Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District

On a hill in Springfield, Massachusetts, this 22.6-acre district combines a civic and cultural Quadrangle with nearby residential streets. The Quadrangle, arranged around a central green, holds the neo-Renaissance Central Library of 1909, the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, the Museum of Science, the Pynchon Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, along with Christ Church. East of it, Elliot Street includes the 1811 Alexander House, built by Simon Sanborn from plans by Asher Benjamin, St. Michael's Cathedral and its rectory, and Stick Style houses of 1868. North of the Quadrangle, Mattoon Street has Mansard rowhouses from the 1870s, H.H. Richardson's North Congregational Church of 1873, and plainer later houses, including Queen Anne examples of 1887. The district was recognized for its range of nineteenth-century architecture and for serving as the city's cultural center in a distinctive open setting. Its buildings reflect every era of Springfield's history from 1811 to the present.