Days 78-80 Heading for Lee, Massachusetts

The next town on my US 20 journey is Lee, Massachusetts, 7.8 miles westerly from West Becket (not in a straight line, of course). As I learned passing through West Becket, the road is known as Jacob's Ladder because of its twists and turns. It's also designated as Jacob's Ladder Trail, a Scenic Byway.

Along the way, I pass the spot where the Appalachian National Scenic Trail crosses US 20, and close by is a parking area for the Trail.

You can see on the satellite view that the trail crosses US 20 and then takes a meandering course across I90 then down into the forest.

Days 74-77: Heading to Becket, MA and its village, West Becket

West Becket, Massachusetts is our next stop on US 20, 9.7 miles from Chester.  West Becket is a village or hamlet in the town of Becket, Massachusetts, which is in Berkshire County. You can see from the terrain map that we are definitely in the mountains.

There are a number of interesting sights along the way to Becket, including Becket Quarry and Sherwood Forest, but what caught my eye was a place called Jacob's Pillow, a geographical feature tucked up in the hills that is home to a dance academy by the same name. 

From Wikipedia article

Here is a video that tells the story of how the area became Jacob's Pillow from a biblical reference: History of Jacob's Pillow. This dance academy is famous for having mentored such well-known dancers as Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey. Earlier this month (July 2025) they held a celebration of the new Doris Duke Theatre, the original of which was burned some years ago: Celebration. And every year they have a dance festival. It seems like a really fun place!

Days 67-73: Next Stop--Chester

Back on the road! I'm traveling 16 miles down US 20, which brings me to Chester, MA, and a house outside of town at 272 Route 20. 

The house is fairly old (although nearly new by Massachusetts standards), having been built in 1880. In the vicinity, there are some interesting items to pay attention to.   

272 US 20 Chester, MA

Just down the street a bit, on the left hand side of the road, is a cemetery. It's called Chester Cemetery on the map, but apparently its name is Chester Factory Village Cemetery (AKA Huntington Street Cemetery). There is no public information about when this cemetery started, but the oldest grave seems to be that of Charles Bush, who was 1 year and 4 days old when he died in 24 October 1801. The stone is one of those old slate stones with the winged cherub emblem. The newest grave seems to be that of Donald Jane, who died nearly 200 years later, on 14 May 2001.

Chester Factory Village is, according to Wikipedia,

a historic district encompassing the historic village of Chester Factories in Chester, Massachusetts. Chester was settled in the 1760s, and the factory village was a location where water power was harnessed at an early time for grist mills and sawmills. The village got its name from the Chester Glass Factory, which operated in the area through the War of 1812. It benefited from the construction of a turnpike (now United States Route 20) leading to Chester Center in 1804, and was transformed by the arrival of the railroad around 1840.

Next stop: Becket, Massachusetts, about 6 miles down the road! 

Days 63-66: Traveling Through Westfield, MA

Taking a mile per day, making slow progress from 153 Russell Road in Westfield, at the one-mile mark I pass a double set of apartment buildings, each having two bedroom apartments. They are most likely designed to accommodate students who go to Westfield State University, which is nearby. Below is a photo of the apartment buildings at 472 Russell Road, or US 20.  And as you can see from the satellite image, the university is right across the road (although you can't drive to it from there). 

Westfield State seems like a nice school with many different majors that is probably less expensive than some other area schools. 

Westfield State, I've learned, is the alma mater of some notable graduates. Here is a list of 15 such grads: Who are notable alumni from Westfield State? One such graduate is Marsha Bemko, the executive producer of PBS's Antiques Roadshow.

Day 62: One mile down US 20 to 153 Russell Road, Westfield, MA

Well, I'm taking the slow route today, going one mile for each hour that I have practiced. One mile down US 20 from the Family Dollar store gets me to 153 Russell Road (or 153 US 20), where Robert J. Hinckley and his wife Melisa live. They own their little 984 square foot house and 23.5 acres of land, part of which is fronting US 20. There they have (at least until 2019) a nice little produce stand where they sell vegetables and, as you can see from the photo on the left, pumpkins in the fall. I have not been able to ascertain whether or not the business is still open currently. I hope it is, though. It looks like a nice little farm stand that at the time was called Hinckley Harvest Farms. The house was built in 1900 and was most recently sold in 1998. That was also the year Robert Hinckley lost his father; perhaps an inheritence allowed the Hinckleys to buy this house.  

Westfield was settled in the late 17th century as a part of the Massachusetts Colony. Here is a link to an interesting website that gives the history of the town and some of its historical buildings: Westfield History. There is also a college in the town: Westfield State University.

Days 55-61: Heading to Westfield, Massachusetts

This week I practiced 11 hours, so that takes me through Springfield to a town just west of the city, appropriately named Westfield, where I'll stop at a Family Dollar there at 51 Franklin Street.

Springfield to Westfield

I had to jump back on I-291 to get out of Springfield, but as I was traveling through the heart of the city, I thought I'd make note of some of the places that were not too far off that path. One place that caught my eye is Franklin Supermarket, at 412 Franklin Street in Springfield. I thought that was an interesting name for a grocery store, and thought it must be a neighborhood store. I was right on that score, but soon learned that Franklin Supermarket is central to its Puerto Rican neighborhood, catering to its customers' needs. It gets very good reviews on Google, and is no doubt even more important to its neighborhood now, with the pandemic making life difficult for its customers.

Franklin Supermarket outside

Franklin Supermarket inside

Doing some additional research, I soon learned that Springfield has a large and growing Latino-American community, comprised mainly of migrants from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and other island nations. A local community college, Springfield Technical Community College, has an interesting website that discusses this population and the diversity of residents in Springfield: Our Plural History.

Another interesting-looking place that can be seen from the interstate is Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
It's an imposing structure, with a beautiful interior--but it gives the impression of humility as well. Below are photos of the outside and inside.

As I travel along, I leave Interstate 291, splitting off onto US-20, where I cross a major US waterway, the Connecticut River, the longest river in New England, flowing 410 miles from the Quebec-New Hampshire border to Long Island Sound. It's named after the Pequot word, quinetucket, or long tidal river, anglicized to Connecticut.

Connecticut River
by Cathy Mumford

There are many interesting facts about the river which can be found at the Connecticut River Conservancy website. One interesting historical fact: it was the site of an attack in 1676. Here is a brief summary of that event:

[The river] witnessed the tragic engagement known as the Turners Falls Fight, or Turners Falls Massacre, in May of 1676, where several hundred Nipmuck, Pocumtuck, Wampanoag and Narragansett Indians (mainly women, children, and old men) were set upon in wigwams and slain by 150 colonial militiamen near the roaring falls, then known as Peskeomscutt, the “great falls.”

I am now in West Springfield, home of the Big E, or the Eastern States Exhibition, a major fair that happens every year; it has been ongoing since 1916. It is a regional event, encompassing six New England states. You can read about its history here: Big E History.

From BigE website

Also in West Springfield is the Josiah Day House Museum, which I pass just after crossing the Connecticut River, on US-20, at 70 Park Street. The house is reputedly the oldest brick saltbox house in the United States. It was built in 1746 and was owned and lived in by successive generations of Days until 1902, when the last descendant died and it was sold to the Ramapogue Historical Society. They preserved it as is and now it's a museum you can visit. You can read about the house here: Josiah Day House. As you can see from the below photo, it's right on US-20, and down the street from a pizzeria.

Traveling a few more miles, US-20 takes me to the next little town on my route, Westfield, down Main Street, right through the heart of an attractive downtown. Then it takes a left, goes north a couple of streets and turns left onto Franklin Street, where the Family Dollar is and where I'm stopping for now. See you next time!

51 Franklin St, West Springfield, MA

Days 46-52: Arriving at the Big City of Springfield, MA

Well, another nine miles down the road and I've finally arrived at Springfield, Massachusetts, one of the biggest cities in the state.

Wilbraham to Springfield, MA

For part of the journey, US-20 hitches a ride on I-291 for a few miles. Since I couldn't stop on the interstate, I had to get off at the nine-mile mark, where there's a gas station and quick-stop called Racing Mart, at 475 St. James Avenue. (I don't plan to stay long here, though, since it got kind of bad reviews for customer service.)

Along the way, there are some items of interest. The Wikipedia article for Springfield points to a number of interesting features of the city. Below are a few:

Founded in 1636 as the first Springfield in the New World, during the American Revolution, George Washington designated it as the site of the Springfield Armory for its central location, subsequently the site of Shays' Rebellion. The city would also play a pivotal role in the Civil War, as a stop on the Underground Railroad and home of abolitionist John Brown, widely known for his raid on Harpers Ferry,[15] and for the Armory's manufacture of the famed 'Springfield rifles' used ubiquitously by Union troops. 

The article has a great deal of information about the city, including a long and wide-ranging list of prominent citizens who hailed from Springfield, among them the aforementioned John Brown, as well as Timothy Leary, Dr. Suess, the artist Whistler, and Kurt Russell.

I'm always curious about what manufacturing goes on in the towns and cities I pass through, and it seems there is always a little factory or plant (or sometimes a big factory) along US-20 that I can investigate. One place I happened to notice on my latest trek is Norpin Manufacturing, at 2342 Boston Road in Wilbraham. It's a family-owned factory, in business since 1956, specializing in making what are called deep drawn enclosures. This was something I'd never heard of so I was intrigued. Well, if you've ever seen an object made of any kind of metal that is shaped in such a way that it would enclose something, you're looking at a deep drawn enclosure. They call it deep drawn because a metal sheet is drawn or pushed through a mold or die, usually by way of a punch, making it deeper than it is wide. Below is a diagram of this process.

Taken from Mech4Study

As you can imagine, all kinds of products that we use every day are made in this way. I thought immediately of napkin holders of the kind diners have on their tables. In fact, they have some like that in the Fabulous 50s Diner!

Fabulous 50's Diner Inside

But other types of metal containers, such as the cylinders used for automotive oil filters, or beverage cans, or electrical switch receptacles, are also made with this process. Norpin Manufacturing makes a variety of small enclosures, as they describe on their website. But they also produced this cute video, "A Day in the Life of a Deep Drawn Enclosure," which you can see here: Norpin. It's fun to watch with its lively music and speeded-up action. No explanations, but you can figure it out. I wanted to know what enclosure's "life" was being documented in the film, so I wrote them and they kindly replied that they were making a transformer housing for an amplifier. I watched another video from a German company (Geertz) that also makes deep-drawn enclosures; it was much more polished, with jazzier music and sexier visuals, but not nearly as much fun.

Arriving at Springfield, US-20 takes a sharp right turn away from the Boston Road and passes by a small lake known as Five-Mile Pond. Below is a satellite photo of the feature.

This body of water, according to the city's Open Space Plan, is 39 acres in surface area, has a maximum depth of 36 feet, and averages 15 feet in depth. Its origin is what's called a glacial kettle hole. The National Park Service has a little discussion about that geological feature. Below is a diagram of the process nature goes through to make a glacial kettle hole.

Taken from Glacial Massachusetts 

Well, I guess that's enough sight-seeing for this segment of my trip. I've arrived at my destination, the Racing Mart, where I'll take a break. Next week I'll be just a little further down the road.