Freedom from Liberty

We have finally finished Liberty Street! Huzzah!

I had the morning off today, so I decided a small dog I know and I should take a walk to finally finish a certain long street. We headed down Carew to where it meets Liberty and turned right. We quickly came upon Sullivan Keating Moran Insurance.



Next to that was the Peking House. An anonymous reviewer on Insider Pages gave the place three stars, writing, "This place has the hugest live lobsters for sale. Food was alright. Prices were reasonable. The place itself needs a little cleaning. The crab ragoons are delicious."



Near the Liberty Street entrance to Van Horn Park is La Iglesia Hermanos Unidos en Cristo (the Church of Brothers United in Christ) and the National Federation of the Blind of Greater Springfield.



We wandered on down past quite a few houses before crossing over Newbury, coming upon Downey Side.



Downey Side's philosophy is rooted in the conviction that every child deserves the right to a permanent and loving family. It is our purpose to work in partnership with the government as a licensed adoption agency to place America's waiting children, who otherwise would remain homeless. We are dedicated to family life for all children and strongly believe that a healthy permanent relationship is the best prevention against homelessness, according to the Web site. Downey Side began in Springfield, Mass., in 1967 when Fr. Paul Engel placed a 17-year-old boy in the home of Margaret Downey. The Springfield Office is proud to be the first Downey Side office and where it all began.

I'm intrigued by the idea of adopting older children, and I've always wanted to adopt. I'm not sure of the hubby's feelings on older child adoption, but we have plenty of time to talk about that. I doubt they'd let a pair of 24-year-olds adopt anyone.

We loped on down Liberty for a while before we came across Academy Hill School. (In the photo, it shows that the school is on Carolyn Price Way, but I'm not counting that as a street, as the Web site states the school's address is on Liberty.) Academy Hill serves bright, gifted and curious students in kindergarten through eighth grade.



Next up was ABC40's news studios.



Further up, across from the Liberty Street entrance to the Springfield Plaza, sits an AutoZone, Pizza Wings & Things Ristorante and a Rent-a-Center.



There's also a Westfield Bank next to the Rent-a-Center.

We cut through the plaza to get to St. James to head back home.

204 down, 20 to go

Adventures off Newbury

The small dog and I headed back down Newbury today to finish more of the streets that jut off it, starting with Upton. We took that to its end, turned onto Milford, and then turned up Park Road, taking that straight across Newbury onto Doyle. We finished Milford today, as we started it on Friday.

When we finished Doyle, we headed over to Morison Terrace, which is the home to Glenwood School.



We crossed Newbury to check out Whitmore, then headed down to Parkin, and then back across to Thornfell. We took Thornfell to its end, wandered down Hartley, then back up Thornfell to Lynwood. Then it was back across Newbury to Francis, which we took all the way down to St. Lawrence. We took that over to Ontario and followed that up to Newbury.

On Ontario is Donna's Family Day Care.



Once we finished Ontario, we were approaching our two-hour benchmark on our walk, so I decided to take us home. There are only a few streets left off of Newbury.

169 down, 54 to go

Plaza Day!

All right, the east side of Liberty Street is done. The small dog and I headed up Merrimac to Carew, which put us in front of Van Sickle Middle School and the Renaissance School.



According to the Springfield Public Schools Web site, "The Renaissance School is the product of a partnership forged between Springfield Public Schools and Expeditionary Learning Schools (“ELS”) to launch one of the first of the small ELS secondary schools to emerge from a national initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the heart of ELS’s approach is a set of “Core Practice Benchmarks” that include:
• Learning Expeditions
• Active Pedagogy
• Culture and Character
• Leadership and School Improvement
• School Structures

Expeditionary Learning: EL is a model for comprehensive school reform that emphasizes high achievement through active learning, character growth and teamwork. Students spend much of their time working on learning expeditions, which are “big idea,” broad topics or themes, such as bridges, water quality, the Civil Rights Movement, or the Industrial Revolution. Teachers collaborate to design these expeditions to align with district initiatives and Massachusetts State Frameworks, and to assess and improve their own work and, as a result, their students’ work.

School Structures Support Learning: Structures like “Crew” advisory teams allow teachers and students to develop relationships that go beyond classroom learning. "Crews” of one teacher and 12 students gather each day to discuss issues ranging from academic to global to social issues of interest. Other structures such as block scheduling and common planning time make it possible for teachers to collaborate, and for students to do field work outside school."

The girl I mentee attends the Renaissance School. I get the feeling she's not impressed by the crew model, but I know it works for some kids.

Right next to the school (and directly across the street from my future in-laws' home) is the Raymond J. Sullivan Public Safety Complex. This is one of the fire houses of the Springfield Fire Department.



At the corner of Carew and St. James is a small shopping plaza, which starts on one end with a Bank of America branch and Dave's Soda and Pet Food City. We buy all of the little boy's food at Dave's. Across from Dave's is a TD Banknorth branch.



Across from them on the island where Carew splits are Quick Pic Convenience and Main Kitchen Chinese Restaurant.



We've ordered food a few times from Main Kitchen. It's nothing special, but they do deliver, which is awesome.

The next two shops in the main plaza are a Benjamin Moore paint store and Kool Smiles.



A reviewer on YellowPages.com gave Kool Smiles five stars, saying it was "great fast and easy." I guess those are things you'd look for in a children's dentist.

Also in the plaza is a Family Dollar and a Big Y Supermarket.



Paul and Gerry D'Amour began their legacy on December 12, 1936 at the Y Cash Market in the Willimansett section of Chicopee at the intersection where two roads converge to form a Y. Hence the name of the store. They have locations throughout Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut.

Next to the plaza is one of the busiest liquor stores I've ever seen, the Spirit Shoppe.



The small dog and I checked out Felicia Street and then Montclair Street. At the corner of Montclair and St. James is Annetta's Day Care.



Next, we checked out the Courtside Subdivision, starting with Naismith Street, which is a private way. Naismith Court, on the other hand...



...is only a privat way.



Construction is ongoing in the subdivision, as you can see. We checked out Hickox Place, Wells Place, Wells Street, Silvia Street and Hickox Street and Williams Drive, which are basically 100 foot paved driveways at this point. Also, I was wicked excited to see an osprey in the subdivision!

We passed by the entrance of the Springfield Plaza to check out the the last streets beyond it that we needed to see, which included Kirby, Edmund and Wolfe. At the corner of St. James and Edmund is the Laser Auto Wash.



When we finished those two streets, we turned around and started to head back to the plaza. We said hello to Chicopee and the edge of Liberty Heights.



At the St. James entrance of the plaza is a Wendy's. Why is this important? Because the owner of 13 Western Massachusetts Wendy's defaulted on his loans about two years ago and they were all closed for like a year. That made me very sad. I like getting a Frosty every once in a while. Most of the Wendy's have reopened.



Inside the plaza is another Bank of America branch and Entertainment Cinemas, which I love because they offer Dippin' Dots as movie snacks.



After that, we got into the plaza proper:







Stores include Rocky's Ace Hardware, Airway Lanes, A.J. Wright, 99 Restaurant, Dollar Tree, RadioShack, Rent A Center, Hip Hop World, Rainbow, Kmart, Expressions, Payless Shoesource, Madrag, Ocean State Job Lot, Mannuelle Jewelry, Sally Beauty Supply, H&R Block, Tung Hai Restaurant (with reviews), Joey'z Shopping Spree, Source of New York, Koffee Kup Bake Shop (with reviews), Laundromax, Mykonos European Foods, Savers, Aaron's, Plaza Package Store, Stop & Shop, Hollywood Video, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Liberty Pizza, Princess Nails and Atlantic Night Club.

I've been to the bowling alley, the 99, RadioShack, Kmart, Ocean State Job Lot, the liquor store, KFC and Burger King. I do most of my grocery shopping at the Stop & Shop and Liberty Pizza is definitely my favorite pizza place in the area.

Once we'd circled Springfield Plaza, we headed home.

149 down, 74 to go

A small dent

I had a rather busy morning (and afternoon), so the little boy and I only had about an hour for our walk around noontime. I figured we could hit some streets nearby.

We headed down Carew to Judson Street. On Carew, between Judson and Alvin, is Liberty Elementary School (photo courtesy of Springfield Public Schools).



Liberty Elementary is part of the Springfield Public School system's Magnet School program, and this school focuses on mathematical discovery and communications.
"• Hands-on math activities are at the heart of teaching and learning;
• Students learn the “language” of math and make important connections to other content areas through inter-disciplinary lessons and units;
• Laptop computers help students learn about the field of communications;
• State-of-the art, student-run TV studio engages them in the many aspects of broadcast journalism."

Liberty Elementary also has Friday specials: "At Liberty, Friday afternoons are turned into a veritable festival of music, art, dance, drama, strategic games, and students busily compiling the school newsletter or videos in the videoediting lab. All staff members host an activity for students who choose from a variety of creative endeavors such as chorus, song-writing and production, video editing, Irish dance, arts and crafts, drumming, among many others. Friday SPECIALS Celebrations occur at the end of each session when students are able to share the results and products of their efforts or perform for the school community." Sounds like fun.

The small dog and I walked down Judson to Roy, then up Alvin to Carew. We then headed down Norman, and near the Roy end of that street I saw this:



A barn! In Springfield! In really good shape! Upon seeing this, I immediately became homesick.

We turned from Norman onto Roy and went down Newbury to Woodmont. We made a detour off Woodmont to the end of Denton Circle and back, checking out Drew Court along the way. Fun fact: Denton Circle is nowhere near circular in shape. It's actually mostly straight. We continued on down Woodmont to where it meets Liberty.

At the corner of Woodmont and Liberty is the Tougias Baking Company. An anonymous poster on InsiderPages.com said "Tougias Baking Company makes fantastic tasting breads, rolls. It is nice to be able to do business with a local business that specializes in making bread." I wish I could've smelled some baking bread. That smell makes me happy.

We crossed Liberty to finish Woodmont, turning onto Penacook and then Langdon to start the trek back home. We followed Liberty back down to where Tougias Baking Company is and followed Woodmont up to Newbury. We took a quick left onto Newbury and then a right onto Long Terrace. At the corner of Newbury and Long I noticed something that made me smile.



Someone had chopped down a big, old tree and these homeowners decided to plant a sapling inside the leftover stump. I thought that was neat.

We followed Long all the way up to Strong, took Strong to Carew, and headed home.

Looking at the map, I think my next little goal will be to finish everything on this side of Liberty, and then I'll head down to Chestnut and start working on the streets farthest way, working our way back up toward our house.

135 down, 88 to go

The little boy and I didn't have a lot of time for our walk today (the hubby and I had tickets to see the Hampden Theater Guild's presentation of "The Producers"), so we headed down to cover just a couple of the streets on this side of Carew that we missed on our last outing. On the way down, we passed Brunton Square (which is actually more of a triangle, but whatever).



The park was named in honor of Springfield Mayor Daniel B. Brunton, who served from 1946 to 1957. A sign in the park notes that Tralee, Ireland, is a sister city of Springfield. I've been to Tralee. It's pretty. Another sister city is Takikawa, on the island of Hokkaido, Japan.

From there, we headed down to Armory Street. On the corner of Armory and Carew is Our Lady of Hope Church. This was my future husband's church, and next door to the church is Our Lady of Hope School, my hubby's first school. It teaches children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The school will be closing soon, sadly.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER
A night to remember for friends and alumni of Our Lady of Hope School will be on May 16 in the school auditorium. This event, to mark the school’s closing, will begin with 4 p.m. Mass in church. A ziti and meatball dinner will take place afterward in the school. Come and reminisce, tour the school and meet old friends. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for kids up to eighth grade and kids under three are free. There will be a cash bar. Tickets are available at the school, the rectory and the Hope Center. If you have any questions, call 734-4125.





When we passed the church and the school, we turned left up Grover Street, which had mostly two-story homes along it. At the end, we turned right onto Liberty and then made another right onto Cleveland Street. There, we soon came across the dentistry office of R. Manniello and George Hurley.



At the end of Cleveland, we turned left onto Armory and then left onto Sullivan Street. At the end of this street is a business complex called Sullivan Place.



The only business I saw advertised was the dentistry office of Dr. Gerard Thibault. He received a pretty good review from one patient on HealthGrades.com.

We headed back down Sullivan to Armory, up that street and back up Carew to head home.

So, heading forward -- I've finished all the streets on this side of Carew down to Chestnut on this side of I-291. My next move will be to cross over the highway and traverse the streets on that side (a little less than two dozen streets). After that, onto the north side of Carew!

76 down, 147 to go

The easterly side of Carew Street is done! And I found a street I didn't realize I was missing from my list, so I'm back up to 219 streets.

The small dog and I made our way down Carew toward Liberty this morning with a big goal in (my) mind: We were going to go all the way down to Chestnut and back up. We passed by Newbury Street; I mentioned Liranzo on the corner of Newbury and Carew in a previous entry, but on the corner opposite that is the Quick Stop and the Blarney Stone Tavern.





This Quick Stop does not have Jay and Silent Bob hanging out in front, and, at 11:15 in the morning, there was already somebody waiting to get into the Blarney Stone. My friends that live in the area tell me the tavern is for more...mature audiences only.

We turned left on Liberty, passing by the shops I mentioned before and some new ones on the other side of the street.



This is the Domino's we refuse to order from now, because they refused to take our free pizza and two-liter soda coupon.



Hungry Hill is one of the sub-sections of Liberty Heights, and this is the Hungry Hill Community Development Corporation. According to the Web site, "The primary objective of the Hungry Hill Community Development Corporation has been the revitalization of our neighborhood in the areas of housing and business development. The CDC also represents area residents in planning and making improvements to the neighborhood."

One of our future groomsmen lives upstairs from the CDC.



Honeyland Farms is like a smaller version of a grocery store.



ABC Glass Works should be pretty self-explanatory... and my future husband and I have noticed there are a lot of barber shops in the Liberty Heights/East Springfield area. Apparently, there are a lot of men that need their hair cut quite often. This is Lugo's.

Next to those two businesses is Sampson's Funeral Home. They also have another locations in the 16 Acres section of Springfield.



Down the street from there is the Valero gas station/Dunkin Donuts/Stephen's Discount Wine and Beer. Gas up, grab a doughnut and get ready to party! (There's a McDonald's next to the gas station, too.)



Across Liberty from that is a plaza chock full of wonderful things. Behold!



A 24-hour Save-a-Lot, a Family Dollar, CAP Discount Auto Parts, a laundromat, a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut, the New Generation Christian Church (the sign is cut off by the lamp post, sorry) and, in the upper right corner, you see one of the city of Springfield's greatest municipal postings: a blue light that flashes to let you know when the parking ban is in effect so your car won't get towed. I usually don't drive past this one, but there is another near my house on Tapley Street near the Department of Public Works.

Turning right, near the odd, semi-rotary intersection of Stafford, Liberty and Armory streets is another small plaza.



This one is home to Blockbuster Video, Bank of America, Pocket Wireless and (apparently a brand new) Subway. Pocket Wireless locations have been popping up all over the place. Their big draw is that you can get unlimited texts and calls for $30 a month. An intriguing offer, but I like my Verizon.

Across from this plaza is 1 Stafford St., home to Peak Performance Chiropractic and Ehrenburg & Escobar, Certified Public Accountants.



At the corner of Armory and Stafford is Edward P. Boland Elementary School. Boland Elementary is one of the more than four dozen public schools in the Springfield school system. Behind the school and stretching back over to Carew Street is the George M. Hendee Playground.



Across the street from the school is the Body Shop, another automotive repair place.



The little boy and I made our way down Stafford Street, making side trips up Leslie, Wolcott, Goodrich and Stetson streets. I did not notice Stetson before when I was putting my street list together. I also just noticed there are two separate Wolcott Streets, so rather than list the name twice, I'll dub this one Wolcott A and the other, off of Ledyard Street, Wolcott B. I'm sticking with my number of 219, though. This will just be one-half of Wolcott. (This is also true of Nursery and Cass streets.)

Moving on down the road, we came across Nursery Street. On one side of Stafford there sits an auto repair shop without a name (interesting...); on the other side, low income housing. Further down along Stafford, there were some larger industrial buildings.







McCormick-Allum Heating & Air Conditioning seems pretty self-explanatory, as does Office Renovations Incorporated. The Crocker Building Company provides "pre-engineered and conventional steel building, stick construction and commercial renovation" services.

The small dog and I passed a whole bunch of empty space and abandoned buildings before coming up on the back side of Mercy Medical Center. This is one of two hospitals in Liberty Heights, and this one caused quite a stir a couple months ago when the image of the Virgin Mary apparently showed up in one of its windows. In more realistic news, one of my doctors works inside Mercy Medical and I have to say, I like the institution.



This is also the view of Mercy from I-291.

Right next to Mercy is Linden Towers, providing senior living.



We followed Stafford Street all the way down to Chestnut, which is the border of the Liberty Heights neighborhood. At the corner of Liberty and Chestnut is Sacred Heart Church, which looks rather grand lit up at night.



The small dog and I turned right onto Everett Street, which is home to the Sacred Heart Convent and some homes. At the corner of Chestnut and Everett is the New England Surgical Group.



I think it makes sense to have the surgical group next the hospital.

We turned right onto Carew Street and started heading up the hill. At the corner of Carew and Cass is the AZ Mart, which offers a lower price on gas if you pay cash. I think it has a large clientele of people visiting the hospital who don't want hospital food.



On the way up Carew, we checked out Desrosiers and Algonquin. Algonquin led us into the parking lot of the Springfield Boys & Girls Club.



As we headed back home, we checked out Mayo and Nye, and passed a Walgreens at the corner of Armory and Carew and Liberty Liquors on the corner of Carew and Libcar.



If you notice on the sign, it says that this is a "package store," despite the fact that the word "liquors" is clearly in the business name. In New York, places that sell booze are liquor stores. I don't understand why they are called package stores in Massachusetts. They don't sell boxes.

73 down, 150 to go