Derek Strahan

Aside from running the Lost New England blog, Derek Strahan is the author of two books: Lost Springfield, Massachusetts and New England Then and Now, along with being the host of the Western Mass History podcast. Derek is a graduate of Westfield State University, with degrees in English and Regional Planning, and he currently works as a land use and environment planner in Western Massachusetts. Derek also serves on the board of directors of the Springfield Preservation Trust, and he lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife Melissa and their two sons.

Willimansett Y, Chicopee Mass

April 26, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The “Y” intersection of Chicopee Street and Meadow Street in the Chicopee village of Willimansett, around 1917. Image courtesy of the Chicopee Public Library, Russ H. Gilbert Photographic Collection.

The “Y” in 2015:

In the early 20th century, the city of Chicopee experienced a large population growth, much of which was made up of Polish and French Canadian immigrants. Each group settled in particular neighborhoods, and Willimansett became home for many French-Canadian immigrants, including my great-great-grandparents, who lived a block away from here in the 1920s. From here, workers could commute a short distance by trolley to either the Holyoke mills across the river, or the mills along the Chicopee River a few miles to the south.

This intersection of Chicopee and Meadow Streets became known as the “Y”, so-named because of the angle at which the streets merge. This is the primary commercial center of Willimansett, but in the early 1900s it was still fairly undeveloped. The commercial blocks on the right weren’t there yet, nor were the houses to the left. The only prominent building that appears in both photos is the Chapin School, which can be seen in the distance in the middle of the fork. It opened in 1898, and had several additions put on as Willimansett grew in population. Today it is vacant, but it is currently planned to be converted into apartments for veterans.

Probably the most interesting thing about the “Y”, however, is something that does not appear in either photo. In the 1930s, a grocery store opened here, called the Y Cash Market. They are no longer in Willimansett, but the name lives on – today the company is Big Y, one of the largest grocery store chains in New England.

Center Street, Chicopee

April 24, 2015April 23, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Center Street in Chicopee, probably in 1918. Image courtesy of the Chicopee Public Library, Russ H. Gilbert Photographic Collection.

Center Street in 2015:

One of the busiest sections of road in Chicopee is completely void of traffic in the 1918 scene, but it wasn’t necessarily because people lacked cars. At this point, cars were becoming more common among the middle class, but this became a problem during World War I. Because of the war demand for fuel, the federal government implemented programs to help reduce fuel use. One of these plans was “gasless Sundays,” when people were encouraged to avoid driving on Sundays, thus saving a substantial amount of gasoline. I don’t know how effective it was overall, but evidently it worked in Chicopee – the first photo was taken during one of these “gasless Sundays,” and sidewalks are full of people, with nary a car in sight.

The only real change in these two views, other than the presence of automobiles, is the building on the far left. This building at the corner of Center and Exchange Streets was replaced by the Starzyk Building in 1921. Otherwise, the other buildings are still there: the Spalding factory in the distance, the 1871 Chicopee City Hall to the right, and the old 1911 Chicopee Public Library building.

Starzyk Building, Chicopee Mass

July 7, 2015April 23, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Starzyk Building at the corner of Center Street and Exchange Street in Chicopee, around 1921. Image courtesy of the Chicopee Public Library, Russ H. Gilbert Photographic Collection.

The building in 2015:

The Starzyk Building has been a prominent building in downtown Chicopee for nearly a century, and the first photo was taken right around the time that the original building was completed. It was owned by Paul Peter Starzyk, a Polish immigrant who came to Chicopee in the early 1890s and worked in the mills of Dwight Manufacturing Company, the same place where social reformer Lewis Wickes Hine would later document child labor conditions in the early 1900s. Starzyk didn’t work in the mills for too long, though, because he later went into business for himself, selling men’s clothing. His business was successful enough that he was able to build this building in 1921, and a year later he expanded it on the right-hand side. The first photo was taken before this wing was added. Today, the storefront windows have been altered, but otherwise its exterior appearance hasn’t changed much. It is still used for retail and office space, and is still one of the main commercial buildings in downtown Chicopee.

Solin’s Market, Chicopee Mass

April 23, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Solin’s Market, at the corner of Center and West Streets in Chicopee around 1919. Image courtesy of the Chicopee Public Library, Russ H. Gilbert Photographic Collection.

The location in 2015:

This grocery store was owned by Michael Solin, and was established in the early 1900s to serve the growing Polish community in Chicopee. I can’t read all of the writing on the windows, but it appears that some of the purchases that could be made here included sugar for 7 cents a pound, butter for 35 cents a pound, eggs for 28 cents a dozen, and milk for 11 cents a quart. “Fresh shoulders” are also apparently available, although no price is given, so perhaps the market price varied from day to day. These seem like great buys, but of course wages were also much lower back in 1919. In 2015 dollars, the sugar would cost $0.95, the butter would be $4.75, the eggs $3.80, and the milk $1.49 (for a quart, so a gallon would be $5.96). All of these are comparable to or higher than prices today, so the deals weren’t as great as they appear at first glance.

But, just as buying milk for 11 cents a quart is a thing of the past, so is the building that once housed Solin’s Market. I don’t know when it was demolished, but the property was probably needed to widen Center Street and make room for the I-391 on-ramp. The street to the right, Abbey Street, is now closed off to traffic from this end, and some of the houses on that street are probably the only things left from the 1919 photo.

Elm Street, Springfield Mass

July 21, 2015April 23, 2015 by Derek Strahan

Looking east on Elm Street in Springfield, around 1892. Photo from Picturesque Hampden (1892).

Elm Street in 2015:

Elm Street still appears on city maps, although today it isn’t much of a street. While it used to extend from Main Street to the Connecticut River, today it is a pedestrian walkway and parking lot for courthouse employees that dead-ends in front of the Hampden County Courthouse. This area has gone through several major changes, the first of which came soon after the first photo was taken. In the first decade of the 1900s, all of the buildings between Elm Street and Court Street were demolished in order to extend Court Square down to the river; only Old First Church was spared. Later on, Columbus Avenue was built across this area, and in the 1970s the Hampden County Hall of Justice was built, with part of the building’s footprint covering what used to be Elm Street.

Despite all of the changes, several important buildings have survived from the first photo. On the left, the steeple of Old First Church is still there, although the brick addition behind it was extensively modified in the 1940s. To the right, the old Hampden County Courthouse is still there, although it isn’t visible from this angle. Beyond it, the Court Square Theater was under construction in the first photo, and was added on to in 1900. It can still be seen in the distance, along with the adjacent Byers Block and Chicopee Bank Building, which existed in the first photo although they aren’t really visible. One prominent landmark, however, that has not survived is the massive elm tree on the right side of the street. It was located in front of the Elm Street Grammar School (barely visible on the far right), and is believed to be the tree referred to by Oliver Wendell Holmes in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. Referring to notable elm trees that he has seen, he writes that, “The queen of them all is that glorious tree near one of the churches in Springfield. Beautiful and stately she is beyond all praise.” When the tree was finally cut down, a cross-section of it was saved and is now on display at the Springfield Science Museum.

John Hooker House, Springfield Mass

July 21, 2015April 23, 2015 by Derek Strahan

The Railroad House, formerly the home of Judge John Hooker, on Railroad Row in Springfield around 1893. Photo from Sketches of the Old Inhabitants and Other Citizens of Old Springfield (1893).

The location in 2015:

This building was originally located on Main Street opposite Lyman Street, and was owned by John Hooker, a lawyer who served as a town selectman, probate judge, and bank president in the early 1800s. He died in 1829, and ten years later the railroad came to Springfield. The property was right next to the railroad station, so several local businessmen had the foresight to buy the property and build a hotel, the Massasoit House. This proved to be a successful plan, but rather than demolishing the old building, it was moved around the corner onto Railroad Row, or what is today called Gridiron Street. At some point, a third story was added, and the building was used as a hotel and boarding house, operating under several names, including Greundler’s Hotel, Germania Hotel, and the Railroad House. It was probably not one of Springfield’s higher-end hotels, but it likely offered affordable rates to middle-class travelers, and was conveniently located just across the street from the old railroad station. I don’t know what became of the building, other than that it clearly no longer exists – its location on Gridiron Street is now a parking lot behind the Paramount Theater.