The Skinner Silk Trail is a composite of the institutions that define the Skinner family of Holyoke and South Hadley. It follows the important sites that William Skinner and then Joseph Skinner created and lived in.
Podick – Cole – Szala Conservation Areas – 390 Sunderland Road – Eastman Brook and Swamp Brook flow through these areas – MAP
Chmura Road Trails – MAP – 105 Chmura Road – starts as a purple blaze
Conte Fish and Wildlife Refuge – MAP – off of 63 Moody Bridge Road
Dyer Conservation Area – MAP – 123 River Drive – part of the Porter Phelps Huntington homestead and museum – at the edge of the Forty Acres and Its Skirts Historic District
Mount Warner – MAP – take the Salamander Loop Trail – on Mount Warner Road near Stockwell Road
The Second Parish Neighborhood of Granby was at the corner of West and Amherst Streets. There at the northwest corner was a meeting house.
130 West Street (at the NW corner of Amherst and West Streets) – Levi Smith house and tavern from the 1760s – Georgian style
129 West Street (at the SW corner of Amherst and West Streets) – Azor Moody and Clarissa Hayes – Azor Moody Store and Button Factory – early 1800s in Federal Style – later owned by Frederick Taylor who owned a paper mill on Aldrich Lake – his son Joseph Knight Taylor would died in the Civil War (FINDAGRAVE)
124 West Street (at the NE corner of Amherst and West Streets) – Timothy Smith and Hannah Moody – FINDAGRAVE
96 Amherst Street (at the SE corner of Amherst and West Streets) – Reverend Eli and Hannah Moody – this is the parsonage of the West Parish Church – 1830
86 Amherst Street (one house in from the SE corner of Amherst and West Streets) – Chester Smith and Sophia Clark – FINDAGRAVE – house is 1806
Notre Dame du Bon Conseil Church is in Easthampton Massachusetts. This church was founded on November 18 1906 with its first church at 92 Union Street. The rectory was at 68 Union. The parish was founded in 1904. In 1912, the school was at 7 Center Street.
The church is now at 33 Pleasant Street having moved there in 1922. The George Hendrick house was the rectory. This was 27 Pleasant Street.
In 1929 the school is at 35 Center and 72 Union. The Convent is at 35 Center and the nuns are from the Sisters of Saint Joseph. In 1934 the convent is at 68 Union Street where the rectory was. It is called the Saint Anne’s Convent.
pastor
starts
ends
burial
Joseph I Lord
1906
1915
burial
Eugene Baril
1915
burial
J P Bourassa
1920
burial
Ambroise Buisson
at least 1929
at least 1934
burial
burial
Eugene St Martin
1938
burial
burial
Fernand Roy
at least 1950
burial
stop 1 – Notre Dame du Bon Conseil Church
stop 2 – Notre Dame du Bon Conseil Convent
Built in 1948 to replace one on Union Street which was from 1908. That 1908 was a house that served as both school and convent. In the 1980s this 1948 convent would become the rectory.
stop 3 – Notre Dame du Bon Conseil School
Built in 1948 to replace one on Union Street which was from 1908.
Saint Stanislaus Cemetery was founded in the year 1923 as the Sacred Heart Cemetery. Its name was changed at some point.
Church
The Saint Stanislaus Cemetery belonged to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. The history of the church campus is HERE. The church land was that of Stanisław Popielarczyk – FINDAGRAVE
In the beginning the Polish ethnic group used the Immaculate Conception Church LINK and the Saint Brigid’s Cemetery LINK – but in 1907 they got their own mission church and then in 1909 the church. The second pastor Rev Wenceslaus Lenz of Sacred Heart was buried in the Saint Brigid’s Cemetery – FINDAGRAVE
Cenotaph
Views
The owners of the cemetery land were Wincenty and Waleria Tomaszewski – FINDAGRAVE
Funeral Home
John Czelusniak ran funeral homes in Holyoke, Westfield, Easthampton, and Northampton. He and his vast family is buried in this cemetery. FINDAGRAVE
Sacred Heart Church of Easthampton is from 1909. It is at 34 Franklin Street.
stop 1 – Sacred Heart Church
Land was purchased from the Stanislaw Popielarczyk family and then from the Oscar Knipfer. In 1952 side chapels were added to the church. The church was given a new roof in 1974 and that might have been when the dormers were removed. New siding was added in 1984.
Jan Mard had to live on the ground floor of the Stanislaw Popielarczyk home for his term.
The rectory is at Clifford Street in 1912. In 1929 it is listed as at 33 Knipfer Street.
stop 3 – Sacred Heart School
“Bogu i Ojczyznie” means “God and Country”
The school was blessed August 31 1919 and opened the next day. At first, the nuns were the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Joseph. In July of 1923 they were replaced by the Felicians (from Lodi New Jersey).
the cornerstone of the school has the double inscription of
“Szkola —– 1918”
“Ostoja Religii i Narodj” means “Refuge of Religion and Nation”
stop 4 – Sacred Heart Convent
The new convent was ready in June of 1922. Before that for three years the upper floors of the school was the convent.
Bethlehem House of Western Massachusetts – LINK – is based here. They help young pregnant women during their term and then for 18 more months after their child is born.
German Reformed Church is at the corner of Elm and Sargeant Streets in Holyoke. It is also called the Saint Andrew’s Reformed Church. The front of the church faces onto Elm. In 1961 this church united with the First Congregational Church of Holyoke to become the First United Congregational.
The German Evangelical Lutheran Church was located across Jackson Street from the triangle formed by Jackson, South Bridge, and Park (now Clemente) Streets. The wooden church was one floor and had the same location as the later church. This wooden church was built in 1867. It burned in 1899. Exterior VIEW.
The masonry church was built in 1899 and had August Brunn for a pastor. The German Evangelical Lutheran School was at Jackson and Bridge and had classes in the German language plus in religion.
