User:Simtropolitan/Sandbox/HoH

A view of the Holyoke Dam and South Hadley Falls, 1856

Holyoke's own geography and social history placed it at a unique juncture which shaped American popular culture, with its most famous work being that of the invention of volleyball, and a number of lesser-known but influential contributions to industry and science worldwide.

Beginning with the settlement of West Springfield in 1635, the area's first land claims would be made by Puritan colonists around 1655, and the first permanent residents, predominantly Irish Protestants would first settle in 1667. In 1707 West Springfield was partitioned from Springfield to the east, and by 1725 the First Baptist Church of Boston had baptized 5 people on the shores of the Connecticut there; these Baptists would go on to found Baptist Village, now modern-day Elmwood, while to the west early homesteaders would create the village of Rock Valley by 1745. Though no battles were fought on the villages' soil, a number of men from both would partake both in the American Revolution, and subsequently in Shay's Rebellion.

In 1786, with the exception of Smith's Ferry, Holyoke was given boundaries as the Third Parish of West Springfield, known colloquially as Ireland, and

https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A11BC3DF3E61E32B5%40GB3NEWS-12913D93DDDDFAE2%402423665-12904BB15E7B261D%4032?fname=&lname=&fullname=&kwinc=%22History%20of%20Holyoke%22&kwexc=&sort=old&rgfromDate=1923&rgtoDate=1925&formDate=&formDateFlex=exact&article_type=all&processingtime=&addedFrom=&addedTo=

Prehistory

1795 map of Holyoke as a part of West Springfield, and 1831 map of Holyoke as Ireland or the Third Parish, subsequently compounded as "Ireland Parish"

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During the earliest excavations for the first canals in Holyoke, it was reported that crews found the skeletons of "four Indians, in a sitting posture, with their faces towards the East. Beside them were found a Mortar and Pestle of stone, such as were used by the Indians in pounding corn...[as well as] a subterranean channel [which] ran completely around the skeletons."

Founding

See also: History of Springfield, Massachusetts

Initial settlement

Riley

Miller family- Johnson, Clifton (ed.). "Holyoke, the Paper City". Hampden County, 1636-1936. Vol. II. p. 667. OCLC 9479870.

Crafts Family and Tavern

Baptist Village Rock Valley

Construction Hadley Falls Dam

early water efforts before aqueduct

"An attempt to procure water by an Artesian well...". Springfield Republican. Springfield, Mass. May 18, 1848. p. 2. An attempt to procure water by an Artesian well is to be made at the New City at Ireland depot. It cannot be expected to be as successful as was the one here, on the grounds of the Car and Engine Co. We understand that a common well was undertaken at the New City, recently, and the digging carried down 148 feet,—all the way through sand,—without success, and the attempt was then given up

19th century

The vast wealth distribution of Massachusetts and the broader United States during the Reconstruction Era

Holyoke City Hall, cost, at time

Rileys

Jarvis Fuller

baptists

sisters of providence

Civil War

52 casualties from Holyoke Harper, p 76

First wave of immigration

Second wave

Public health and the number of people per household, cite note on French the lack of modern sewers, fatalities, etc. clean drinking water and the water works construction

Loomis and Elmwood, the expansion of Oakdale, of Springdale, streetcaar suburbs for workers

Industrial expansion

Industries of Holyoke, 1935, by Boston artist Aiden Lassell Ripley; today found in the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the piece was commissioned for the city's New Deal Post Office, as an alternate to Ross Moffett's Captain Alezue Holyoke

John B. McCormick in his workshop at J.W. Jolly; a disassembled Holyoke Hercules turbine, which McCormick first developed at the Holyoke Machine Company, the first true mixed-flow turbine of a high efficiency

The mills of William Skinner and Sons at the zenith of the company's industrial output

Paper. American Writing Paper Co. Rewinding paper from reel. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/518328

the Newtons, Bagg, DHABTower

Holyoke Automobile Company Matheson

Farr Alpaca Skinner Whiting Parsons Merrick and American Thread

B. F. Perkins and Graham Bell

White and Wyckoff Deane Steam Pump and Worthington J W Jolly Holyoke Machine

Steiger's

Banks and financial institutions, the creation of them, PeoplesBank, the Credit Union being ones left today

the printing industry and non-English presses Clark W. Bryan

Holyoke Dam Canal complete Water Power Company and testing Flume

High culture

President McKinley and Ida Saxton McKinley depart from the Mount Tom Summit House; although Kennedy and Ford would both spend time in the city as members of Congress, McKinley is the only sitting president to visit the city

The Mount Tom Summit House

Ease, by Irish-American trompe-l'œil painter William Harnett, commissioned in 1887 by owner of the Holyoke Envelope Company, and Springfield Union president James T. Abbe, it was presumed destroyed for much of the 20th century.

The Classic Room of the Holyoke Masonic Temple, cornerstone laid in 1920

Building of the opera house, and theaters establishment of the museum group Holyoke House contracting of harnett by Abbe Golf course built Mountain Park and its plays, etc banquets at the Windsor with Gov and others cultural groups, Philo-Celtic, French, Polish, etc. provision of recreation, theater, etc to workers from Farr Alpaca, others Skinner Coffee House the Holyoke music club and union, all the visitors The short-lived Ingleside Hotel and Harvard

establishing of clubs, both for trades and charity in social status. E.g. Oakdale, E.g. Loomis house, what were they called? e.g. freemasons, caledonians, hibernians, baptistes, teutonians board of trade the ingleside boat club the canoe club in smith's ferry Wyckoff Golf, originlaly mount tom

Transportation

Labor by 1897, consolidation and a lull in labor union power https://books.google.com/books?id=sDMAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA65&dq=%22Holyoke+was+once%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjuq7zVuavmAhWDY98KHX1IBi4Q6AEwAnoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Holyoke%20was%20once%22&f=false

Ranked in 100 largest cities in the United States in its heyday (1880-1910) https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab11.txt https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab12.txt https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab13.txt https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab14.txt

National influence and early legacy

Examples of Holyoke appearing alongside New York in media from both cities, alongside others, clockwise from top left, a matchbook for Roger Smith Hotels, masthead for the first issue of Good Housekeeping, an ad for Whiting Paper, capitals for buildings in an 1879 issue of The American Architect and Building News

"...Holyoke, now over a century old, has never flowered. For a brief period, perhaps from about 1878 to 1893, she gave signs of sturdy growth. Then a slow paralysis set in, and the promise was not fulfilled. Today she has far more to recommend her than a dozen other New England manufacturing cities...Nevertheless, if Holyoke is not one of New England's dreary mill towns, she is still far from realizing the hopes her founders and later comers alike had for her."

—Constance McLaughlin Green, American Cities in the Growth of the Nation, 1957

Dwight and Bryan; ANPA presidents

In the first decades since the city's incorporation, its residents and industrial backers envisioned it as a city on the international stage as well as one in the Commonwealth, promoting it as the "Paper City of the World" or the "Paper Metropolis". Indeed advertisements for the city's industries, most prominantly that of William Whiting's Whiting Paper Company would list the city along with those of its major sales offices in a manner giving them equal weight. The aspirations of the city did not go without criticism, as one writer of the Springfield Republican entitled an 1888 article, "Holyoke Growing Pompous Over its Booming Population", and when Puerto Rico's colonial governor Charles H. Allen visited, the capital San Juan was openly compared with Holyoke by another writer with similar affect. In the late 19th century through the mid-20th, Holyoke would regularly appear alongside New York, Boston, and other far larger cities, in published media.[Holyoke and Cincinnati Railway Maps]

National and international developments -Volleyball -first toll line -Venturi meter -first commercial thermite welding -first legal pad Thomas Holley, unchallenged but unsubstantiated by patents -Holyoke-Hercules first true mixed flow runners of a high efficiency -Good Housekeeping -first novel depicting Beat generation, Go (Holmes novel), Holyoke-born -first American popular musician to achieve mass-media celebrity -The Valley Players and their performances even after vaudeville disappeared -Rocky Marciano's debut -The Holyoke Falcos, the Holyoke Clover leafs, --DH&AB Tower building a generation of paper mills, Kimberly Clark too -Nautilus and the new thought movemet -Everlast from Skinner -Constance Green, Holyoke and eventual account of DC, early urban historian -Notre Dame fight song -first cost accounting in paper with Stephen Holman -ANPA membership of Transcript Telegram's Dwight JR -largest French Catholic organization of 20th century -role in Irish cause -Big band polka and Larry Chesky

-stop on the International American Congress -Mark Twain and Frechette

-first community college in MA -largest silk -largest alpaca wool -largest paper producer ---"National Blank Book"

---

largest manufacturer of blank books

---American Writing Paper Company ---Ampad -lestoil -visited by presidents, one in office, but no less than McKinley, Taft, Wilson, Roosevelt (1918(, Kennedy, Ford; FDR would meet with Mayor Yoerg in Springfield Calvin Coolidge, as was Noho mayor? His wife visited Highland Park in 1921 not to mention Jennings Bryan's speechs -Daniel O'Connell's Sons, one of the largest contractors in New England with an international portfolio https://books.google.com/books?id=QkSJtgPEBLkC&pg=PA187 -Many national figures honored by the St. patrick's parade committee Warren's early announcement and the praise of Yulin Cruz, rare reprise in national figures

yet it remains that Holyoke never quite blossomed to become the national city it meant to be. disparity of wealth, successive waves of immigration but not the jobs to fill it. there had to be a shift to specialty manufacturing (see Venice of America reference) simply because of the scale of the opening of the west, and the reconstruction era south. While Holyoke prospered in an era of that valued opera shows and vaudeville, beyond Tanguay, once it entered the era of radio and television it fell behind. Other cities like Cincinnati, and Buffalo would take on new roles in manufacturing commodities and in radio. Springfield would hold some relevance with the launch of WBZ prior to its move to Boston. Holyoke's last grand theater, the Victory, slowly descended in senescence, closing in 1976(?). Its many others, the Suffolk, Strand, the Opera House, the Globe, the Bijou, etc. would not be reinvested by their owners and failed to have the same draw in the city as it shrunk and as new media came about

A lack of planning would also play a role, as the destruction of historic monuments, and architecture constructed from materials seen as more valuable in their components led to the landscape dotted by empty lots. Arson, discrimination, efforts by city leaders to effectively segregate and shut out waves of immigrants from the start of the Shanty Irish, the French, Polish, all the way to a Puerto Rican demographic led to infighting.

between 1870 and 1900 Holyoke, along with other cities like Yonkers, Waterbury, cities with 40-50k people, saw growth on par with Houston. However while the geography and economics of that oil producing region would see continued growth in the 20th century, this was not to last for the water powered paper giant pages 19-20 https://archive.org/details/growthofrefining0000prat/page/18?q=Holyoke

20th century

"It is very unlikely that the people of Holyoke generally have any realization of the large value of the natural resources and opportunities virtually at their control, to utilize or to preserve for future utilization, or to waste and destroy by neglect. They have probably been in the situation of the American people as a whole, not unlike that of some spoiled children of wealth parents; bewildered by more opportunites and resources than they have yet learned to utilize effectively, they are apt in the eagerness with which they pursue certain ends either to waste and neflect or recklessly to sell for a pittance other values that they have not yet had time to appreciate, but which they will sorely regret as time brings greater experience and greater managing ability."

—Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. in a report to Mayor Nathan Avery, 1908

Jennings Brian McKinley

Gas and Electric Department established

valley arena

architects, casper ranger, contractors, tradesmen LaFrance and his large blocks opening of the permanent home of the library, the Holyoke Museum, eventually Wistariahurst the olmsteds build parks, advise the city, foreshadowing its decline in some ways with statement Homer E. Newell and the legacy of the industries

municipal milk station

AmWriPaper Company staves off competition elsewhere for a time, but incompetence in the trust would lay waste to the entire industry of the city in short time https://books.google.com/books?id=BQkhAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA49&dq=%22Holyoke%22+%22the+largest%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm2_mhu6vmAhVSUt8KHf1zDgg4ChDoATAGegQIBhAC#v=onepage&q=%22Holyoke%22%20%22the%20largest%22&f=false

civil rights?, refugees from Germany, the Virginia school boys https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A11BC3DF3E61E32B5%40GB3NEWS-1292D8F6BAC84DB7%402423971-12904BCCA6AB3CC1%403-12904BCCA6AB3CC1%40?h=5&fname=&lname=&fullname=&kwinc=%22anniversary%20hill%22&kwexc=&sort=old&rgfromDate=1924&rgtoDate=1925&formDate=&formDateFlex=exact&article_type=all&processingtime=&addedFrom=&addedTo=

celebration of industry and early role of Board of Trade/Chamber of Commerce https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A14AA3E25D45D32E8%40GB3NEWS-16179D5FA514F2AF%402415024-16179D6A5C69AE58%403-16179D6A5C69AE58%40?h=12&fname=&lname=&fullname=&rgfromDate=&rgtoDate=&formDate=&formDateFlex=exact&dateType=range&kwinc=%22south%20Holyoke%22%20%22Shamrocks%22&kwexc=

Quigley, Frank (December 1903). "Progressive American Cities: Holyoke, the Paper Metropolis". National Magazine. Vol. XIX, no. 3. Boston: Chapple Publishing Company, Ltd. https://books.google.com/books?id=wQlZAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA9-PA3 In 1903 was 2nd largest in railway freight, overtaken by Worcester within next 20 years Lucey, P. J. (September 7, 1920). "The Holyoke Water Works, and its Rainfall and Stream-Flow Measurements". Journal of the New England Water Works Association. XXXIV: 323–352. 1920, 12th largest MA city, 10th by valuation of goods, 3rd by railway freight tonnage, exceeded only by Worcester and Boston

Growth by this time shifted away from water, as absent advantages of new materials and turbine designs, the water power of the canals had been considered at maximum capacity (see DH AB note on this too), and thus an abundance of cheap soft coal was needed to see further growth, gradually outpaced. https://books.google.com/books?id=wQlZAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA9-PA3&dq=%22Holyoke%22+%22the+lowest%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj478j8u6vmAhWydt8KHd6uDuQQ6AEwCHoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Holyoke%22%20%22the%20lowest%22&f=false

1920s Diversified industry, some of first records produced Hit of the Week 78s s distributor during the 1920's of the Hit Of The Week line, which at its peak is said to have topped half a million sales a week. https://books.google.com/books?id=s3dr6NFd23YC&q=%22hit+of+the+week%22+%22Holyoke+plastics%22&dq=%22hit+of+the+week%22+%22Holyoke+plastics%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7vrWAgKLmAhUDHqwKHQ59DhkQ6AEwAXoECAEQAg continued after depression into 1940s https://books.google.com/books?id=0VY5AQAAIAAJ&q=%22It+was+manufactured+by+Holyoke+Plastics,+Inc.,+Holyoke,+Massachusetts.%22&dq=%22It+was+manufactured+by+Holyoke+Plastics,+Inc.,+Holyoke,+Massachusetts.%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE2YzEgKLmAhUOVa0KHcbdB2EQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg later in the 20th century, WG Records, Rex Records, etc.

Great Depression and New Deal era

1936 flood https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6254946 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6254943

1937, end of trolley service, dismantling of Mount Tom pavilion

SHIFT IN LABOR COSTS, FLORIDA compared https://web.archive.org/web/20190731012318/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/ct_hickory_ver01/data/2016270503/00271762859/1899102101/0158.pdf

File:War Memorial Building, Holyoke, Mass (71676).jpg

MacKenzie stadium another WPA era renovation

Scott Tower

community college, public housing

The B17 Crash

Third wave

Greek societies, poland, puerto rico

Postwar era and deindustrialization

Lestoil, the Springdale Industrial Park, Pakkawood and other manufactures

National Amateur Athletic Union Marathon "Holyoke Tropics" Mount Tom State Park 1960s Mount Tom Ski

The Holyoke St Patrick's Parade tradition, Kennedy Ford https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0054/4525765.pdf

Marble Block and the Flatiron razed

The 1970s characterized a chapter of economic depression and poverty unlike any other the city saw before or since

The contrast, city once had lowest loss for fire in the entire country, became notorious with nickname for fire by 1970s https://books.google.com/books?id=RvhMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA7&dq=%22Holyoke%22+%22the+lowest%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj478j8u6vmAhWydt8KHd6uDuQQ6AEwAHoECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Holyoke%22%20%22the%20lowest%22&f=false

1994 established foreign trade zone, third in Massachusetts, predating Los Angeles' https://enforcement.trade.gov/ftzpage/201up.html

start of Shad Derby, largest caught on record in 1980s

The Flats decline by 41% in housing units Two women in conversation on High Street by Holyoke City Hall (1941).jpg

closing of mills, dissolution of AmWriCo train station shutter, opera house fire skinner mill fire holyoke heritage park in its stead rise of crime and drugs the curfew and the shuttering of the Flats

Transcript ended, marking a lifetime longer than the Boston Post The end of the Holyoke Street Railway as a contractor for the PVTA

AIDS epidemic, challenges to access

Saving the Merry Go Round

closure of Mt Tom Ski RAchel Maddow on WREB(?)

21st century

The mural of City Hall's council chambers, depicting both the scenery of the Mount Tom Range, as well as a number of industries in the city's history

with decline of water power, globalization, deindustrialization and changing labor markets in other regions of the nation 1998, report shows, the city had the largest state aid, mainly in the downtown and canal areas. where once the city was dominated by dozens of large mills, the City of Holyoke was then the largest employer, and ampad, the only non-government or health employer in the top 5, would leave the area within the next 10 years. https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_M0AQAAMAAJ&pg=SA3-PA77&dq=%22Holyoke%22+%22the+largest%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivrqmjuqvmAhUpiOAKHeoGB7oQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Holyoke%22%20%22the%20largest%22&f=false https://accesswdun.com/article/2005/1/153017

a dilapidated Venice (called by New Yorker) http://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=ner

buying of the canal system ongoing restoration of city hall and infrastructure, farr mansion, qcpa more acceptance of PR community, lawsuit outcome from 1990s Massachuestts Green High Performance grid improvements

Morse elected, makes national news as youngest, openly gay

closure of Mt Tom Power Plant

Restoration of rail service

efforts to cultivate new industry, opening of marijuana production https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLYvmx880aQ

New technology endeavors https://web.archive.org/web/20191123165711/https://www.holyoke.org/news/state-awards-grants-to-test-prototype-and-deploy-renewable-energy-technology-in-holyoke/

Lyman Terrace refurb

Schools taken over by the state

struggles with opioid epidemic, crime

Engie Solar

By 2001, https://books.google.com/books?id=vvg6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA500&dq=%22Holyoke+has+the%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0wOLYt6vmAhXsm-AKHRoNAzwQ6AEwAnoECAIQAg Holyoke had a 50% higher age-adjusted mortality rate of the state (659.6 vs 463.6 per 100000) than the rest of the Commonwealth, and 4 times the homicide rate. 1994 had the highest teen pregnancy, 2001 highest rate of domestic violence, 2nd highest of child abuse. 4x the state rate of AIDS, with 75% of cases being Latinos, then 40% of population. Precipitous decline, reflecting a massive disparity then between the city's PR and Dominican residents and its other communities

Restoration efforts and failures

As the city's buildings have aged, efforts gone into restoring Smith Building, Church of the Immaculate conception Mater Dolorosa Albion lost Library Commons effort Train station sold

Clock tower restarted

See also

• Timeline of Holyoke, Massachusetts