The Holyoke 150th Commemorative Book
This unique colorful book includes our Holyoke history, the City Hall dedication, all community events throughout the year, and highlights the Masquerade Ball and the closing of the Time Capsule in December.
The Explore Holyoke community calendar highlights the arts and cultural events throughout the city to help plan your visit. You are invited to submit your event. Events encouraged to be submitted are art openings, dance concerts, open mic events, cultural lectures. Events not allowed on the calendar are, political fundraisers, city meetings and daily specials from restaurants.
Considered by many to be the greatest American architect of the 19th century, Henry Hobson Richardson and his firm were commissioned to design more than two dozen railroad stations, many along the east-west line of the Boston & Albany Railroad. Only one, his 1885 Holyoke Passenger Station, was completed in his lifetime on the north-south line between New York and Montreal (the Connecticut River Railroad). When rail passenger service to Holyoke was abandoned nearly 80 years later, the station was altered into automobile parts and machine shops.
It sat empty for decades until local businessman David White bought the building in 2021, “tired of listening to people complain ‘Someone should fix it before it falls down.'” His takeout restaurant and Choo Choo’s Ice Cream shop will open on the site this Spring. Dave’s friend Will Melton will tell the story of Richardson and this architectural commission.
This is Will Melton’s third history talk for Holyoke Public Library. He retired in 2015 after four decades in university and museum fund raising to devote time to gardening, his mandolin ensemble, and history studies and writing. Liberty’s War, An Engineer’s Memoir of the Merchant Marine 1942-45, which he published in 2017, is available from U.S. Naval Institute Press, our library, and the C/W MARS library consortium.