History of Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in Massachusetts, United States of America|United States. It is the county seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts|Hampden County.{{GR|6}} As of the United States 2000 Census|2000 census, the city population was 152,082. It is the third largest city in Massachusetts and fourth largest in New England (behind Boston, Massachusetts|Boston, Providence, Rhode Island|Providence and Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester). According to a July 1, 2003 Census estimate, there were 152,157 people in the city. Springfield holds two nicknames — The City of Homes and The City of Firsts.
The city is the largest (and also historically the first) city called Springfield in the United States. It is also the largest city on the Connecticut River and the largest city in Western Massachusetts and the Pioneer Valley. It has a notable history as the home to Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, and as the birthplace of basketball, invented by James Naismith at Springfield College. It is home to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Springfield Falcons hockey team. It is also home to the western world's largest collection of Chinese cloisonné at the The Quadrangle|G.W. Vincent Smith Art Museum.
In an economic and cultural partnership with Hartford, Connecticut, the Springfield-Hartford region constitutes New England's Knowledge Corridor for the second largest concentration of institutions of higher learning in New England.
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