Canal Days

7 Thorpe Avenue is the birth place of Mary Doyle. She lived there in her younger years. Until about 1915 this was the location of a wooden home but was replaced by this apartment complex. The Doyle family lived here for a few years then moved around the Highlands neighborhood.

Doyle residences – LINK

Sanborn map analysis:

Sanborn 1895 map shows an empty lot

Sanborn 1915 map shows the large brick building at 7 Thorpe

genealogy of the Doyle family:

name	relation	Findagrave
Mary Doyle	self	Findagrave
Edward Doyle	father	Findagrave
Mary Sullivan	mother	Findagrave
John Joseph Sullivan	maternal grandfather	Findagrave
Johanna Sheehan	maternal grandmother	Findagrave
		Findagrave

Edward Doyle her father was a wool sorter at the Farr Alpaca Mill.

In the 1920 census the Doyle family is at 7 Thorpe Avenue.

In the 1930 census the Doyle family is at 9 Clinton Street.

The Highlands have many beautiful mansions and structures. There was great growth in the Highlands when a trolley route was made up Appleton Street and up Lincoln Street. The neighborhood grew so quickly that it needed a school – The Highland Grammar School. This was used as an auditorium for the Holy Cross Church for its signing groups. The Highland Grammar School was built in 1905. It was a large three floor building.

[STORY about reproductions of artwork at the Highland Grammar School. Where is this art now?]

From at least 1920 to 1926 there was an annual production at the Highland School Hall and then at the Holy Cross Church Hall. The production was called the Holy Cross Minstrel Show. Holy Cross also purchased (on July 28 1923) a 125 acre parcel of land in Goshen and turned it into the Holy Cross Boys and Girls Camp.

The Edward Kennedy Park is now located in place of the school. He was a student at the school and then at Sacred Heart High School. He won the Silver Medal, the Bronze Medal, and the Purple Heart. He was killed in action in Germany on October 31 1944.

[A tour can be given. Also a one hour indoor presentation can be given.]

The Parish and the Hill is a novel written by Mary Doyle Curran about the life of her family in Holyoke. Through three generations, the life of the family has changed from a rough one in the mills to one of some gentility. Pulaski Park was were the Irish first lived in the late 1840s. St Jerome’s Church was a parish church for the family. After the Irish helped build the mills through the 1850s and 1870s, many new mills came into town. Her father worked as a mill sorter at the Farr Alpaca Mill. The Doyle family moved uptown to the Highlands in the early 1900s as many of the Irish of Holyoke did. There Holy Cross Church started as an offshoot of the Saint Jerome Church. Mary Doyle was born at 7 Thorpe Avenue and lived there in her youth. She attended the Highland Grammar School. Her relatives lived around the Highlands area and her own family did move a bit.

This tour may be done as a walking, driving, or bicycle riding tour. It is about 3 miles to cover the stops and then another 1 mile to return to the start. Use the 10 underlined TOUR links in the grid below to get to much more information on each stop. This tour outline was designed by Mark Clinton and Patricia Kennedy professors of the Holyoke Community College in 2017. It has been enlarged and described by Robert Comeau. [Use the Holyoke Public Library as a halfway rest area. Doyle worked here in her youth.]

stop	location	address (Google map at link)	TOUR link	comments	VIDEO
1	Pulaski Park	northern end of Maple Street	TOUR	Mary Doyle’s grandfather worked at the Parsons Paper Mill number 1 which was just over the start of the canal.	multiple videos at the tour link
2	Veteran’s Park	corner of Hampden and Chestnut Streets	TOUR		multiple videos at the tour link
3	Saint Jerome Church Campus	corner of Hampden and Chestnut Streets	TOUR	This was Mary’s grandfather and mother’s church.	multiple videos at the tour link
4	Holyoke Canal System	Holyoke Heritage State Park	TOUR		multiple videos at the tour link
5	Farr Alpaca Mills	corner of Appleton and Bigelow Streets	TOUR	MILL – Mary’s father worked at the Farr Alpaca Mill.	Video
Rest	Holyoke Public Library	Chestnut Street	TOUR	Library TOUR – Mary took out books from here	multiple videos at the tour link
6	Holy Cross Church	corner of Pleasant and Appleton Streets	TOUR	(first 5 stops at this tour link)	Video
7	Mary Doyle’s Birth Place	7 Thorpe Avenue	TOUR	includes genealogical information and her other homes	Video
8	Hampden Street businesses	Hampden Street	TOUR	frequented stores	same video as above
9	Highland Park	corner of Lincoln and Waldo Streets	TOUR	now Kennedy Park	Video
10	Saint Jerome Cemetery	Saint Jerome Avenue	TOUR	Mary Doyle Curran has a gravestone marker near her parents.	Video
Bonus	Brightside	Brightside Drive	TOUR	The Doyles visited here for a theatrical play. Mary grandfather was in the old mens’ home (Beavan-Kelly) for a short time.	multiple videos at the tour link

External LINK to the gravestone cemetery ceremony.

The South Hadley Falls 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.

Tour Booklets of South Hadley

South Hadley Falls Cemetery

Edward Twing had two different lots worked on in Holyoke. This was done from 1923 to 1925. One was at 62 Central Park Drive and the other at the double land lot 198 and 208 Central Park Drive.

The Twing house at 62 Central Park Drive. The home is Tudor revival. This is the first of two homes that Edward Twing had the Olmsted Brothers fully design. This one was designed in 1923. It was perhaps ready in 1930 but the worldwide Depression did not allow for Twing to find a buyer for the grand home. I believe Twing built these homes in the Wyckoff area for resale only.

Soon after it was built Otto Dreikorn purchased the house. Otto Dreikorn was a bread maker of Holyoke. He was also a fire commissioner for decades. FINDAGRAVE

More importantly for us is that he was the president of the Wyckoff Park Realty Corporation and owner of the Mt Tom Golf Course.

His father named Max Otto started the Dreikorn bread store from scratch and also worked on the Parks Commission for the city of Holyoke.

There are many land trusts in Massachusetts:

Kestrel Land Trust

Hilltown Land Trust

Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust

Franklin Land Trust

Berkshire Natural Resources Council

Pascommuck Conservation Trust

North County Land Trust

There are not many conservation lands in Holyoke.

Gloutak Woods

The Jones Point 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.

The Olmsteds in Holyoke booklet is now available. They cost $6 for a black-and-white stapled copy. Each additional copy after that is $4 more when shipped together. For a color copy, the cost is $10 and each additional copy in color is $8.

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 part of the tour HERE. This is a 36 page booklet that includes a partial suggested tour route for the Wyckoff Park area.