Holyoke Massachusetts is one of my favorite towns in the US, because it is beautiful, unpretentious, and unique.
Most of its residents are Puerto Rican, so at the street level it is a Puerto Rican town. There are Pentecostal churches pumping out song after song, there are food vendors clustered around parks filled with semi-pro baseball games, there are groups of men in folding chairs drinking Coors, there are flocks of pigeons being flown from rooftops, there are beauty salons, nightclubs, decked out Accords throbbing with Reggatone, families dressed to the nines headed from church to the McDonald’s.
The residents who are not Puerto Rican are from prior waves of immigration: Irish, Polish, Ukrainian, Italian, or some nebulous mix of all of the above.
At the architectural and built level it is a New England Mill town. Walled in on one side by the Connecticut River, and then sliced and intersected three more times by broad canals lined by huge warehouses.
The result is an odd town with a real sense of place. It is like the South Bronx and Worcester had a child.
Below is 25 photos that I hope capture some of what I love about Holyoke.
The Connecticut river wraps around Holyoke, providing a boundary, power, and scenery
The river feeds canals cutting through the “Flats” in the east creating a little Venice. Without anything else Venice has.
The rest of the Flats is light industry, tenament style housing, and old school gas stations
Many of the old warehouses in the Flats are condemend.
Others are refurbished and rebranded as office space
The canals, especially in the winter, are soothing, though no longer lined and filled with life, just garbage
Holyoke was once filled with mills, mostly making paper. It is still known as The Paper CIty. Now it just has the Riverside Paper Company
People do live in the Flats. Which is almost entirely Puerto Rican
There are tbe usual traditional urban amenities. Including bike shares, although done in a very Holyoke way
The bus station benches are lacking
Sports allegiances are equally split here
There are lots and lots of churches in Holyoke. Especially in the Flats
Across the two canals, West of the Flats, is the historic downtown.
It has two main streets of shops. There are barbers, next to empty stores, next to churches
Next to Liquor stores
Red, White, and Blue
Happy New Year
We Love Trump
Urban Tranquility
Hair Hunter
Key Of The Sea / Justice 2020
There are still blocks of the old rowhouses downtown, although most are gone
More churches. There are lots of them
Thats it. That is Holyoke. (It is hoping the Cannabis Industry is the future. Perhaps.)
Great photos! Thanks for taking and posting them
My hometown... ❤️