The Precious Blood Church Fire of 1875
with Robert Comeau
Thursday, May 29, 5:30 PM
On Thursday, May 27, 1875, during a celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi, a fire ignited in the temporary wooden building that served as the Precious Blood Church. It took dozens of lives, became national news, and led to new building code standards in Holyoke. The entire city closed down for the funerals of the victims. Bob Comeau’s May 29 presentation marking the 150th anniversary of the tragedy will discuss the fire, the victims, and the burials. Free and open to the public. In the Community Room. This program is funded in part by a grant from the Holyoke Local Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Those interested may also wish to attend Bob’s May 24 bus and walking tour of sites related to the fire. See the website of the Holyoke Preservation Trust for details.
Robert Comeau, raised in South Hadley but born and educated in Holyoke, has developed numerous, popular historical walking tours, bus tours, and presentations focused on the history of Holyoke and neighboring towns. He has been awarded multiple Local Cultural Council grants in support of his local history work.
Jumpstart Your Genealogy Class: May 1st, 8th, 15th: Thursdays, 4:30-6:00*
Led by Hillary Schau and Irisneri Alicea Flores
Seats are limited, so please pre-register: 413-420-8107
A FREE program made possible by a grant from the Holyoke Local Cultural Council
*gather and ask questions 4-4:30, followed by 90-minute class and time to pursue your own research at the end. Holyoke Public Library Computer Classroom
Drop-in Genealogy Lab: Our two, professional genealogists visit once a month to offer support to family history researchers. Both have wide expertise and Iris also offers specialized, bilingual help with Spanish-language genealogy sources. Next date: May 28
Hillary Schau (2:30-4:30)
Irisneri Alicea Flores (3:30-5:30)
Laboratorio de Genealogía: Nuestras dos genealogistas profesionales visitan una vez al mes para ofrecer apoyo a los investigadores de historia familiar. Ambas genealogistas tienen una amplia experiencia e Iris también ofrece ayuda especializada y bilingüe con fuentes genealógicas en español.
Holyoke Public Library Community Room
Monday, April 14, 5:00 PM
UMass professor Kathryn McDermott and Willow Kwak explore the 1991 tax override votes, part of a tumultuous period in Holyoke politics. McDermott and Kwak conclude that the repeated, unsuccessful efforts to pass a Proposition 2 ½ override for the schools were a turning point in the relationship between Holyoke and the state, which eventually led to more state funds for Holyoke and other cities, but also to school receivership. This is the first time McDermott has presented her research to a Holyoke audience.
Katie McDermott is on the faculty of the School of Public Policy and the College of Education at UMass Amherst and teaches courses about politics, public education, and policy analysis. Willow Kwak is a recent graduate of Northfield-Mount Hermon and plans to attend Harvard University in the fall.
Free and open to the public.
Children's Wartime Adventure Novels
The Silent Generation's Vicarious Experience of World War II
Thursday, February 27, 3:00 PM ON ZOOM
Missed the talk? Check back for the recording.
Jacqueline Lynch’s new book explores how WWII children’s literature—particularly adventure novels aimed at teens and young adolescents—shaped the world views of these readers, readers who would later become members of the ‘Silent Generation,’ known for their conformity and strong work ethic. In Lynch’s view, how fictional nurses (Cherry Ames and Ann Bartlett) and young aviators (Dave Dawson and Stan Wilson) navigated wartime challenges served as entertainment, information, and indoctrination for those old enough to know about the war, but too young to participate.
Ms. Lynch will be joining us on Zoom.
Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of many novels and works of non-fiction. She is also an award-winning playwright and the author of numerous published articles and works of short fiction. She previously appeared at the Library in 2017 to talk about her book, Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Polish and Eastern European Immigration in the Industrial Era- Holyoke & Western Mass
Saturday, October 26, 2024
1:00 PM
Holyoke Public Library Community Room
Missed the talk? View the recording here.
Thank you to Holyoke Media for recording this event!
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people from Poland and other Eastern European countries immigrated to Western Massachusetts in significant numbers. Many in the upper Pioneer Valley farmed the rich soils in Franklin and Hampshire Counties; others came to work in the mills and factories in Holyoke and Chicopee.
Join us as Robert Forrant, Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, brings his expertise in the history of labor, industrialization, and de-industrialization in New England to the topic of Polish immigration to the area. The talk also explores the hostility encountered by early generations of Polish immigrants to the U.S. and the often difficult conditions of life and work in their new home.
Free and open to the public.
(Left: Robert Forrant; Right: From the Grzesik family photograph collection at the Holyoke History Room.)
The Holyoke Public Library welcomed a recent gift of an oil portrait of William Dwight (1903-1996) from the Dwight family. The artist was Roy Spreter, a successful American illustrator and portraitist. It has been given a place of honor in the History Room, near the portraits of Dwight's parents, Minnie and William G. Dwight, long-time owners, publishers, and editors of the Holyoke Daily Transcript and Holyoke Transcript-Telegram. William Dwight became editor of the Transcript upon his father's death in 1930, while his mother became publisher.
Below are some scenes from the hanging and unveiling of the portrait on June 28, 2023, and the story-sharing that followed.
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Full Holyoke History Room Hours
Project Eagle: The Secret Operation that sent Polish Spies behind Enemy Lines in World War II
A recording of the talk from September 9, 2024, is available here. Many thanks to Holyoke Media for making this possible.
Rescuing Richardson's Station: Holyoke's 1885 Train Depot, with Will Melton
A recording of this event from March 25, 2024 is available here. Our thanks to Holyoke Media for recording it!
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.
Blue Ghost: A helicopter pilot writes home from 1968 Vietnam
As a child, Holyoke native Tom Pueschel (1945-2019) dreamed one day of flying. What he didn’t know was that he would learn to fly, during his 423 days as helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. His letters home, published in 2023, capture “a raw, unfiltered journey that navigates not just the perils of war but the emotional and ethical turbulence that comes with that.” Join us in on November 9 in the Community Room at 4:00 PM as Tom’s brothers and sons read from his letters and share stories of his life. A recording of this event from November 9, 2023, is available here.
A House in Holyoke Through Time: 159 Chestnut Street, a talk with Robert Comeau
The elegant building at 159 Chestnut turns 155 years old in 2023. It was once the home of James Newton of the entrepreneurial Newton brothers and later the Holyoke Club. It is currently the Holyoke Day Nursery. Come learn about the biography and residents of one of Holyoke’s oldest homes in this second annual “House through Time” presentation by local historian Robert Comeau. In the Community Room. A recording of this event from November 16, 2023, is available here.
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