Smith Carriage Company District

Three industrial buildings line Park Street in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts, all built for the Smith Carriage Company as the firm grew. The earliest, from the late 19th century, is a three-story, seven-bay brick building with broad segmental arched windows and a corbelled brick cornice. Two later buildings from the 1920s are four-story steel and concrete structures faced in brick, with large bays of industrial sash and unusually detailed terra cotta coursing and pilasters. Each drops to two stories at Willow Street. The company was founded on Park Street in 1827 by David Smith, and his son William H. Smith took over in 1873. The firm made light carriages and is credited with supplying the first frame used for an automobile by the Stevens Duryea Company, a second-hand buggy frame. Between 1910 and 1920 it turned to auto body parts, continuing until the 1940s. The district covers about one acre and preserves the company's remaining buildings.