connecticut River in Springfield, Massachusetts. It flows from Watershops Pond (also known as Lake Massasoit) to its confluence with the Connecticut River. It is referred to as "The Miracle Mile" in a 2009 master's thesis that outlines possibilities for reclaiming the river's mouth as a recreational area. As of 2011, the final 350 feet (110 m) of the river, including its mouth, is confined in a pipe underneath Interstate 91, railroad tracks and a car dealership. Many Springfield residents have bemoaned the loss of the Mill River as a recreational area, and hope to gain greater access to both it and the Connecticut River in upcoming years. As it has for over a century, today the Mill River serves as a barrier between Springfield neighborhoods. Surrounding it are some of the most densely urbanized locations in Springfield.At the head of the Mill River there are steep stone retaining walls that were built to prevent the river's banks from degrading any further. The Mill River was once valued for its benefits to developing industry. Today, incompatible land uses present a problem to "freeing" the river to become a recreational area again. A 2009 master's thesis described a plan that could revitalize the Mill River and its surrounding neighborhoods by remaking the river as a recreational attraction, connecting the Connecticut River and the Basketball Hall of Fame with Watershops Pond and Springfield College.

Stagg Field is an athletic field on the campus of Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts. With bleacher seating for 3,867, is it the home field for Springfield College's football, field hockey, and men's and women's lacrosse team. It is also used for physical education classes and intramural sports. The Springfield College men's and women's soccer teams formerly played on the field. Featuring the first Astroturf12 surface in the nation to be installed on a college playing field, it is plowable and used year-round. The field is lighted according to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) standards for night games and has a heated and air conditioned press box.The field open in 1971 as Benedum Field. It was renamed in October 2007 in honor of Amos Alonzo Stagg, who came to Springfield College—then known as then known as International YMCA Training School—and initiated the school's football program. The field was resurfaced with "monofilament FieldTurf" during the summer of 2007.Stagg Field stands on the site of the college's previous athletics stadium, Pratt Field.

Watershops Pond (or Lake Massasoit) is a lake in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. Located in the Upper Hill neighborhood, it is the city's second-largest body of water, after the Connecticut River. Watershops Pond features 7 miles of shorelines and 186 acres. It was a major site for fishing, featuring species ranging from Black Crappie, Bluegill, Brown Trout, Chain Pickerel, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Largemouth Bass, Pumpkinseed, Rainbow Trout, and Yellow Bass. The city after multiple lowering of the dam draining the pins for lengthy periods had destroyed the habitat. Not only had it decimated the fish population leaving primarily pumpkinseed, calico bass, and carp. The pond was formed by damming the Mill River, which flows out of the westernmost end and continues 1.25 miles until its confluence with the Connecticut River. In the 19th century, three separate facilities: the Upper, Middle, and Lower Watershops on Watershops Pond, were built by the Springfield Armory along a dammed stream to house heavy equipment such as trip hammers, forges, and barrel rolling machinery. Eventually, these three units were combined into one facility, known as the Water Shops, which remained in service until the Springfield Armory was controversially shut down by The Pentagon in 1968. The Watershops gave name to the lake, which had initially been called Lake Massasoit. The original Watershops building still stands on Allen Street in Springfield.Springfield College, the institution where basketball was founded in 1891, borders Watershops Pond.

Springfield Central High School (SCHS) is a public high school located in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. The high school is for students in grades 9–12. With an enrollment of more than 2,000 students, Springfield Central High School describes itself as the largest high school in western Massachusetts.

Springfield College is a private university in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is known as the birthplace of basketball because the sport was invented there in 1891 by Canadian-American instructor James Naismith. The institution's philosophy of "humanics... calls for the education of the whole person—in spirit, mind, and body—for leadership in service to others."

The New Bay Diner Restaurant is a historic diner in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was manufactured by the Mountain View Diners Company in Signac, New Jersey (as #532) in 1957; it is believed to be the second-to-last diner the company built before it shut down later that year. The diner is attached to a concrete block structure which houses the kitchen and restrooms, and appears to also date to 1957. At the time of its listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, it was one of six surviving Mountain View diners in Massachusetts, and the only diner remaining in Springfield.When the diner was listed in Springfield's 1964 business directory, it was called the New Bay Diner Restaurant, and its owner was listed as Anthony Viamare of Granby, Massachusetts. Viamare owned it until 1988, when it was acquired by Donald Roy. He changed its name to the "Route 66 Diner", which is its present name. The diner is of steel frame construction, seven window bays wide, with rounded corners. It is mounted on a concrete and brick foundation, has red horizontal banding, and a rounded rubber membrane roof. The doors are steel and glass, although elements of the vestibule do not appear to be original. Its windows are plate glass, separated by steel pilasters. There are signs on the roof, facing east and west, with the diner's name, "Route 66 Diner"; the "Diner" is highlighted in neon. Inside, the diner has a full length counter, with staff access points at the center and the left side. Access to the kitchen is by a door in the center. The diner has seventeen stools and six booths. Its interior decoration is largely original; the countertop has been replaced.