Wednesday, November 21, 2018: The Paper City File
by ag
Holyoke, Massachusetts, which I visited briefly this week for the first time, was once known as The Paper City. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it produced approximately 80% of the paper used in this country and and was home to the largest paper, silk, and alpaca mills in the world. It is also the place where volleyball was invented and first played in 1895. (It’s early history makes for a really fun read.)
The images below were taken in the vicinity of the Holyoke Heritage State Park, which stands on the site of the Skinner Silk Mill that burned to the ground in 1980. The First Level Canal bordering one side of it was home to many other mills whose now vacant or underutilized structures can be seen in these photos.
I’d be very surprised if the city, now fallen on hard times, doesn’t make a huge comeback within the next decade.
(Btw, if you expect to find Mt. Holyoke College in Holyoke, you’ll be sadly disappointed. It’s located one town to the northeast in South Hadley, just across the Connecticut River.)
Please click on images to enlarge.
Pixetera 
Interesting – I had no idea about those historical facts. I used to go to Northampton sometimes but never got to Holyoke. I probably passed right by it. I love those old mills and I hope you get back and do more. The reflections are great. Happy Thanksgiving!!
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Thanks Lynn. Northampton has become quite expensive, and Easthampton is following suit. Once they become relatively unaffordable, Holyoke will become quite attractive, especially for artists in need of the live/work spaces these old mills excel at providing.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
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Great shots, Alan, especially the reflections. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Thanks Ken. Glad you liked.
Hope you have a good Thanksgiving too.
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Nice work on these Alan. I’m especially drawn to the three straight bw’s because of their explicit sense of place. If “Turning the Corner on History,” is a stitched image, you’ve nailed it brilliantly.
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Thanks John. You’re right about the last image being stitched. It was something that evolved as I was playing around with layers, as in the two images before that. Typically, I would try and layer the full frames, but here I started to set them apart from each other horizontally, albeit with considerable overlap (which I was fine with).
As I worked with them, the overlap became less and less until I was left with a something more like a triptych. At first, I was happy to keep the vertical edges — and three images — distinct from one another, but after a while, the possibility of melding them all into one became apparent.
I had to do more sleight of hand than I usually do to make it work, and can only hope that future historians won’t rely on this for evidence about the layout of the canal. In November 2018, there was no zigzag where these buildings are: the canal is as straight as an arrow at this location :)
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Fantastic set, Alan.
I could see myself getting lost in a place like that for days…
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True enough. And no one would ever find you :)
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