by Craig P. Della Penna (Author)
Here in Massachusetts, as we look to the future and approach the twenty-first century, there is an unmistakable longing to make connections with our past. At the grass-roots level this longing manifests itself in the private restoration of many lovely and historic homes. Another sign is the growth of local historical societies and small museums. The Holyoke Museum at the public library and the Wistariahurst Museum are two nationally recognized organizations that are bringing the history of Holyoke to the forefront. Holyoke draws from the priceless photograph collections of these two archives, as well as from the photo treasures of the Holyoke Water Power Company and other important public and private sources. The images take readers from the late 1800s, when Holyoke was known as the Paper City, to the 1960s, when the downtown was the place to go shopping. Readers are delivered to a time when the author remembers taking the bus downtown to go to the Strand, the Victory, Dorothy Dodds, and Steigers.