City of Stories Holyoke Mobile App

Explore the Flats and South Holyoke with the City of Stories App

In December 2021, the Holyoke History Room received a $15,600 grant from the Expand Mass Stories initiative of Mass Humanities, with funding made possible by the Mass Cultural Council. It was one of 22 organizations across the state to receive funding in the first round of grants, which were aimed at creating more inclusive histories of the people and ideas that shape the Commonwealth.

The History Room used the grant to design a website and mobile app of bilingual walking tours entitled, Ciudad de Historias/City of Stories. The first two tours (The Flats and South Holyoke) combine traditional features of a virtual walking tour—capsule histories of selected historic locations—with stories from residents. These neighborhoods were particularly important in Holyoke’s early industrial history. The contemporary stories, in contrast, focus on the lived experience of the Puerto Rican diaspora in Holyoke and are made up of interviews and archival material from the History Room’s Nuestros Senderos and Claiming Place projects. Examples include interviews with the owner of the M.D. Salon in South Holyoke, Juan Anderson-Burgos, City Councilor and graduate of the Holyoke Street School, and Diosdado Lopez, founder of the Hispanic Family Festival. Historic footage includes Betty Medina Lichtenstein’s speech at the dedication of the Phoenix apartments in South Holyoke, commemorating the two families who lost their lives in a 1981 apartment block fire at that location.

The tours are a living document that may change and evolve over time.  The History Room is currently working on creating bilingual audio to accompany each tour stop and bilingual accessible descriptions of the photographs. The tours are free to download and are ad-free. They are suitable for viewing on a phone or tablet and can be used to accompany classes, groups, and individuals on walks through these neighborhoods.