Winchester Square Historic District

Winchester Square Historic District is a T-shaped industrial area at State Street and Wilbraham Road, east of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. It developed around the Springfield and New London Railroad tracks laid in 1875, and its brick buildings range from one to six stories. Key structures include Armory Station (1875), the Winchester Square Fire Station (1886, remodeled 1915), the Knox Automobile Company building (built in stages from 1891 to 1910), and the large Indian Motocycle plant, which incorporates the Springfield Industrial Institute (1895) and the former Bullard Arms factory (1883). The district matters for three reasons. The Industrial Institute and later Mechanic Arts High School offered unusual technical education. Knox made motorized fire apparatus used in Springfield. The Hendee Manufacturing Company, later Indian Motocycle, was the first to build gasoline-engine motorcycles commercially in the United States and employed over 3,000 people at its peak. It is also the city's largest surviving group of turn-of-the-century industrial buildings.