At 27 Washington Street in Westfield is a building constructed in 1899-1900 as the State Normal Training School, where student teachers gained experience from 1900 to 1956. Designed by the architectural firm of Gardner, Pyne & Gardner of Springfield, the building is one of only two nineteenth-century structures which survive from the State Normal School at Westfield, later called Westfield State Teachers College, which is today Westfield State University. This school was first established by Horace Mann in 1838 in Barre and became the first coeducational public training school in the nation. The school closed in 1841, but reopened in Westfield in 1844. In 1956, the training school building became a regular elementary school called the Washington Street School. It later was used by the Westfield District Court until 2002. The vacant building was reacquired by Westfield State University in 2006 and then sold to a developer in 2011 to become market-rate student housing.