Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns · #232 of 283 in Massachusetts. What drives it
15 places in town are on the National Register, among them five historic districts with 150 buildings between them. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1850.
The Holyoke post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Ireland Depot (1847) and Rock Valley (1850), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Holyoke is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #232 of 283 in Massachusetts. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Massachusetts towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Massachusetts town has 46.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Holyoke’s 42.8 sits near the middle of its state (45% of Massachusetts towns have fewer) while its 162 historic buildings outnumber those of 92% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Holyoke’s post office has been open since 1850. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Holyoke’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Holyoke. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Holyoke.
From Wikipedia’s history of Holyoke.
The Indigenous people of Holyoke and South Hadley Falls were the Algonquian peoples. Though records are incomplete, the area was settled by the Pocomtuc, sometimes referred to as the Agawam or Nonotuck.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Holyoke, cut from the printed page as they were published.
HOLYOKEMOLD and NEW ANNIVERSARY initiative, of accomplishment handed over by Holyoke the town, to Holyoke the city. Even today thousands of residents when told that we own a really important railroad exclaim, "Well, I didn't know that." It is worth careful note that this municipal railroad was built, as the municipal lighting plant was founded,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The incorporation of the Hadley Falls company, and the great work of constructing the dam across the river and the system of water power canals in the old North parish, led to the incorporation of the town of Holyoke, and accomplished that end in less than two years after the charter was granted to the company. Under the law the consent of the mother town was not pre-requisite to the new creation, and the necessity of a new civil division of the county, including the territory of the previously
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
This included the present territory of Holyoke, West Springfield and Agawam, extending from the Connecticut state line to the present south line of Hampshire county, an area of sixty square miles. This arrangement remained unchanged for more than seventy-five years, until 1850, when "Ireland Parish" was incorporated as the town of Holyoke.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
If all the rain and snow which falls on the entire area of the City of Holyoke for one year could be put into the canals it would last only five days. Ashley Pond, one of the sources of domestic supply for the City of Holyoke, would be emptied in four hours.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveHolyoke Hadley Falls Plan 1853
BuiltHolyoke City Hall is built
BuiltCaledonia Building is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltMaplewood Hotel is built
In the archiveH.K. Porter narrow gauge locomotive ('dinky') during the 1895-1900 construction of the st…
BuiltWistariahurst is built
Born hereHal Blaine is born here
Born hereWilliam Eubank is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1884Sheet 1 of 18Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Holyoke’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Peaked at 60,203 in 1920; 38,247 people lived here in 2020.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Holyoke’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Holyoke post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Holyoke is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #232 of 283 in Massachusetts. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
15 listings: 8 buildings, among them the Wistariahurst (listed 1973, the first), 5 historic districts with 150 contributing buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure. 162 historic buildings in all.
43% of Holyoke’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.1 points), against a typical 21% for a Massachusetts town; the median home was built in 1950.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (15), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1856