Page 26 - BusinessWest Macrh 6, 2023

HOLYOKE HISTORY TIMELINE >>
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1848
The property purchased by George Ewing passes into the hands of the Hadley Falls Company.
1848
In February, the first stone is laid for the foundation of 32 tenements being built by the Hadley Falls Company for its workers.
1848
In August, 1,277 men are employed by the Hadley Falls Company building the dam and canals. ‘The Patch’ is created just above the dam site by the workers and their families.
1848
On Nov. 18, the first dam across the Connecticut River is completed. A few hours later, it washes away.
1849
In September, Hampden Freeman begins publishing every Friday.
1849
A new dam, 80 feet wide and 1,000 feet long, is completed in October. It does not wash away.
1850
Holyoke is incorporated as a town. About 3,200 residents live there.
1855
Parsons Paper, the city’s first of what will be many paper manufacturers, opens.
1857
The Hadley Falls Company declares bankruptcy, a victim of economic recession.
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History
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getting mills set up along the river up there. And then they were like, ‘well, where else can we go?’” Martorell
told BusinessWest. “Lawrence and Lowell often lay claim to being the first planned industrial cities. We say they worked it out there, and then they per- fected it here in Holyoke. They really took advantage of the 60-foot drop in the river, how to harness that energy and then send it through the canals.”
Holyoke’s development was rapid, with its population surging from about 3,200 in 1850 to 45,000 by the turn of the century and more than 60,000 at its peak in the early 1920s. Textiles were the first major product of the city, quickly followed by paper, which became the dominant force in the city. At one time, more than 25 paper mills were in operation.
By 1885, 12 years after its official designation as a city, Holyoke was the largest single producer of paper of
any city in the U.S., producing around 190 tons per day, more than double
the next-largest producer, Philadel- phia, which produced 69 tons per day despite having a population nearly 40 times its size. By 1900, Holyoke would produce about 320 tons per day, pre- dominantly writing paper, led by Ameri- can Pad & Paper Co., American Writ- ing Paper Co., and others.
Holyoke also built schools, church- es, parks, and many public buildings, including the historic City Hall (see
story on page 28). By the turn of the century, Holyoke exerted considerable influence on American life. The Holy- oke Opera House was the test location for Broadway plays before moving on to New York. The Easter parade here drew as many spectators as on Fifth Avenue.
A number of industrial inventions arose out of the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first and most prominent hydraulic testing lab in the U.S., Holyoke Testing Flume, per- formed 3,176 tests to establish turbine efficiency from 1870 to 1932. Other pioneering developments included the first use of Hans Goldschmidt’s exo- thermic welding process in the Ameri- cas in 1904, by George Pellissier and the Holyoke Street Railway. In electron- ics, the world’s first commercial toll line, between the city’s Hotel Jess and a location in Springfield, entered service in 1878. Holyoke was also home to Thaddeus Cahill’s New England Elec- tric Music Co., which, in 1906, demon- strated the telharmonium, the world’s first electromechanical instrument, a predecessor of the synthesizer.
Meanwhile, the availability of water power enabled Holyoke to support
its own electric utility company and maintain it independently of America’s major regional utilities. The city was thus a rare unaffected area in the Northeast blackout of 1965.
But the city’s second century has been a complicated story, Martorell said.
“It was boom and bust. So every time there was a bust, the wealthier people were able to prepare for that. But the lower-income people were not able to prepare. They would move on to wherever there was work. So it was a bit of transience at certain points. The paper industry kind of morphed into other industrial spaces.”
Northern Migration
Beginning at the end of World War II, the city’s demographics began
City Hall’s Dedication Is Long Overdue
BY PENNI MARTORELL
H
versary of the incorporation of the city. It is our good fortune that we, the citi- zens of Holyoke, will, at long last, will hold an official dedication ceremony for Holyoke’s City Hall, a structure that is not only of notable architecture, but also a fundamental component of Holy- oke’s past, present, and future and the foundation of our community.
In a July 1876 article, the Holyoke Transcript reported:
“There ought to be public spirit enough in this city to appropriately ded- icate this noble building. There seems to be a small faction opposed to it, but they should not be allowed to present
a fitting dedication by those whose money has been spent in the construc-
appy anniversary, Holyoke! 2023 is the sesquicentennial, or more
commonly called the 150th anni-
tion of the finest hall in New England.”
That’s right, Holyoke City Hall was never dedicated upon its completion. Apparently, that small faction held out, and other circumstances derailed the building’s official dedication. So, it is only appropriate that we take time now to dedicate this magnificent building as it has stood in service to Holyoke for a century and a half. The official dedica- tion will take place on Thursday, April 6.
Most of the story about City Hall
is documented in Holyoke Annual Reports and a lengthy, detailed, unsigned article in the Saturday morn- ing edition of the July 1, 1876 Holyoke
Did you know?
1899: The first public bathhouse opens, following the passage of a motion in the previous year introduced by Alderman Moritz Ruther, implementing such a hygiene program because plumbing was not yet ubiquitous. Each of what were eventually four bathhouses had two showers and large wooden pools 20 feet wide by 50 feet long, two to five feet deep. None of these bathhouses had hot water; nevertheless, by 1902,
a patronage of 40,000 was reported among the four.
26 MARCH 6, 2023
<< HOLYOKE’S 150TH >>
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History
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City Hall
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