Highlands, Holyoke, Massachusetts

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Highlands
Highlands Center, Holyoke, Massachusetts.jpg
Highlands, Holyoke, Massachusetts.jpg
Top to bottom: Commercial blocks on Hampden Street; examples of Victorian homes found in the Highlands
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Highlands
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Highlands
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Highlands
Coordinates: 42°13′10″N72°37′28″W / 42.21944°N 72.62444°W / 42.21944; -72.62444
Country United States
State Massachusetts
City Holyoke
Wards 4, 6, 7
Precincts 4B, 6B, 7A, 7B
Area
[1]
  Total0.63 sq mi (1.6 km2)
Elevation
[2]
236 ft (72 m)
ZIP code
01040
Area code 413
GNIS feature ID609000 [2]
MACRIS ID HLY.A

The Highlands is a neighborhood in Holyoke, Massachusetts located northwest of the city center, adjacent to the downtown. Originally a series of farms and estates, it was first known as Manchester Grounds, as the area's land was reportedly purchased by a company of landowners from Manchester, New Hampshire soon after Holyoke was first chartered, in 1852. However while this name persisted for much of the 19th century, these holders would default on their estates by 1856. [3] The area was further divided into new building lots in the 1870s and saw considerable development as a streetcar suburb when the Holyoke Street Railway completed an extension to the area in 1886. [4] [5] [6] Another early name for the section between Lincoln and Hampden streets was Money Hole Hill, a name also used by Mary Doyle Curran in her portrayal of the neighborhood in her novel The Parish and the Hill. [7] [8] By 1897 the neighborhood had been christened its present name for its higher elevation at the foot of the Mount Tom Range. [9] Today the neighborhood contains many historic Victorian houses and about 400 acres (160 ha) of predominantly residential zoning with some commercial development, as well as the Kennedy and Morgan Street Parks. [1] [3]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Holyoke, Holyoke, Massachusetts</span> Neighborhood of Holyoke in Massachusetts, United States

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During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Holyoke saw an influx of Franco-Americans, predominantly French-Canadians, who immigrated to Massachusetts to work in the city's growing textile and paper mills. By 1900, 1 in 3 people in Holyoke were of French-Canadian descent, and a 1913 survey of French Americans in the United States found Holyoke, along with other Massachusetts cities, to have a larger community of French or French-Canadian born residents than those of New Orleans or Chicago at that time. Initially faced with discrimination for the use of their labor by mill owners to undermine unionization, as well as for their creation of separate French institutions as part of the La Survivance movement, this demographic quickly gained representation in the city's development and civic institutions. Holyoke was at one time a cultural hub for French-Canadian Americans; the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society of America was first organized in the city in 1899, along with a number of other institutions, including theater and drama societies from which famed vaudevillian Eva Tanguay was first discovered, and regular publications, with its largest French weekly newspaper, La Justice, published from 1904 to 1964. The city was also home to author Jacques Ducharme, whose 1943 book The Shadows of the Trees, published by Harper, was one of the first non-fiction English accounts of New England's French and French-Canadian diaspora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Flats, Holyoke, Massachusetts</span> Neighborhood of Holyoke in Massachusetts, United States

The Flats is a neighborhood in Holyoke, Massachusetts located to the east of the city center, adjacent to the downtown. Although it lies at one of the lowest elevations in Holyoke, its name derives not from topography but from the brick tenement "flats" which characterized its architecture throughout much of its history. Historically the area has also been associated with the name Depot Hill, as it was the location of the city's first freight and passenger railway stations; passenger service was restored at Holyoke station in 2015, following a period of absence after 1967. A section of the neighborhood between Lyman and Appleton Street to north and south respectively, and between Race and Bowers Street to the east and west is also known as Depot Square. Today the area features the Holyoke Innovation District, Canal System, Hadley Falls Company Housing District, Marcella Kelly Elementary School, local Amtrak station and 275 acres (111 ha) of residential, commercial, and industrial zoning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Germans in Holyoke, Massachusetts</span> Ethnic group in Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States

Despite representing a significantly smaller population than their Irish, French, Polish, or Puerto Rican counterparts, in the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, German immigrants predominantly from Saxony and Rhineland played a significant economic, cultural, and political role in the history of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The influx of these immigrants can largely be attributed to a single mill and millworker complex, the Germania Woolen Mills, which formed the basis of the immigrant colony that would make the ward encompassing the South Holyoke neighborhood that with the highest German population per capita, in all of New England by 1875. Along with unionization efforts by the Irish community, Germans would also play a key role in the city and region's socialist labor movements as workers organized for higher pay and improved living conditions in the textile and paper mill economies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whiting Farms, Holyoke, Massachusetts</span> Neighborhood of Holyoke in Massachusetts, United States

Whiting Farms is a neighborhood in Holyoke, Massachusetts, located to the southwest of the city center, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) from downtown. Following the construction of Whiting Farms Road in 1961, the area was developed as a residential and commercial area in the 1960s and 1970s. Its name derives from its original use as site of the farm of William Whiting, where the former mayor and papermaker bred a prizewinning herd of Jersey cattle in the late 19th and early 20th century, many of which were sold for breeding to all parts of the country. A disastrous fire caused by arson in 1919 would kill off the entire herd of 75 head, and following this the farm, then-owned by William F. Whiting, became largely defunct. At the end of the Second World War it was proposed that the property be redeveloped into an airpark, however these plans would never come to fruition. Shortly after another case of arson in 1967 which destroyed a remaining barn, the property began to see the medium-density residential development that characterizes it today, with the First Whiting Farms Cooperative Housing breaking ground later that year. Initially criticized as the "Road to Nowhere" during Samuel Resnic's administration in the early 1960s, Whiting Farms Road today serves as a major artery for retail businesses and traffic to I-91 in the area.

This is a timeline of the history of the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highland Park, Holyoke, Massachusetts</span> Neighborhood of Holyoke in Massachusetts, United States

Highland Park is a neighborhood in Holyoke, Massachusetts located to the northwest of the city center, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from downtown, on the banks of the Connecticut River. The neighborhood features Jones Park, originally itself known as Highland Park, which was designed by the influential Olmsted Brothers firm. The residential neighborhood was initially developed as a streetcar suburb by the Highland Park Improvement Association, which underwent several iterations between 1893 and 1930. Today the neighborhood contains numerous Victorian and early 20th century housing and about 219 acres (89 ha) of residential zoning, as well as the Edward Nelson White School.

References

  1. 1 2 Spatial analysis of "Holyoke Neighborhoods" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 3 Jun 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Highlands, Holyoke, Massachusetts". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior . Retrieved 3 Jun 2016.
  3. 1 2 "MACRIS inventory record for Highlands, Holyoke". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-06-18.
  4. "Holyoke's Fine Trolly System; Its Expansion From a Two-Mile Horse Car Line in 1884 to Its Present Great Proportions". Springfield, Mass. September 2, 1923. p. 37.
  5. "Holyoke". Springfield Republican. Springfield, Mass. December 18, 1874. p. 6. The acceptance of Allyn's new streets on Manchester grounds has been postponed until spring to allow of further grading on Pearl street. Building in this section still continues quite lively...
  6. "Building Lots at Holyoke on the Manchester Grounds, at Auction [Advertisement]". Springfield Republican. Springfield, Mass. September 1, 1874. p. 1.
  7. Barrows, Charles Henry (1916). An Historical Address Delivered Before the Citizens of Springfield in Massachusetts at the Public Celebration, May 26, 1911, of the Two Hundred and Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Settlement. Connecticut Valley Historical Society. p. 59.
  8. Haeber, Jonathan (May 2013). From Main to High: Consumers, Class, and the Spatial Reorientation of an Industrial City (MA). University of Massachusetts Amherst. p. 108. Archived from the original on March 23, 2017.
  9. "Holyoke; Mayor Smith Indorsed [sic] in the Caucuses— Old Names of Suburban Villages". Boston Sunday Globe. Boston. November 14, 1897. p. 62. Many residents could not understand why 'Manchester Grounds' was not good enough for a title for the section now known as the 'Highlands.' Some of the people at the time the change was made openly declared that a small majority, who thought the latter name was a little more modern and stylish. At any rate, it is thought by all that the Highlands is both picturesque and perfectly appropriate, as this section of the city stands on much higher ground than the other portions of Holyoke, and from here may be obtained, on clear days, a pretty good view of the business portion of the city