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Springfield Museums

Springfield Museums

Open Today 10am - 5pm

The Turnverein

October 26, 2021

The Turnverein was a German-American club founded in Springfield in 1855 to promote physical fitness and social activities. After moving around to several locations within the city, the organization opened their own building on State Street in 1885. This location served as the club’s home during the years that Ted lived in Springfield. Ted’s parents and grandparents were all loyal members of the Turnverein and this organization played an important role in Ted’s early development.

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Sumner Avenue School

Sumner Avenue School, located in the heart of the Forest Park neighborhood of Springfield, was where young Ted went to elementary school. At the time it was one of the newest schools in the city and it was here that Ted first indicated an interest in children’s literature. He also developed an interest in science when Halley’s Comet appeared in 1910 when he was six. When walking to school each morning he was under strict orders to hold his sister’s hand as they crossed Sumner Avenue, one of the busiest streets in the city.

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Seuss Bakery

George and Margaretha Seuss, Ted’s grandparents on his mother’s side of the family, owned a bakery in the South End of Springfield across from the Howard Street Armory. It’s no longer there, but the Armory, with its famous turreted towers like those that Dr. Seuss used in his books, can still be seen. Young Ted visited his grandparents’ bakery often as a child and many of his early memories were formed by visits here.

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Main Street

Main Street runs through the heart of Springfield’s downtown business district. When Ted was growing up he would have traveled down this street many times. The family would have shopped in the department stores located on Main Street, and Ted would have seen the circus parades he loved so much on this street. To this day Main Street remains one of Springfield’s most important thoroughfares.

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Knox Automobile

Knox Automobile, located just next to the Indian Motocycle factory at Winchester Square (now Mason Square) was one of the earliest manufacturers of automobiles in the country. And in the first decade of the twentieth century it was one of the largest. They also made tractors and trucks, and one of those tractors had a very strange design that fascinated Ted. Years later he would use that tractor as inspiration for Sylvester McMonkey McBean’s truck in The Sneetches and Other Stories.

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Indian Motocycle

The Indian Motocycle factory, located on Boston Road just a short distance from his grandfather’s brewery, was at that time, the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. During Ted’s childhood he would have seen these motorcycles regularly on Springfield streets. And when he went to visit his grandfather at the brewery he would have passed right by the huge factory in Winchester Square (now Mason Square).

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Howard Street Armory

The Howard Street Armory is located at 29 Howard Street across the street from where Ted Geisel was born and near the Seuss Bakery operated by his grandparents. Built in 1895, the imposing building resembles a castle with turreted towers that loom over the neighborhood. The appearance of the Armory must have made a big impression on young Ted and seems to have the inspiration for the buildings found in many of his books.

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Gasworks

The Springfield Gas Company, also known as the Gasworks, was originally located on the banks of the Connecticut River but is long gone. Now Interstate 91 runs over the site. But Ted, as a child, was very aware of its existence. The massive building had four gigantic smoke stacks, and when it was in operation the belching smoke let off a foul odor. The Gasworks was just a few blocks from his grandparents’ bakery, and Ted must have been struck by competing smells of freshly baked bread and sour odors coming from the Gasworks.

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Forest Park School

Forest Park School is where Ted attended middle school. Although bright he didn’t show the same interest in school work as his older sister. It was during this time that Ted started to develop a taste for practical jokes and a love for drawing. “Ted always had a pencil in hand,” his father recalled.

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Forest Park Library

The Forest Park Library was located just a few blocks from Ted’s home on Fairfield Street. Ted loved books of all kinds, and he loved to visit both this branch library and the central library downtown. These libraries exposed the young Ted to the wonderful world of children’s literature and established a life-long appreciation for the ability of books to create a fascinating world of imagination.

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Springfield Museums

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21 Edwards Street
Springfield, MA 01103
1.800.625.7738 Map

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Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss exhibition and SeussInSpringfield.org were created with the gracious consent of Mrs. Audrey Geisel, widow of Theodor S. Geisel, and Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P.

SeussInSpringfield.org has been funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Dr. Seuss properties, TM & 2021 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All Rights Reserved.

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