I was immensely impressed by Springfield during my short visit there. The Springfield Museums system punches well above its weight with a balanced portfolio of five museums in arts, history, and science. Famous children’s book author Dr. Seuss was also from Springfield, this city’s main peacetime claim to fame. During wartime, Springfield was the beating heart of the American government’s small arms manufacturing industry from independence to the Vietnam War. It made everything from rifles for the Civil War and machine guns for draftees to Southeast Asia.
I was slightly confused when I saw a Venetian clock tower next to Springfield’s city hall and the Italianate architecture of the public library, but it made sense when I learned that the city absorbed waves of Italian immigrants from 1860 to 1920. They got their first Italian-American mayor in 2007.
