Page 28 - BusinessWest Macrh 6, 2023

HOLYOKE HISTORY TIMELINE >>
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1859
The Holyoke Water Power Company assumes control of all the holdings of the Hadley Falls Company, including the dams and canals, the stone quarry, and the swing ferry.
1861
The Civil War begins. About 250 Holyokers serve in the war, and 40 are lost.
1863
The Holyoke
Water Power Company begins to lease sites for non-textile ventures.
1863
The Holyoke Mirror, successor to the Hampden Freeman, is sold to Henry Burt and Charles Lyman of Springfield, and the name is changed to the Transcript.
1865
Merrick Thread Mills and Writing Paper Company are established.
1869
The 11 paper mills in Holyoke are producing 30 tons of paper per day.
1872
The bridge from Holyoke to South Hadley Falls is constructed.
1873
Holyoke, its residential growth now on a steady ascent, is incorporated as a city.
1873
The 14 mills in Holyoke are producing 48 tons of paper per day. The E.T. Bosworth Company employs 300 workers making 10 million bricks per year.
1874
Holyoke has 14 paper mills employing 2,000 workers, as well as three cotton mills, two thread mills, three woolen mills, and the Holyoke Machine Works, employing 3,400 among them.
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A Portrait of Resilience
Holyoke Has a History of Facing Challenge, Creating Opportunity
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
As he talked about his city and its outlook moving forward, Holy- oke Mayor Joshua Garcia first turned the clock back nearly 150 years and did what amounts to a ‘what if?’ exercise.
He was referring to Holyoke’s ubiq- uitous canals, which were, when they were conceived, no small bit of engi- neering — and financial — daring.
“It was a risk,” said Garcia, the
city’s first Hispanic mayor, who took office in late 2021. “When folks built the canal system ... I think about what that conversation might have been like, the divide that might have been going on in this community. You had some who probably said, ‘yes, we need to be proactive and build this system,’ and others who likely said, ‘this is too much money; our taxes are going to go up if we do that, and besides, I’ll be gone in 30 years.’”
“I’m trying to get people to not think short-term — the investments we make today are not just for next month or next year, but 20 to 30 years out.”
Fortunately, those in that first cat- egory prevailed, he went on, adding that the canals helped fuel decades of prosperity, jobs, and an enviable quality of life, and they put the city on the map. And as he looks ahead, Garcia believes Holyokers must have that same willing- ness to take reasonable risks — to be daring, if that’s the right word — and make the necessary investments to continue, and bring to a higher level, an
Mayor Joshua Garcia says Holyokers need to take the long view when it comes to their city and its future.
many of the other needed ingredients are already in place, everything from a focus on entrepreneurship to inexpen- sive and reliable green energy; from a solid, diverse workforce to spaces in which new businesses can get started and eventually grow.
Jeff Hayden, currently vice president of Business and Community Services at Holyoke Community College, pre- viously served in several economic- development posts in the city, including as director of Planning and Economic Development. Nearly a half-century ago, he worked part-time at a Dairy Mart on Dwight Street managed by his father.
He has seen a lot of change over that half-century, and, more recently, a good deal of progress as Holyoke has diversified a business community once dominated by manufacturing, especially paper and textile making.
In the ’90s, manufacturing was still a pillar of the local economy, along with healthcare — there are several facilities providing everything from acute care
to behavioral-health services to care
28 MARCH 6, 2023
<< HOLYOKE’S 150TH >>
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ongoing renaissance in a city that was among the nation’s wealthiest and a model of innovation and manufacturing excellence.
“I’m trying to get people to not think short-term — the investments we make today are not just for next month or next year, but 20 to 30 years out,” he said. “We want to build a middle
Staff Photo
school, for example, something that would benefit this city for generations to come.”
Long-term thinking is one of neces- sary ingredients for continued prog- ress in this city, said Garcia and many others we spoke with for this special section commemorating Holyoke’s 150th anniversary. Overall, they said
Holyoke
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Did you know?
1906: On March 16, inventor Thaddeus Cahill gives a remote concert demonstrating his telharmonium, transmitting synthesized music over telephone wires from his Cabot Street laboratory to an audience in the Hotel Hamilton. It marked the first official public unveiling of what was the first electromechanical musical instrument, an early counterpart of synthesizers that weighed more than 200 tons.