Luckily, one of the first places in town to attract the attention of the early settlers remains in pristine condition and can still be viewed and appreciated today.
Paucatuck Meadow occupied an exceptionally beautiful part of early West Springfield. In order to appreciate that beauty you will have to use a considerable amount of imagination. First, take away the railroad and replace it with “The Cove”, a natural inlet formed as the water rushed down the river each spring and crashed into the trap ridge to the east. The result was the erosion of the soft soil thus forming a cove where the railroad tracks and Old Westfield Road are now located.
In 1659 John Dumbleton recognized that this land was fertile as well as beautiful so he petitioned the town meeting for a 10-acre grant on the cove along the west side of Paucatuck Brook. Four years later, Thomas Miller received a similar 10-acre grant along the east side of the brook and in 1666 the remaining 30 acres of Paucatuck meadow were granted to Dumbleton.
Although the land was ideal pastureland, one wonders what Dumbleton intended to do with it since wolves were still common in the vicinity and no humans lived there.
In 1696 Paucatuck Meadow became the property of Benjamin Smith who brought his wife and children to live on what is now Sikes Avenue. Benjamin Smith’s descendents lived in “Paucatuck” for over 160 years. During that time they accumulated over 1000 acres of land along Paucatuck Brook. The Smiths must have been quite a family considering the hardships they would have faced by living in virtual isolation along the western edge of West Springfield.
Today, except for the cove, Paucatuck Meadow looks exactly as it did during the 6000 years that the Agawam and Woronoco Indians lived in the vicinity. To visit here is like traveling backward in time.