Indian Orchard is a village in

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 ...

. Located in the northeast corner of Springfield, next to the

Chicopee River The Chicopee River is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Connecticut River in the Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts, known for fast-moving wat ...

, Indian Orchard is the city's fifth largest neighborhood.

History

Indian Orchard began in the 1840s as an isolated mill town and has preserved its identity over the years, even after becoming more fully encompassed by Springfield. Many of the early mill workers were French-Canadian immigrants. The First Congregational Church of Indian Orchard, built in 1863, is Springfield's third-oldest church. Indian Orchard was also home to Chapman Valve Manufacturing Company, which converted

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

rods into slugs to be used as

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...

fuel, for the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

Manhattan Engineer District. The site was remediated in 1995. It is now occupied by a

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

facility.

Neighborhood

Because of its origins as a separate town, Indian Orchard contains many streets with names that are identical to entirely different streets in Springfield's Metro Center, having, for example, its own Main Street, differentiated only by the Indian Orchard name and ZIP code. One of Indian Orchard's former mills is now a large artists' studio space; this has been the catalyst for the neighborhood's growing arts & crafts scene. The Indian Orchard Mills/Dane Gallery hosts an artists' open house twice a year. Hubbard Park is a major source of recreational activities. The Indian Orchard branch of the Springfield Library offers adult and family activities. The neighborhood is also home to Lake Lorraine State Park, a swimming beach formerly open to the public; however, the beach has been closed since budget cuts in 2009. Large employers include Solutia and a

US Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

bulk mail facility. Indian Orchard is home to the ''Titanic'' Museum.

References

{{SpringfieldMA Neighborhoods in Springfield, Massachusetts