The landscape of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site is an important component of the site’s nationally significant industrial and cultural history. The historic grounds surrounding the Armory’s historic buildings reflect more than two centuries of changing land use, industrial development, community life, and landscape stewardship. These grounds provide an essential setting for understanding the Springfield Armory not only as a place of manufacturing and technological innovation, but also as a place where people lived, worked, traveled, gathered, and interacted with the natural environment.

Historically, the Armory Grounds were cultivated with plush gardens, artistic water fountains, and pristine lawns. Much of the manicured grounds provided an oasis for Armory and their families workers to enjoy natural settings of trees, gardens, and lawns. Today, (although missing some of the artist sculptures and water fountains), the trees, lilac bushes, and victory garden offer the same connection to nature and wildlife as was historically experienced.

The diverse array of trees include native species of sugar maple and black walnut (some trees estimated to be 100 years old), as well as more recently planted ginkgo trees, that, although not native to the North East, provide a sense of historical significance with ginkgo trees being one of the oldest known species of trees. In addition, the lilac hedge rows have been a part of the armory gardens since the mid-1800s. Visitors to the armory grounds will find paved paths that weave through trees, lawns, and no mow field locations, and can observe red tailed hawks, woodpeckers, gold finches, crows, and a variety of pollinators visiting the flowers.