The Brightwood neighborhood of

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

, is located in the northwest corner of the city, along the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...

; however, it is separated from the rest of Springfield by the

Interstate 91 Interstate 91 (I-91) is an Interstate Highway in the New England region of the United States. It is the primary north–south thoroughfare in the western part of the region. Its southern terminus is in New Haven, Connecticut, at I-95, whi ...

elevated highway. Many recent academic papers at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

' School of Urban Design have focused on the detrimental physical and sociological effects that Interstate 91 has had on the Brightwood neighborhood and on Springfield in general. Much of Brightwood was destroyed during the 1936 and 1938 Connecticut River Floods, thus it features housing stock from the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

rebuilding period. Geographically, Brightwood is the second smallest of Springfield's seventeen neighborhoods. It contains 234 acres of land, plus streets and railroads. Its boundaries are well defined: the Chicopee city line to the north; Clinton Street to the south; the B & M Railroad to the east; and the

to the west. Its demographics have changed exponentially during the last two censuses. It is now over 80% Puerto Rican and a center of Springfield's Puerto Rican community.

References

{{SpringfieldMA Neighborhoods in Springfield, Massachusetts