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Depot Square in Holyoke

Here you break the area into quadrants. To the northeast corner is the Hotel Jess also called the Perkins Block. This is a former hotel that is now going to be housing. The Hotel Jess is named after James Jess of Holyoke who was the owner from about 1900 to 1940s at least. His nephew William Jess ran the place and lived there for all those decades. James Jess lived at 41 Fairfield Avenue in Holyoke so he must have made a load of many on his ventures. The original owner was Levi Perkins who ran it as a store until his death in 1895. Levi Perkins is the nephew of Justin Perkins the Holyoke minister that went to Iran and then was buried in Rock Valley Cemetery.
This Levi Perkins called the building the Perkins Block and hence the name on the entablature.

Touching the Jess to its left was a Wylie Hardware at 7 Dwight Street.

To the northwest is the Holyoke House (Hamilton Hotel) that was a hotel that also housed the Holyoke Post Office and some stores.

To the southwest is small retail buildings. First at the corner was the Hadley Falls National Bank. Then was the Burditt Hardware.

To the southeast is the passenger and freight train stations. Over the tracks was a footbridge that was put in place in 1893 to connect Dwight and East Dwight Streets.

Sanborn map analysis of the Depot Square area:

Sanborn 1884 map where Parsons Hall is on the 3rd floor and the Holyoke House has ground floor stores such as boots jewelry hats bank toys millinery and more – post office in the back section of ground floor

Sanborn 1889 map

Sanborn 1895 map A and map B which has a note on the Carter Livery that it will be replaced by a large brick block

Sanborn 1915 map in 1913 the post office moved in back of the hotel – map B finally identifies the Hotel Jess

Sears Block (Holyoke)

Parsons Hall (Holyoke)

Parsons Hall is there with its bright red door. It was used as a town hall before 1874.

Automobile Dealer at 362 Race Street

From 1924 to 1930 Charles House sold cars at this location.

From 1930 into the 1940s Frank MacDonald sold cars here via is firm Holyoke Auto Sales.

Notice that Studebaker sign up top.

City Machine is a long time renter at this location.

Street’s Pond (Holyoke)

Street Pond was named after either Whiting Street or William Street. Whiting Street was a major stock owner of the canals in the Connecticut River Valley. William Street ran the hotel on the top of Mount Nonotuck.

Moses Newton ran a pulp mill there after he bought it from Street. With this pulp mill he helped to run his cardboard mills in Holyoke. One of those mills was the Newton Paper Mill – LINK

On October 3 1894 Sebastien Yenlin buys the land and pond from Newton.  Yenlin ran a grist mill and farm there. He also lived on the land. He ran bakeries around Holyoke and would have used the grist mill for that.

Holyoke Country Club started in 1906. When Yenlin died in 1930 the land might have been purchased by the Holyoke Country Club. LINK

The eastern portion of the reservoir is now owned by the Mount Tom Reservation. The western portion of the reservoir is now owned by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. The Yenlin land on the Connecticut River is owned by the Mount Tom Generating Station.

Yenlin at FINDAGRAVE

Fitzpatrick’s Ice Rink

There was a McKinley Street were the ice rink is now. This is a good place to PARK since it is open a lot. This was NOT part of Elmwood Park.

Ross Street and its Dingle

This is the lower area of the Elmwood Park. It was replaced by the Interstate 391 terminus. The Ward 6 pool, the original Sheard Park, and the Dingle were down there. Ross Street’s remnant is visible but only its lower section. The upper section went into the park. Many would call the upper part of Ross Street – Dingle Drive.

Into this part of Elmwood Park in 1934 the ERA (Emergency Relief Administration) had terraces built. These were mostly along Jackson and Maple Street. The ERA had other projects around the city. The ERA lasted from 1933 to 1935 and it was at that time replaced by the WPA.

Parapets in Pulaski Park (Holyoke)

In 1910 the plans for Prospect Park were ready. They were extensive and much was done off of those plans.

When Prospect Park started in 1884, the views from this location were superb. At first there was no fence but later a wooden fence was added. The wall near the river was put in place in 1903 to 1904. The Olmsteds did not like the wall nor its construction but left it in place in their designs.

Finally in 1913 the work on the park was done. New and few walkways were added in lieu of the winding dirt paths. A bandstand and a children’s area was made. Look at the diagram at the top of this section. That is the park before Olmsted.

An inspection of the park now shows that the helter skelter dirt walkways were taken out in lieu of the concrete sidewalks.

Pulaski Park Memorial

The memorial in the center of the park was dedicated in 1939 when the park was renamed from Prospect Park to Pulaski Park. This memorial is now in line with Chestnut Street but it was not always so. Until 1948 it was in one of the corners of the park but was moved here so more people could see it. The dedication was at the request of medical doctor Julia Bauman. Also that year 12 new trees were planted since the 1938 storm had killed many. (The renaming also might have been helped along by a revamping of the park in 1936 due to a massive flood of that spring. The work trucks dug into the soil of the park and all needed to be redone.)

In 1955 Hurricane Diane would cause major damage to the park. Thus in 1959 twelve more maple trees are added to the park.

There once was a shelter building (opened in the spring of 1915) that allowed children and their parents to get out of the sun. This was located about 200 feet to the NW of this center.

Flowers were planted in some years, for example, in 1966.

Pulaski Park at the Canal Inlet in Holyoke Massachusetts

Two dam houses use to be in the park area to serve as gatehouses for the canal. They have both been moved. The first was brought to Hobart’s Funeral Home on Maple Street and the second to the west side of Beech near Hampden Street.