Henry Knox Marker MA-9
MA - Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Spring Street, Springfield, Massachusetts, 01101, USA
MARKER
VISITOR INFORMATION
Free roadside historical marker; visible from the public right-of-way at any time. There are no staffed hours or ticket requirements.
A roadside historical marker, free to read at any time. There is no parking area or restroom at the marker itself, so pull over only where it is safe to do so.
SITE FEATURES
Peak visitation season unconfirmed. No reliable site-specific monthly attendance pattern was established.
May-June or September-early October for the Knox marker in Springfield. Confirm the State Street marker near the academy before travel and use lawful pedestrian access.
HISTORIC SITES NEARBY
Nearby Historic Sites
miles
Landmark

WHO WAS HERE
1
About Henry Knox Marker MA-9
Knox’s artillery train crossed western Massachusetts in winter 1775–1776 with cannon from Fort Ticonderoga. The guns later forced British evacuation of Boston when placed on Dorchester Heights.
A commemorative marker is recorded for Henry Knox Marker MA-9. The record does not establish what historic fabric survives or who maintains the site.
History happened here at Henry Knox Marker MA-9
Henry Knox Marker MA-9 is associated with January 1776 and the history of Guns of Ticonderoga. Knox’s artillery train crossed western Massachusetts in winter 1775–1776 with cannon from Fort Ticonderoga. The guns later forced British evacuation of Boston when placed on Dorchester Heights. Through this place passed General Henry Knox in the winter of 1775 – 1776 to deliver to General George Washington at Cambridge the train of artillery from Fort Ticonderoga used to force the British Army to evacuate Boston.
Because this entry concerns a marker, the visible object is primarily a guide to an earlier event rather than the event's original fabric. Markers select facts, names, and dates for public memory, often compressing uncertainty and change into a small amount of text. The most useful way to visit is to compare the inscription with the surrounding geography and the fuller account in this record. Doing so restores movement, distance, and setting to a story that the marker alone can only summarize.
Roads were active parts of the historical landscape, not merely lines between important places. They determined how quickly soldiers, messengers, political leaders, wagons, livestock, and supplies could move. Grades, bridges, weather, and nearby settlements could shape a march or delay it. Reading this location as a transportation corridor helps connect the event commemorated here to the practical problems of distance, communication, reconnaissance, and control that influenced campaigns and civilian life.
Within the broader theme of Guns of Ticonderoga, this place shows how national history was assembled from local actions. Strategy and policy depended on geography, labor, supplies, communication, and cooperation that varied from community to community. The event recorded here is therefore significant on two levels: for what happened at or near this location, and for the way that episode contributed to a wider sequence of military, political, economic, or social change. The marker makes that connection visible in the present landscape.
The date attached to the entry is a useful chronological anchor, but the site's history extends before and after that moment. Earlier settlement and land use shaped why the location mattered, while later rebuilding, commemoration, or development affected what can be seen today. Placing the episode on that longer timeline prevents a single date from flattening the site's history and encourages attention to continuity as well as change.
Taken together, the documentary account, the marker, and the surviving setting give this place its significance. The site is most informative when approached as part of a connected landscape rather than as an isolated point. Changes in roads, buildings, vegetation, and land use may obscure the original scene, but location still helps explain relationships among people and events. Preserving the marker and improving its interpretation keeps a locally grounded piece of history available for comparison with maps, records, archaeology, and other nearby sites.
PEOPLE WHO LIVED HERE
PEOPLE WHO DIED HERE
PEOPLE AT REST HERE
EXTERNAL LINKS
American Battlefield Trust: https://www.battlefields.org/visit/heritage-sites/henry-knox-trail-marker-springfield-ma-ma-9
Historical Marker Database: https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=23756
The sources place marker MA-9 at 427 State Street in Springfield, rather than Spring Street. The 1927 commemorative marker interprets Knox's transport of captured artillery in winter 1775–1776; January 1776 is a journey date, distinct from the marker's installation.
Accessed 2026-09-30

