Background Note
In 1636, William Pynchon led an expedition to Western Massachusetts in hopes of establishing a trading post. Here he purchased land along the Connecticut River from native Pocumtuk or Agawam Indians. Know as “Masacksic” or “the long meddowe” the area was initially a part of Springfield. Up until 1645 the meadow was used as a common pasture, shared by all residents. It was then divided into lots for 25 families from Springfield who were permitted to build homes. These included the Bliss, Burt, Colton, Cooley, and Keep families.

The settlement grew and by the 1690s there was increasing agitation among the residents for an autonomous community. Religiously and politically the people were still part of the Springfield settlement, but they had to travel three to five miles for the frequent religious services, town meetings, and supplies.

A disastrous flood in the meadows in 1695 prompted a movement to become separate from Springfield. The meadow residents successfully petitioned in 1703 for permission to move their settlement out of the meadows and to an upper terrace east of the floodplain away from the river. A road was laid out (the present-day Longmeadow Street), and house lots were assigned. Houses were built over the next few years, and by 1709 the new homes were occupied. The residents then successfully petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to be a separate precinct within Springfield, which would enable Longmeadow residents to have their own meeting house and minister. In 1714 work was begun on a meeting house, in the center of the Green, and in 1716 Rev. Stephen Williams was ordained as the first minister of this new community.

More houses cropped up around the Green and farms were built up and down Longmeadow Street. By the 1750s houses appeared in the eastern part of Longmeadow in the area now known as East Longmeadow. Still predominantly a farming community, small shops and businesses were established around and on the Green. By 1767 the town realized a need for a larger meetinghouse and a “raising” was held to replace the original. Like many communities in the colonies, Longmeadow was touched by the ever-louder calls for Revolution. April 21, 1775 saw farmers from Longmeadow joining with Minutemen from Springfield’s militia to assist fellow colonists in Lexington and Concord. The impending war divided citizens here, as elsewhere, neighbor against neighbor, Patriot against Tory. On October 17, 1783, Longmeadow was incorporated as the first community in the newly formed Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The “East Village” section of Longmeadow split off from the “West Village” in 1894 to form the separate town now called East Longmeadow. At that time the population of East Longmeadow numbered about 1,600, leaving what we now think of as the town of Longmeadow with a population of about 570. East Longmeadow by this time was an economically and ethnically diverse community with many businesses and industries, a busy railroad yard and a dozen operational red sandstone quarries. A map of Longmeadow from that year shows approximately 100 homes, most concentrated up and down Longmeadow Street.

The arrival of the trolley line in 1896 linking Springfield to Connecticut via Longmeadow Street created rapid growth. Longmeadow was now officially a “streetcar suburb.” “South Park Estates” was the first of many new subdivisions to be built within easy access to the trolley. It was soon joined by “The Elms,” Crescent Road, Greenwood Manor, and Colony Hills. By mid-century Longmeadow had become a town with charming town buildings, an elegant Community House, several schools, and a population approaching 15,000.
 
Scope and Content Note
The Longmeadow homes collection contains materials related to a number of Longmeadow properties, many located along the town’s historic Longmeadow Street. The collection is arranged alphabetically by street name and then numerically by house number. The documentation available for each house varies but might include: Town Report covers with illustrations of specific properties, photographs, histories of homeowners, articles on architectural style, newspaper clippings and magazine articles, and typed extracts and photocopies of deeds or other primary sources.

Houses with more extensive documentation include 663 Longmeadow Street, 826 Longmeadow Street (Colton-Buxton House), 906 Longmeadow (James Coomes House), and 1060 Longmeadow Street (Marchant Samuel Colton House). Plans for 5 Laurel Street include a 1935 Olmsted Brothers study for plantings in front of the house.

In addition to information on specific properties there are also materials related to “The Green” and “The Meadows”. The collection also contains a binder with house histories and a list of past owners for a number of historic properties, the majority of which are located on Longmeadow Street. Photographs in the collection range from mounted photographs from the late 1800s to more contemporary snapshots. The collection also includes an interesting group of panoramic shots of “The Green” taken in the 1880s. A number of houses on Longmeadow Street were photographed in 1986 and those images are included here.
 
Box and Folder Listing

Scope and Content Note
The Longmeadow subject files include various materials relating to the town of Longmeadow and the surrounding area. The collection is arranged into several broad categories including businesses, general Longmeadow history, military history, transportation, and nearby towns.

Materials in the collection consist primarily of newspaper clippings, book and magazine articles, pamphlets, ephemera, written histories, and photographs. Primary source documents in the collection include several early 19th century muster rolls; a history of Civilian Defense in Longmeadow during World War II; and materials relating the Enfield Falls Dam, 1854-1856. The collection also includes materials related to Springfield, Deerfield, and Enfield, Connecticut, as well as an unpublished history of Longmeadow written in the 1960s.
 
Box and Folder Listing

Longmeadow Town Hall

Scope and Content Note
The Longmeadow Town Records located in the vault at Town Hall consist of materials created by the Town of Longmeadow. Municipal departments represented include Assessor, Board of Health, Town Clerk, Select Board, Collector of Taxes, Education, and Welfare. Records provide information related to a wide variety of town governance including the assessing and collection of taxes, real estate sales, infrastructure development, education, births, marriages, and deaths. Information on electrification, dog ownership, liquor sales, Church matters, and buggy sales can be found among the records. Records are arranged by department and are generally listed in chronological order.

The records located at Storrs House are arranged in three series. Series I is comprised of municipal records and was organized and arranged in conjunction with the material currently housed in the Town Hall vault. Additional materials related to various Town departments make up a second series of records at Storrs House. There is a combination of official municipal records, publications they generated, and newspaper articles and other materials about various town departments. The schools, including the closing of the Converse School, and the Historical District Commission are reasonably well represented. Series II also includes the original Act to Incorporate the Town of Longmeadow, 1783 and several earlier petitions and grants that relate to the forming of the Town of Longmeadow, 1707- 1782. This series also includes a small number of photographs. Series III comprises published Street Lists and Town Reports.
 
Box and Folder Listing

1894 Map of Longmeadow

Scope and Content Note
The Longmeadow maps and atlases collection documents the growth and development of Longmeadow from the early 19th century to the late 20th. Highlights in the collection include an 1831 map of Longmeadow, an 1835 map of Springfield, MA, an 1844 topographical map of Massachusetts, and an 1855 map of Hampden County, Massachusetts. In addition to plans, maps, and atlases for Longmeadow and East Longmeadow, there are plans for Colony Hills, Glen Arden, and Laurel Manor, early 20th century developments in the area. Bound atlases dating from 1894 to 1933 for Longmeadow and the surrounding area are also included. A more detailed item-level listing follows.

Five of the maps of Longmeadow have been photographed and are available as prints suitable for framing: http://www.longmeadowhistoricalsociety.com/category-s/102.htm.
 
Box and Folder Listing: Maps

Box and Folder Listing: Atlases

On Depot Road (Emerson Street)

Background Note
Emerson was born in Hopkinton, MA on February 10, 1832, the oldest child of William Goddard Emerson and Susan (Perkins) Emerson. He began work as a boot maker in Ashland; a nearby town to Hopkinton with many boot and shoe shops.

In 1863, at age 31, Paesiello enlisted as a private in the 5th Independent Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery. While his unit was in action on June 8, 1864 at Rappahannock Wilderness, Spottsylvania near Bottoms Bridge, Paesiello was wounded by a ten pound parrott shell. He recovered and saw further action until his unit returned home after the surrender in 1865. His father, stepmother, and their three young children, William, Annie, and Henry moved to Longmeadow in 1872. They purchased the home of Captain Luther Colton at 476 Longmeadow Street — now known as the Cooley-Emerson house as it was built by a Cooley in 1760. Paesiello moved to Longmeadow to live with his half-brothers and half-sister shortly after 1900.

Paesiello’s interest in photography began soon after reaching his 70th birthday in 1902. Not only are there extensive photographic images of Longmeadow a century ago, but the collection includes images of Paesiello’s hometown of Hopkintown, his later town of Spencer, and many other communities.

In August 1925, Paesiello was presented with the gold-headed ebony cane as the oldest resident in Longmeadow. At his death on December 28, 1927, he bequeathed his photographic collection to his half-sister Annie, who later gifted the entire collection to the Longmeadow Historical Society.

Scope and Content Note
There are 66 boxes of glass plate negatives, dating from early 20th century, taken by local photographer Paesiello Emerson.  As part of the Digital Commonwealth project our large collection of Emerson glass plate negatives were scanned at high resolution by the Boston Public Library.  The large majority of these photos were taken in Longmeadow but some of them were taken in other Massachusetts communities including Spencer, Holyoke, Springfield, Framingham, and East Brookfield.  The entire collection of 1,500+ photos are online on the Digital Commonwealth project website. 

Scope and Content Note
The Longmeadow Historical Society photo album collection contains photos collected by Longmeadow residents. The majority of the albums are collections of unidentified cartes de visite, though some sitters in the Booth family and the David T. Smith family albums are identified.

A set of three albums contains over 700 cartes de visite of well known (and largely identified) sitters from the worlds of literature, politics, religion, science, education, and the military. Individuals include Laura Bridgman, George Armstrong Custer, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lydia Hunt Sigourney, Asher B. Durand, Walt Whitman, P. T. Barnum, Tom Thumb, and many others. Based on Sarah Storrs’ inventory of household goods (page 15; see Accessions, Box 1), the albums were possibly compiled by Professor Richard Salter Storrs (1830-1884).

Additionally, one of the albums contains images of Amherst College, Professor Storrs’ alma mater. The collection also includes an album of photographs of the Richard Salter Storrs Library, which includes interior and exterior shots, photos of exhibitions and displays, and of visiting authors (1933-1942).
 
Box Listing

Scope and Content Note
The Longmeadow Historical Society scrapbook collection contains scrapbooks compiled by various Longmeadow individuals, including Lucy J. Smith, Annie Emerson, and Carrie A. Brewer. The majority of the scrapbooks consist of newspaper clippings, though some include manuscript material, photographs, trade cards, greeting cards, or other ephemera. Newspaper clippings cover a wide range of topics including obituaries, biographies of local citizens, weddings, area history, and other items of local interest.

Scrapbooks of particular interest include: a scrapbook of photographs and clippings documenting the 1938 New England hurricane (#16); several volumes with Paesiello Emerson’s photographs of Longmeadow homes and properties that also illustrate early infrastructure, agricultural activity including haying, as well as other localities (#35 and #37a); scrapbooks related to Longmeadow celebrations including the nation’s Bicentennial (#38 & #42) and the Longmeadow Sesquicentennial (#14); scrapbooks with valentines, Christmas cards, greeting cards, and trade cards from the 1880s (#29 and #37b); Lucy J. Smith’s scrapbooks covering Longmeadow and Springfield from the 1920s; and a scrapbook containing primary source materials including deeds, bills and receipts, passports, and other manuscripts dating from the 18th and 19th centuries related to the Lawton family (#40).

One copy of Annie Emerson’s scrapbook entitled “Longmeadow Historical Society. Memories, Past & Present” (formerly identified as #9a) is located at the Storrs Library.
 
Box and Folder Listing

Some of the many 18th century sermons in this collection

Scope and Content Note
The sermons are arranged in three series. The first is alphabetical by the minister’s name (8 boxes), the second is Ministers 1-9 (2 boxes) and the third series is unidentified sermons and sermon excerpts (2 boxes). Most folders include an item-level listing of the contents. There are also some typed transcriptions by Helen Connor, who was probably the person who initially organized this collection.
Series one includes both published sermons and manuscript sermons, most of which have a direct relationship to Longmeadow. Many of the published works have ownership inscriptions from members of local families. One of the notable published works is the “Address to the Six Nations recommending the Gospel of Saint John” by Teyoninhokarawen, written in both English and the Mohawk language (London, 1805). This series has numerous manuscript sermons by Stephen Williams, the first minister of the First Church of Christ in Longmeadow (nearly 3 boxes) as well as all three of the ministers named Richard Salter Storrs (4 boxes). Many ministers traveled to speak to different congregations, often giving the same sermon multiple times. Some, like Reverend Williams, would note the various places and dates they had given that sermon at the top of the manuscript.
Series two is comprised of sets of manuscript sermons thought to be by the same person. Since the names are not known, they are identified by number (“1” through “9”) and when known, the location and dates are also given. The nine ministers are as follows:
Minister 1: First Church of Christ in Mansfield, CT. 1786-1809, 31 pieces.
Minister 2: Ellington, CT. 1790-1797, 25 pieces
Minister 3: Easthampton, MA. 1785-1795, 22 pieces
Minister 4: Northfield (MA or CT?). 1789-1794, 13 pieces
Minister 5: Northbury (CT?). 1766-1783, 36 pieces
Minister 6: Places and dates unknown. 41 pieces filed by gospel subject
Minister 7: Places unknown. 1789-1796, 6 pieces filed by date
Minister 8: Places unknown. 1789-1811, 4 pieces filed by gospel subject
Minister 9: Charlestown. 1790-1792, 4 pieces filed by gospel subject
With additional research, the authors of some of the sermons and excerpts in this series, as well as in Series three might be able to be identified.
 
Box and Folder Listing

A listing of the first postmasters of Longmeadow compiled by William Fenton

Biographical Note
William G. Fenton was a resident of East Longmeadow and a member of the Longmeadow Historical Society. Fenton worked for the U.S. Envelope Company for 44 years and retired in 1960.

Scope and Content Note
This collection consists of research notes, rough drafts, and correspondence with people Fenton thought might be able to provide him with information related to his study of the postal history of Longmeadow. Fenton’s research resulted in two artfully arranged scrapbooks containing envelopes with Longmeadow cancellations, letters, several photographs of mail carriers from the early 1900s to 1940, brief histories of postmasters and post office locations, and a list of post office box holders from 1902. The scrapbooks also include a letter written by Mary Reynolds Schauffler, the American wife of the German missionary William Gottlieb Schauffler, while they were living in Turkey. Although Fenton’s interest was primarily in the envelope received by Amelia Reynolds of Longmeadow, Mary’s description of a plague in Turkey and general hardships is also valuable.

The collection also includes a typescript history of the first Longmeadow post office, which was in operation from 1814 to 1902. The history has biographical sketches of each of the eleven postmasters. There are also chapters on related subjects: “Post Riders and Early Colonial Posts,” “Early Roads and Paths,” “Stage Coaches,” “The Railroad,” “Longmeadow Industries,” and “Early Longmeadow History.” There is no evidence that his work was ever published.
 
Box and Folder Listing