A piece of history is missing from a downtown park in Springfield, Massachusetts: a nearly 140-year-old bench. Its fate was unclear for a short time, but with officials confirming it’s in storage, advocates are calling for quick action to return and repair it.
The whereabouts of a nearly 137-year-old, pink granite bench were up in the air for a while, after the stone seating was recently removed from Stearns Square.
When exactly that happened isn’t clear, and for a short time last week, it also wasn’t clear where it ended up, either.
The confusion culminated in a press conference last week, where members of the Springfield Preservation Trust and others gathered where the 25-foot-long-bench once stood.
“The bench was iconic and was designed for this very specific place on earth,” said Erica Swallow, advocacy and community engagement coordinator for the Trust, describing the bench’s history last Wednesday, Oct. 2. “You could sit on one side of the bench and admire the fountain. You could sit on the other side of the bench and admire the statue.”
Dating back to 1887, the bench was one of several key features of Stearns Square – a small green space in the city’s Metro Center designed by architect, Stanford White.
With seating on all sides, the bench sat almost squarely between a turtle fountain and what’s referred to as “The Puritan" statue, which ended up being moved next to the Springfield Central Library in later years.
Now, there’s just a fountain with no water flowing and a long stretch of short barriers surrounding where the bench once sat.
By the end of last week, though, the mystery surrounding where it went was also gone.
“We were being told it was in safekeeping, but we were not given any photos or videos to showcase that,” Swallow explained in an interview with WAMC. “Now that a photo has … come to light, we’re concerned because we see tooling marks on the granite.”
Swallow referred to a report and photo from the Springfield Republican that indicated the bench had been disassembled and was being stored in a garage belonging to the city’s parks department.
She says, according to Parks, Buildings, and Recreation Management Director Tom Ashe, the bench had structural damage, with large chunks reportedly missing, in addition to cracks and chips.
However, she says the photo featured by the newspaper shows the pink granite may have ended up being damaged during the removal, claiming that tooling marks were evident.
A spokesperson for Mayor Domenic Sarno says the bench was likely removed sometime after July and that, currently, the timeline for restoring it is “budgetary” – meaning, it’s a matter of when a request for repair funding makes its way through the city council.
For Swallow, the ordeal is an odd one, given that, from what she understands, the bench had already been repaired at one point in 2019, without the need for removal. Why that couldn’t happen again wasn’t immediately clear.
All the while, she says, the incident exposes a blind spot in historic preservation in the city. Specifically, the city’s demolition delay ordinance for historic structures – which only appears to cover historic buildings 75 years or older, she says.
“This is a huge blind spot for public art, public features like this, other historical structures - for a 136-, almost 137-year-old bench to have been moved without the public having any engagement in the matter, is a huge blind spot,” she said. “I believe, and the Trust believes, that historic art and structures should be included in that demo delay ordinance. In that scenario, the Parks Department would have had to chat with the Springfield Historical Commission to see what the people feel about this.”
In the meantime, Swallow says she and other Trust members want to see the bench return to Stearns Square, as well as a plan for how that will happen from Ashe and Mayor Sarno.
Speaking with WAMC, Sarno says the bench is safe and will make its return when it’s fiscally responsible.
“It was brought to the attention of Parks and Facilities Director Tom Ashe that the bench was a little bit unstable, some structural damage … it was sinking, and you don't want anybody to get hurt, so it was delicately taken out to be looked at. It's being properly stored so it can be restored, and then at that point in time, it'll go back - plain and simple!” Sarno said. “Nobody’s looking to do anything clandestine here at all. It's all to make sure we preserve the history of the bench, and also, making sure that nobody gets hurt utilizing the bench. Plain and simple.”
In the time since the Oct. 7 airing of this story, WAMC has been informed via the Springfield Preservation Trust that it had been contact with the mayor's office. According to Swallow, correspondence with Sarno last week indicated a timeline for the bench’s return would be developed by Ashe.
Requests to have the matter addressed at a future Springfield Historical Commission meeting, as well as potential ordinance changes related to the bench removal, are said to be under review.
