The American Writing Paper Company included in Holyoke the following:
- Albion
- Beebe-Holbrook
- Crocker-McElwain
- Dickinson
- Holyoke Paper
- Linden
- Mount Tom
- Nonotuck
- Norman
- Parsons
- Riverside
- Wauregan
Sanborn maps
American Writing Paper
Author: admin
Holyoke Heritage Trail tour booklet
Use this Holyoke Heritage Trail tour booklet to follow the route that I have designed to honor the heritage of Holyoke. If you prefer, you can follow the TOUR on the internet.
Booklets are available for a self-guided tour of the Holyoke Heritage Trail. They cost $8 for a black-and-white stapled copy. Each additional copy after that is $5 more when shipped together. For a color copy, the cost is $13 and each additional copy in color is $10. Both booklets are folded letter-sized sheets with 40 pages.
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.
Anniversary Field
link to Community Field
Renovations to Anniversary in 2023 and 2024
The Kestrel Land Trust is attempting to renew the area. STORY
The Gubala family helps to clean the fields, trails, and streams. STORY
Another Before picture.
Anniversary and Community Fields are joined parks within Holyoke that were built up during the 1920s and 1930s. Anniversary Hill Park was made in Holyoke for the 50th anniversary of the city of Holyoke. This was in 1923 and it was made from the joined lands of Crafts Hill and the Scott land. The field runs from Northampton Street up to the top of Crafts Hill. The top portion borders against Community Field.
To celebrate the opening of the hilltop as a park, a pageant was held here in 1923. NEWSPAPER article.
Also a topographical survey was done in 1925 of the park and hill and this map is with the Parks Department.
Nowadays Easthampton Road and the Interstate 91 both cross Anniversary Hill. Once upon a time only Easthampton Road would come down the Anniversary Hill. Since the hill was a cleared area due to its being a farmed area, people could ski on the hill.
Anniversary Field
Drum corps team from around New England would use Anniversary Field in its earliest days to have contests. Cows would wander up and down the hill and graze on the grass giving the Anniversary lawn a fresh look. Really cool to know were the staged battles on the hill.
In 1929 Anniversary Field (at the Northampton Street base of the park) received a radical make over into a recreational area. A baseball field, a football field, a basketball court, a bowling green, and a horseshoe court were added. Anniversary Field was dedicated Labor Day 1935. There have many musical bands that played here through the years including this August 30th 1937 nine band concert. This was from the Eastern States Band Association.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked on the area on the top also and made many trails. In that year there was a clearing and grubbing of all the hill form a WPA project. In 1942 an archery range and in 1941 a football field were added to Anniversary Field. In that year also a group called the Committee on Public Safety would use Scott Tower as a plane spotter location. In 1943 the Signal Corp soldiers used the tower as a signal and observation lookout. In 1948 a new ice rink was placed into Anniversary Field and a new roadway was added to Community Field.
Crafts Tavern and the Lynch School
At the base of the hill was Crafts Tavern. This was a very old building that had served Holyoke well since its beginning. In 1950 the Lynch Junior High School would replace it. (Lynch was completed in 1952.) Holyoke tried to sell the tavern but there were no takers since the building would have to be moved. In 1958 a new softball field is added.
Scotts Tower LINK
Bowling on the Green
Floodlights were added to Bowling on a Green in the 1940s. The Holyoke Bowling Club would be started at some point. It was decided in 1954 that the Anniversary Field Bowling Green would no longer host major state and New England tournaments as it once did. However, from July 29 to August 3 of 1962, the New England Lawn Bowling Association Tournament was held here. In 1967 there was heavy damage from rainstorms into Green area (this was due to the slopes below the new interstate being not drained well).
Tennis Courts
Tennis courts just above the baseball field was added in the 1930s.
Skiing in Anniversary Field LINK
Other Activities
Toboggan and Sledding
A toboggan slide was made in 1952 but it had been planned long before that.
Interstate 91
From 1963 to 1965, Interstate 91 would be constructed through both Anniversary Field and Community Field. It cut both into two parts of their own. Since they were contiguous parklands, one could know say that there were 3 parklands – Anniversary Field, Community Field, and Anniversary-Community Hill. The interstate would take 40 acres in total from the parklands.
Chmura Pool
There had been talk of a new pool on top of the hill. In 1966 Holyoke was going to pay for it themselves but the government knew that the state had a fund that helped Western Massachusetts communities build rinks and pools. An article in the Holyoke Transcript states that the ward one pool was made in 1911, the wards four and six pools both in 1925, and ward two pool in 1926. In 1967, a new pool funded by the state was started at Anniversary Field (it would be ready on June 16 1969). This would be called Chmura Pool. It was located at the very top of Crafts Hill. It was built within the oval loop of the road just below the tower. About the year 1991, the Chmura Pool would close for good having been open only 22 years. The state was in charge of its care and it was hard to care for a pool at the top of a hill.
Stephen Lombard Murdered
Stephen Lombard Murdered
Emerson House in Chicopee
Emerson House in Chicopee is at 30 Emerson Street off of Chicopee Street. James Emerson had the house built in 1895 for his family. He perhaps loved the views of the river and the canal spillway.
James Emerson was the first engineer who tested turbines in Holyoke. His work was done at the Boatlock Station in Holyoke at the juncture of the First and Second Level Canals. James dies in 1896 but his son Estelon and his wife Sophia still live there until about 1912.
From 1920 to 1930, Frederick A Mead a medical doctor takes over the house with wife Lucetia and kids Jay, Ruth (would become a nurse), and Ralph.
In 1934 and 1935, Frank’s Spaghetti House is in the workspace and Frank Falbo (barber) and Margaret (his wife) own the house. FINDAGRAVE
Kane’s Dairy has one of its many storefronts in the Greater Holyoke area at the workspace and they own the house too. Kane’s Dairy started in Holyoke in 1922 and they lasted until 1967. Kane’s Dairy bought this location in 1962.
Sanborn map analysis:
Sanborn 1910 map shows that the workhouse in back is rented out to a blacksmith (note that all prior maps do not show this section of Chicopee)
Sanborn 1915 map shows the workhouse in back is used as a fish store
Burial Grounds of South Hadley and Granby throughout their History
Burial Grounds of South Hadley and Granby throughout their History
I have presented Burial Grounds of South Hadley throughout its History in the past and the outline is available HERE.
The are two burial grounds in Granby – West Street Cemetery and Batchelor Street Cemetery (aka North Cemetery).
The West Street Cemetery was founded while this land was still part of South Hadley. It is a churchyard cemetery since it is very close to the former Meeting House (or Congregational Church) that was on West Street. The old part of this cemetery is on land donated by James Smith on July 10 1769. There might be some earlier burials since he was letting people be buried on his land. Granby Girl is buried here. (Her LINK) Also here are two Granby hit and run victims. (LINK)
Batchelor Street Cemetery (aka North Cemetery)
The North Cemetery was started in 1764. Since Granby was incorporated as a town in 1768, North Cemetery was on South Hadley land for its first four years. This is a family cemetery. There were several families that settled in this part of Granby in order to form a Baptist Church but the church was never built. This cemetery might have been a churchyard cemetery but many of those Baptist families moved to land close by in Belchertown or in Wilbraham to form a church.
Holyoke Plush
The Holyoke Plush is at the juncture of the 2nd and 3rd canals. They are the makers of lap robes and velours.
Sanborn map analysis:
Sanborn 1947 map shows that they are gone
Brightside Honor Roll
Brightside had many inhabitants during its existence. Many of them served in the world wars that engulfed Europe in the 1900s. The Brightside Honor Roll was made to honor the military men from Brightside that served America. There are many names on the two boards. They are in alphabetical order with A to H on the left side. The names which have gold stars after them are the men that died due to either WW1 or WW2. There is a nice statue of St Vincent de Paul in the middle of the two. The board was dedicated on October 19 1947. Sister Mary Christi Cain made the board over a course of a month.
| name | first name | birth | death | burial location |
| Anderson | Alfred | |||
| Brady | Edward | |||
| Bryant | Donald | |||
| Cain | Edward | |||
| Cassidy | Joseph | |||
| Chartier | Leo | |||
| Coughlin | Kieran | |||
| Greenia | Bert | |||
| Harkins | Leon | |||
| Nolan | William | |||
| Pike | Amos | 1922 | 1942 | in the ocean near the Philippines – body not found |
| Quirk | Edward | |||
| Race | Francis | |||
| Wince | Matie | |||
North High Street District walking tour booklet
The North High Street District walking tour booklet is available from me. They cost $8 for a black-and-white stapled copy. Each additional copy after that is $5 more when shipped together. For a color copy, the cost is $13 and each additional copy in color is $10.
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
Walnut Street tour
Block 0 – Pulaski Park and Saint Kolbe Drive LINK
Block 1 – Lyman to Hampden
61 Walnut is an 1870 tenement house. 63 Walnut is a 1882 home.
Block 2 – Hampden to Dwight
Block 3 – Dwight to Suffolk
736-740 Dwight St is a 1915 apartment block.
The Raymond (and then called the Amelia) is a 1904 apartment block at 123 Walnut Street.
At 129 Walnut is the William Cook building from 1891.
133-135 Walnut is from 1890.
137-139 Walnut is from 1891.
118 Walnut is from 1900.
120-126 Walnut Street is the Charles Johnson Block from 1885.
Block 4 – Suffolk to Appleton
Second Baptist Church of Holyoke
On June 24 1849 the Second Baptist Church of Ireland Parish started but did not have a church yet. The first building was at the corner of Main and Mosher and lasted from 1858 to October of 1863. The second building was at the same corner and was completed in April of 1865. The third building was on Appleton Street and is still there having been completed by October 20 of 1885.
Block 5 – Appleton to Essex
384-388 Appleton Street is from 1880.
179-183 Walnut Street is from 1890 and is called the Lawrence O’Neill Tenement House.
187 Walnut St is from 1860.
191 Walnut St is from 1890.
193-195 Walnut St is the same
199 Walnut St is from 1870.
The Colonial is at 209-211 Walnut St 155-159 Essex Streets was designed by Oscar Beauchemin. It has 20 apartments.
192 Walnut Street is the Walnut Street Rowhouse from 1879.
From 1913 is the 212 Walnut St 145-149 Essex Street building called the Lotus.
Block 6 – Essex to Cabot
Block 7 – Cabot to Hampshire
Block 8 – Hampshire to Sargeant
Block 9 – Sargeant to Franklin
Block 10 – beyond