By:  Jim Cline

SPRINGFIELD, Mass (wggb) -- In 2005 M. Allen Swift of West Hartford donated a million dollars to purchase the old Verizon office building in downtown Springfield.  He also donated his 1928 Rolls-Royce, which was made in Springfield.  Springfield has some history where the automobile is concerned.  Rolls-Royce started making cars in Springfield in 1920. 

The venture ended with the stock market crash in 1929.  The first successful gasoline powered automobile in the country was built in Springfield on Taylor Street in 1893.  Frank Duryea took his car out onto the streets of Springfield September 21st of that year.   The 3-wheeled Knox was being built by Henry Knox before the turn of the century.  The 3rd car made was purchased by Everett Barney in 1899.  That car is in the museum, along with a prototype made by the Indian Motocycle Company.  That car was never produced because of the 1929 crash.    But the company did make many motocycles and there are numerous examples in the museum.  The Granville Brothers made the Gee Bee Flyer, at one time the fastest airplane in the world.

Springfield was also the center of the gun-making industry for 2 centuries.    It's all chronicled in the city's brand new museum, scheduled to open October 10th.