Even though it is the second-largest city in Massachusetts, Springfield has nowhere near the appeal of Boston. The city grew up as a manufacturing town, in a broad valley straddling the banks of the mighty Connecticut River, a location that gave it enviable access to natural resources and the means to get them to rich ports in Connecticut and New York. (A macho town to be sure, guns and motorcycles were its two main exports.) As the city entered the 20th century, however, the frontier moved further west, leaving it a backwater that declined slowly, but surely, into decay.

The architecture downtown still gives a nod to the city’s manufacturing heyday. Most of the city, however, is abjectly poor. In recent years, migrant workers from Mexico and Puerto Rico who work the nearby tobacco fields have been settling here, adding a touch of salsa music and Latin food to the neighborhood of West Springfield.

Despite a general air of depression, however, Springfield has quite a few attractions worth visiting, including the national shrine to basketball, which was invented here by schoolteacher James Naismith in 1891; and a memorial to children’s author Dr. Seuss.