Hampden is a pretty town of approximately 5000 people in Springfield, Massachusetts, which also shares its name with the surrounding county. Hampden is located on the east of the Connecticut River Valley and is surrounded by hills, including Pine Mountain and Rattlesnake Peak. Hampden lies on the border of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The Hampden has two shopping areas: the "village" which and houses the majority of shops, and the town hall, and "west side." Built next to the Scantic River, Hampden was originally a mill town, founded in the 1741 by the Stebbins and Hitchcokc families. However it never became a large town because of difficulties with transportation links. In the 1870's the town began to develop a number of vacation homes for near-by Springfield residents.
Today Hampden in Springfield is a popular retirement town, with most residents being white, and living in a 2-person household. Hampden enjoys a mild climate and rarely has deep snow falls or excessively hot summers. .
Hampden has the rare delight of having no traffic lights - not even flashing ones! However, households in Hampden also do not have access to public water or sewage and all dwellings are on septic tanks with wells. There is also no numbered highway running through the town. Hampden's neighoring towns Wilbraham, MA and Somers, CT have both been listed as on the "100 Best Places to Live in the USA" - the only reason that Hampden in Springfield didn't make the list, one suspects, is that it was too small to qualify!
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