Springfield is the most populous city in and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern Mill River. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 155,929, making it the third most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the fourth most populous city in New England after Boston, Worcester, and Providence. Metropolitan Springfield, as one of two metropolitan areas in Massachusetts, had a population of 699,162 in 2020.
Chicopee is a city located on the Connecticut River in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 55,560, making it the second-largest city in western Massachusetts after Springfield. Chicopee is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The communities of Chicopee Center (Cabotville), Chicopee Falls, Willimansett, Fairview, Aldenville, Burnett Road, Smith Highlands and Westover are located within the city.
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Located 8 miles (13 km) north of Springfield, Holyoke is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Area, one of the two distinct metropolitan areas in Massachusetts.
Holyoke Community College (HCC) is a public community college in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It offers associate degrees and certificate programs, as well as a transfer program for students to earn credits for transfer to other colleges. It was the first community college established in Massachusetts, as it was founded by the city's school board in 1946, while others were subsequently chartered under state jurisdiction after 1960.
WGBY-TV is a PBS member television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Owned by the Boston-based WGBH Educational Foundation, it is a sister station to that organization's flagship and namesake, WGBH-TV, channel 2 ; New England Public Media, which also controls Amherst-licensed NPR member WFCR, operates WGBY-TV under a program service agreement. WGBY-TV provides programming to much of western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut, with studios based in the Irene Mennen Hunter Public Media Center on Hampden Street alongside I-91 in downtown Springfield. Its transmitter is located on the peak of Mount Tom in Holyoke with the area's commercial television stations. WGBY-TV is also available on Comcast Xfinity channel 2 in Windham County, Vermont.
William Whiting was an American businessman and politician from Holyoke, Massachusetts. Whiting descended from an English family who first settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, during 1636.
WFXQ-CD is a low-power, Class A television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a translator of dual NBC/CW+ affiliate WWLP, owned by Nexstar Media Group. WFXQ-CD's transmitter is located at the old Mount Tom Ski Area summit in Holyoke. Its parent station maintains studios at Broadcast Center in the Sandy Hill section of Chicopee at the northwest corner of the I-391/MA 116/Chicopee Street interchange.
Mount Tom Ski Area was a ski resort in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in the Mount Tom Range in the western part of Massachusetts about 10 miles north of Springfield. It opened in 1962 and closed in 1998. The slopes of the former ski area are located off U.S. Route 5 in the Smith's Ferry neighborhood of Holyoke, adjacent to the former Mountain Park, now a music venue.
Aaron Vega is an American state legislator who previously represented the 5th Hampden district of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, co-owner of a yoga business, and a former film editor. He has been nominated for the Argentine Film Critics Association's Silver Condor Award for Best Film for directing jazz documentary Van Van - Empezó la fiesta!, and has worked on several PBS documentaries including American Experience and Ken Burns' Jazz. A member of the Democratic Party, Vega began his political career in 2009 when he successfully ran as a city councilor in Holyoke, and subsequently ran successfully for state representative for the 5th Hampden district in 2012. In 2020, then-Mayor Alex Morse appointed Vega as Director of the City of Holyoke's Office of Planning and Economic Development, replacing outgoing director Marcos Marrero; Vega assumed the office on January 21, 2021, and would subsequently lead Mayor Josh Garcia's transition team.
Domenic J. Sarno is the current mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts. First elected in 2007, Sarno has won re-election five times since and is a member of the Democratic Party. Winning election to a fifth term overall in 2023 and the third four-year term, he is the longest-serving mayor in Springfield's history.
Alex Benjamin Morse is an American politician who served as the 44th mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts from 2012 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected the youngest mayor of Holyoke at age 22. He was reelected three times, with his final term expiring in January 2022. Morse resigned on March 26, 2021, to accept a position as the town manager of Provincetown, beginning on April 5, 2021.
Dennie L. Farr was an American businessman and politician from Holyoke, Massachusetts. Born in Chesterfield, New Hampshire on November 29, 1861, to Lark L. and Mary Farr, he attended school at Newark, Bellow's Falls, and Westminster, Vermont, and Swanzey, New Hampshire.
James Amasa Clough, often referred to as James A. Clough or J. A. Clough, was an American architect, carpenter, and contractor, who was active in New England, especially prominent in Western Massachusetts, and whose work shaped much of the architectural landscape of Holyoke during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He would design several commercial blocks and public buildings there, such as the Holyoke Public Library, Canoe Club and the Mount Tom Summit House. The principal architect of the firm Clough & Reid, much of his work appeared under this name after 1890, when he made William B. Reid a partner- Reid having spent several years prior as Clough's draftsman. He remained principal of this firm until his retirement in 1907. One of Clough's other protégés, George P. B. Alderman, went on to establish his own architectural firm.
As of the 2010 census, Holyoke, Massachusetts had the largest Puerto Rican population, per capita, of any city in the United States outside Puerto Rico proper, with 47.7% or 44,826 residents being of Puerto Rican heritage, comprising 92.4% of all Latinos in the community. From a combination of farming programs instituted by the US Department of Labor after World War II, and the housing and mills that characterized Holyoke prior to deindustrialization, Puerto Ricans began settling in the city in the mid-1950s, with many arriving during the wave of Puerto Rican migration to the Northeastern United States in the 1980s. A combination of white flight as former generations of mill workers left the city, and a sustained influx of migrants in subsequent generations transformed the demographic from a minority of about 13% of the population in 1980, to the largest single demographic by ancestry in a span of three decades.
William Baron Chapin Pearsons, was an American politician, lawyer, judge, fire chief, soldier, and the first mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Holyoke Gas & Electric (HG&E), formally known as the City of Holyoke Gas & Electric Department (HGED), is a municipal electric, gas, and telecommunications utility primarily serving Holyoke and Southampton, Massachusetts, one of two in Massachusetts which provide all three services. Founded in 1902 with the purchase of gas and electric plants from the Holyoke Water Power Company, the municipal corporation launched its first fiber optics communications services in 1997. On December 14, 2001 the City of Holyoke purchased the majority of the remaining assets and operations of the Holyoke Water Power Company from Northeast Utilities and as a result the municipal utility assumed control of the Holyoke Dam and Canal System and an electric distribution system serving industrial electric customers in the flats neighborhood. The utility discontinued district steam service to conserve energy used in aging infrastructure in September 2010. Using hydroelectric power generation in tandem with a series of solar panel facilities, the utility has among the lowest rates in the Commonwealth, and as of 2016 between 85% and 90% of the city's energy output was carbon neutral, with administrative goals in place to reach 100% in the next decade.
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 39,880 people, 15,361 households, and 9,329 families residing in the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The population density was 723.6/km2 (1,874/mi²). There were 16,384 housing units at an average density of 277.2/km2 (718.6/mi²).
Elections are currently held every four years to elect the mayor of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Orlando Ramos is an American politician serving as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 9th Hampden district. Elected in November 2020, he assumed office on January 6, 2021.
