was constructed about a dozen years ago, and has, until recently, been
designated as the new arsenal, there being two or three other buildings
which were formerly used for the storage of finished muskets, called the
old arsenals, but which, since the Rebellion, have been relieved of
their contents and supplied with machinery for the manufacture of arms.
A portion of the new arsenal is now used for finishing barrels and
assembling muskets, and other parts for storing ordnance-supplies.

The storehouse, offices, and workshops are extensive buildings,--the
former being eight hundred feet long, and one of the latter six hundred
feet long and thirty-two feet wide.

In a description of the armory printed in 1817, the grounds are
described as a perfectly level, elevated plat, situated about half a
mile east of the village, from which there is a gradual ascent, flanked
on the north by a deep ravine and on the south by a less considerable
one, with an extensive plain spreading in the rear, the adjoining parts
being uncovered, fronting on the brow of the declivity, and commanding
an extensive and beautifully variegated landscape. At the present time,
the armory is not only in the city, but the streets at the north, south,
and east of the grounds are as thickly inhabited as any other portion of
the town. There has, however, been an increase in the population of
Springfield since 1817, from two to twenty-six thousand souls. A larger
number of workmen are employed within the armory-grounds at the present
time than the entire population of the place amounted to fifty years
ago.

The water-shops formerly occupied three different sites, being
denominated the upper, middle, and lower water-shops, on a stream called
Mill River, which exhibits, in a distance of less than half a mile, four