The Springdale Park walking tour booklet is available from me. They cost $5 for a black-and-white stapled copy. Each additional copy after that is $3 more when shipped together. For a color copy, the cost is $8 and each additional copy in color is $6.
Email me from my contact page for details. The booklets that you order will be mailed to you via USPS so I need a physical address. Other booklets are available at the BOOKLET page. You can follow this tour at LINK.
This double lot at 198 and 208 Central Park Drive was made in about 1923. Edward Twing had a lot on the eastern lop of Central Park Drive and he was a person that moved a lot so he had another one built at this double lot. The house is a planned house and the landscape is the lot to the north of the house. That lot is now with a modern house and the landscaping seems to be apparent only along the northern edge.
The Olmsted Plan is HERE.
Edward Towne had his house and landscape designed by the Olmsted Brothers from 1918 to 1924.
The PLAN of the grounds show that most of the major elements are still there. Planting guide to the land.
Edward Towne shared the administration of the National Blank Book Company with his brothers – Joseph and Frank. Edward and Joseph would have the Olmsted Brothers as their landscape architects but Frank would not.
Joseph Towne HOME
Frank Towne HOME see stop 7
Wyckoff Park Neighborhood Walking Tour is a great way to see the homes and landscapes as designed by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline. For a summary of their work in Holyoke see this LINK. You will notice in this park that there are winding streets, skewed arrangement of lots, and houses of various designs.
For information about any stop, click on the title of that stop.
stop 1 – Lewis Wyckoff house
[See link just above.] House is at 1040 Northampton Street (LOCATION)
Stop 2 – Edward Towne house
[See link just above.] House is at 1021 Northampton Street (LOCATION)
Stop 3 – James Wakelin house
[See link just above.] House is at 1067 Northampton Street (LOCATION)
Stop 4 – Mount Tom Golf Course Gates and Donald Ross home
The entrance gate to the golf course is on the highway. The Mount Tom Drive started here in 1911 and was greatly improved in 1922 by the Olmsteds. The trolley house to its side still has its base in place. The clubhouse was from 1911 to 1956 at what is now called Briarwood Drive. The pillars of the entrance gate were a gift from Joseph Skinner.
Briarwood Drive was added in 1956. The golf course entrance road was at this gate but is mostly gone. From here it did run from the middle of Briarwood up to the front of Steiger’s home.
The Mt Tom club house was from 1901 to 1911 at the top of the knoll were the William Anger home is. What a sight that most have been.
Directly across the street is the former home of the golf course designer Donald Ross at 1108 Northampton Street. He redesigned the Mt Tom Golf Course in Holyoke at the request of Lewis Wyckoff. Apparently he did this twice – once in 1914 and then in 1922. The Wyckoff Park Developers helped to pay for this second redesign (1922) since it was they who promoted the neighborhood that forced a move of the course westward.
Stop 5 – William Skinner house
[See link just above.] House is at 1155 Northampton Street (LOCATION)
Look across the street at the Nathan Avery home (1150 Northampton Street) (LOCATION). He was mayor of the city from 1904 to 1910 and also head of the parks department. He ordered the Olmsted report on the parks and then on the streets of the city.
Stop 6 – Joseph B Woodruff house
[See link just above.] House is at 28 Central Park Drive (LOCATION)
Stop 7 – Edward Twing (Otto Dreikorn) house near the highway
[See link just above.] House is at 62 Central Park Drive (LOCATION)
Mystery Stop – 118 Central Park Drive
The home at 118 Central Park Drive (LOCATION) is also in the Tudor revival style and has a nice landscape. Is it an Olmsted design in which the plans have not yet been found?
Stop 8 – Edward Twing house near the golf course
[See link just above.] House is at 198 and 208 Central Park Drive (LOCATION)
Stop 9 – Steiger Walking Path Gates
House is at 125 Mountain View Drive (LOCATION)
From your route on Central Park Drive turn right onto Mountain Park Drive. A couple of houses up see the wonderful stone gate. This is on the first of five adjacent lots that Albert Steiger bought in 1924. He made this gate as part of a walking path from the former clubhouse in the Briarwood Drive area to the first hole about 150 yards uphill.
[Now use the stop 9 link above.]
Stop 10 – Albert Steiger house
The Steiger house is at 170 Mountain View Drive (corner of Steiger Road) (LOCATION). Read of the business HERE. Albert Steiger owned a lot of land behind his house. He would often walk from his home across either a trail or the golf course road to the road around Whiting Street Reservoir and then around that and back. Both this old trail and this old road has been discovered in recent years. See stops 12 and 14a at the Whiting Street Reservoir tour.
On April 5, 1955 Steiger Road is built and perhaps finished by October.
[Now read the stop 10 link at the title above.]
Stop 11 – Mount Tom Country Club
House is at 200 Mountain View Drive (LOCATION)
The clubhouse was to be made anew at the top of Mountain View Drive as part of the 1922 Olmsted design. In the summer and fall of 1956 this was finally done. However, the landscape was done according to the Olmsted plans earlier than that.
The Mount Tom Golf Course was redesigned in 1922 when the neighborhood was reworked. The design is shown above. See that the hole 1 is between Central Park Drive and the top portion of Mountain View Drive.
In 1956 the course was renumbered such that holes 1 to 9 became holes 10 to 18 and holes 10 to 18 became holes 1 to 9. See the added renumbered course just above.
In 1963 the neighborhood had to be reworked once again. Interstate 91 was coming in and so the easternmost holes needed to be reworked to be placed into the land to the south. Albert Steiger had given land to the Holyoke Water Works in 1929. This land was sold to the golf course in 1963 so they could build the newer holes to the south. The 4th clubhouse was split in half and two houses were built in adjacent lots on the top of Mountain View Drive. The 5th clubhouse was made on the entrance from Easthampton Street.
Sanborn map analysis:
The Elmwood Fire Station is also known as Holyoke Fire Station number 5. It is found at 490 South Street.
From at least 1893 to 1916, the station had Steamer Company number 5 an American Steam Fire Engine. They also had a Seagrave Hose and Chemical combination.
From at least 1918 to 1935, they had a 750-gallon triple combination pump – Pumping Company 5. Additionally, they had a Hook and Ladder Company number 5 which was a Seagrave combination chemical and two horse truck.
In 1919 it was called Engine 5 and Truck 5.
From at least 1949 to 1957, they had engine 5 there.
Sanborn map analysis:
Sanborn 1895 map shows a Hook and Ladder Truck and a Hose Cart – all earlier maps show nothing
The history of fire fighting in Holyoke is vast. There are still many of the old stations around Holyoke along with the new. The first motor fire truck (steam-driven) was in 1901. The last horse driven fire truck was in 1922.
Engine 9 is a 1935 Mack with a 750 GPM pumper. By 1965 it is in reserve only.
The types of jobs found in the Holyoke Fire department are: foreman, first assistant, clerk, driver, engineer, stoker, and hose driver.
A fire college was started in Holyoke in 1946.
In 1888 the fire hydrants are separated by 500 feet but workers installed more so that there was now 250 feet between them.
Firemen deaths from work:
Capt James J Long of Pumping Co 3 dies Aug 29 1922 four days after fighting a fire at the Parsons Paper Mill. Smoke inhalation caused a heart attack.
Fireman John J O’Connell dies June 24 1933 while at a fire at 858 Hampden Street for a motor horse van. He died of an acute heart attack. (appointed Dec 28 1926)
Fireman James P Kiely dies Dec 23 1938 a day after fighting a fire at 84 Hampshire Street. He had become a fireman on Oct 25 of that same year. Died of monoxide.
James F Lacey (appt September 28 1923) and dies in the line of duty on May 6 1960.
Lieutenant Joseph F Riley dies May 2 1968 at a 96 High Street fire.
Tragic Fires:
Precious Blood Church fire of 1875
Walter Scott medal (started in 1922)
| year | name | date | locations | |
| 1922 | Walter Scott Watt | March 17, 1922 | 30 Lyman Street | |
| 1923 | George Hickson (police officer) | |||
| 1924 | Archibald Malcolm Daniel Cavanaugh | March 12 1923 | High and Essex | |
| 1929 | Roger Donoghue Louis Desilets | Second Level Canal | ||
| 1931 | Thomas McMahon | Jan 21 1931 | 113 Lyman Street | |
| 1932 | Daniel McLean | |||
| 1935 | Christopher Manning | May 1 1935 | High Street | |
| 1945 | Arthur H Lane | Oct 26 | 393-9 Main St | |
| 1946 | Wilfred Cote Thomas McGough | April 30 | 99 Essex | |
| 1947 | Raymond Collins (captain) | Nov 7 | 26-28 Ely Street | |
| 1956 | William Hart | April 9 | High and Cabot | |
| 1958 | William Fay | |||
| 1961 | Gerald O’Connor | |||
| 2017 | Philip Brian Kraus Anthony Deroy | Jan 1 | 106 North East St | |
(no awards 1923 – 1927 – 1928 – 1930 – 1933 – 1934 – 1936 to 1944 – 1951 from the Walter Scott Medal Board of Awards)
Only Boston, Detroit, New York City, Worcester, and Holyoke are the locations that have such an award. Argentine and Ireland also have the Scott medal.
29 Nov 1922 HTT
18 Nov 1933 HTT
The Smith’s Ferry Cemetery walking tour booklet is available from me. They cost $5 for a black-and-white stapled copy. Each additional copy after that is $3 more when shipped together. For a color copy, the cost is $8 and each additional copy in color is $6.
Email me from my contact page for details. The booklets that you order will be mailed to you via USPS so I need a physical address. Other booklets are available at the BOOKLET page.
Follow the tour HERE
The Emerald Fire Station was at 62 Chestnut Street. This was Holyoke Fire Station number 7.
From at least 1893 to 1898 they housed the Emerald Hose Company number 7.
From 1899 to 1914 they housed Hose and Steamer number 6 (of two horses) which in 1911 technically changed to number 2.
Sanborn map analysis:
Sanborn 1884 map called a Hose House
Sanborn 1889 map called a Hose House
Sanborn 1895 map called Engine House number 3
Sanborn 1915 map it is gone
