Wistariahurst Museum

                                    Once considered the Paper Capital of the World, and home to premier cotton and silk mills, the history of Holyoke, Massachusetts offers a microcosm of American industrial development. Founded in 1848 as one of the nation's first planned industrial cities, Holyoke attracted successive waves of Irish, French Canadian, German, Polish, Jewish, and Italian immigrants who worked in the mills, established small businesses, raised their families, and created communities defined largely by ethnic and religious affiliation. However, by the mid-twentieth century, Holyoke, like so many American cities, found its industrial base rapidly disappearing. In the 1960s the most recent wave of people began re-creating Holyoke. Puerto Rican migrant farm workers, attracted by jobs in Western Massachusetts, began settling in old tenement houses once inhabited by earlier immigrant groups.

Enjoy the past and the present as you experience interviews with local leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, artists and young people in this new documentary on the City of Holyoke. DVD price $25 (includes shipping)

Wistariahurst Museum is proud to feature “Nothing But Our Best”: A Holyoke Industrialist & His Company - a new book documenting the history of the National Blank Book Company in Holyoke, MA. Read from local author, Dick Towne’s point of view, the story of his grandfather’s travels from San Francisco, California, to Amherst, New Hampshire, Orange, New Jersey, and Holyoke, Massachusetts. Towne welcomes you into his family history, inviting you to the Towne dinner table in the early 1900s in Holyoke, the factory floor with working class residents of Holyoke in the late 1900s and early 20th century, and the board room of National as they decide who is the best partner for a merger.

It is not often that readers get a glimpse into the life of a man who ran a company for 50 years through the eyes of his grandson. Join Towne as he explores his family’s history and illuminates the inner-workings of a medium sized company in an industrial mill town. Nothing But Our Best: A Holyoke Industrialist & His Company book price $25 (includes shipping)

Wistariahurst Museum is a premier historical, educational and cultural site in Holyoke. Over the past decades, Wistariahurst has played a vital role in enriching the community. The fullfilment of our mission will happen through your gifts of time, talent and financial resources. Please consider contributing to our annual fund.