Belchertown
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Belchertown
Belchertown (previously known as Cold Spring and Belcher's Town) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 15,350 at the 2020 census. The town includes the census-designated place of Belchertown. Belchertown was formerly the home of the Belchertown State School. The land on which the school sat is, as of 2016, being redeveloped for mixed uses including residential, commercial and recreational. This includes the Lampson Brook Farm, used for community and sustainable agriculture, outdoor recreation, and wildlife preservation. History In 1716, the Equivalent Lands were sold by Connecticut Colony to residents who reside in present-day Connecticut and Massachusetts. Some of these lands were granted to Jonathan Belcher, the future Royal Governor of Massachusetts. Belchertown was first settled in 1731 and was officially incorporated in 1761 as Cold Spring, later the name ...
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Belchertown State School
The Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded was established in 1922 in Belchertown, Massachusetts. It became known for inhumane conditions and poor treatment of its patients, and became the target of a series of lawsuits prior to its eventual closing in 1992. The building complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. Conditions and treatment of patients Located at 30 State Street, the campus contains 10 major buildings built in a Colonial Revival style by Kendall, Taylor, and Co. State schools of Massachusetts were institutions for people with intellectual disabilities or developmental disabilities, though at the time different terms were used. Throughout its first 40 years, Belchertown operated mostly without scrutiny from outside sources. Author Benjamin Ricci (whose son lived at the school, and who later led a class-action lawsuit protesting the conditions there) referred to the conditions as "horrific," "medieval," and "barbaric." Doctors a ...
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Belchertown (CDP), Massachusetts
Belchertown is a census-designated place (CDP) comprising the central village in the town of Belchertown in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 2,899 at the 2010 census, out of a total town population of 14,649. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography The Belchertown CDP is located in the center of the town of Belchertown at (42.278451, -72.401804). It is bordered to the north by Bay Road and Massachusetts Route 9 (Federal Street and Sargent Street), to the east by Jabish Brook and Jabish Canal, to the west by Broad Brook and Old Springfield Road, to the south by State Street (U.S. Route 202), and to the west by Weston Brook, Lampson Brook, George Hannum Street, and Hamilton Street. Route 9 leads east to Ware and northwest to Amherst, while US 202 leads north to Athol and southwest to Holyoke. Massachusetts Route 181 leaves US 202 in the center of town, leading south to Palmer. Massachusetts Rout ...
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Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Hampshire County is a historical and judicial county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Following the dissolution of the county government in 1999, county affairs were managed by the Hampshire Council of Governments, which itself ceased operations in 2019, due to a "fundamentally flawed, unsustainable operational model". As of the 2020 census, the population was 162,308. Its most populous municipality is Amherst, its largest town in terms of landmass is Belchertown, and its traditional county seat is Northampton. The county is named after the county Hampshire, in England. Hampshire County is part of the Springfield, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Together with Hampden County, Hampshire County municipalities belong to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. History Hampshire County was constituted in 1662 from previously unorganized territory comprising the entire western part of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It included the original towns of Springfield, Northampt ...
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Quabbin Reservoir
The Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in Massachusetts, and was built between 1930 and 1939. Along with the Wachusett Reservoir, it is the primary water supply for Boston, to the east, and 40 other cities and towns in Greater Boston. The Quabbin also supplies water to three towns west of the reservoir and acts as backup supply for three others. By 1989, it supplied water for 2.5 million people, about 40% of the state's population at the time. It has an aggregate capacity of and an area of 38.6 square miles (99.9 km2). Structures and water flow Quabbin Reservoir water flows to the Wachusett Reservoir through the Quabbin Aqueduct. The Quabbin watershed is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, while the water supply system is operated by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. The Winsor Dam and the Goodnough Dike form the reservoir from impoundments of the three branches of the Swift River. The Quabbin Reservo ...
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Enfield, Massachusetts
Enfield was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The town was lost as a result of the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir. History Incorporated in 1816 from portions of Greenwich and Belchertown. It was named in honor of one of its early settlers, Robert Field. General Joseph Hooker, Union general during the American Civil War, was once a resident, and his grandfather was once a town leader. It was centered at the junction of the east and west branches of the Swift River, and the Athol Branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad ran through the town. The town bordered six other towns - Belchertown, Pelham, Greenwich, Prescott, Ware, and Hardwick. Enfield was disincorporated on April 28, 1938 and portions of the town were annexed to the adjacent towns of Belchertown, New Salem, Pelham, and Ware. (Not all of the former town is now in Hampshire County: the portion ceded to New Salem is now in Franklin County.) The headquarters of the Metropolitan District Commission dur ...
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Springfield Metropolitan Area, Massachusetts
The Springfield metropolitan area, also known as Greater Springfield, is a region that is socio-economically and culturally tied to the City of Springfield, Massachusetts. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget defines the Springfield, MA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as consisting of three counties in Western Massachusetts. As of April 1, 2020, the metropolitan area's population was estimated at 699,162, making it the 84th largest metropolitan area in the United States. Following the 2010 Census, there have been discussions about combining the metropolitan areas of Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut, into a greater Hartford–Springfield area, due to the region's economic interdependence and close geographic proximity (23.9 miles separate the cities' downtowns). Historically the Census has also identified the region as "Springfield–Chicopee–Holyoke, Mass.–Conn." as those cities were the area's population centers as recently as 1980; since that ti ...
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Jonathan Belcher
Jonathan Belcher (8 January 1681/8231 August 1757) was a merchant, politician, and slave trader from colonial Massachusetts who served as both governor of Massachusetts Bay and governor of New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741 and governor of New Jersey from 1747 to 1757. Born into a wealthy Massachusetts merchant family (his father Andrew Belcher was a tavern owner in Cambridge and grandfather who immigrated to Massachusetts Bay from England), Belcher attended Harvard College and then entered into the family business and local politics. He was instrumental in promoting Samuel Shute as governor of Massachusetts in 1715, and sat on the colony's council, but became disenchanted with Shute over time and eventually joined the populist faction of Elisha Cooke Jr. After the sudden death of Governor William Burnet in 1729 Belcher successfully acquired the governorships of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. During his tenure, Belcher politically marginalized those who he perceived as oppo ...
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Ware, Massachusetts
Ware is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,066 as of 2020. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The census-designated place of Ware, comprising the main settlement of the town, is in the southeastern corner of the town. The area's students are served by Ware Junior Senior High School. History Ware was first settled on Equivalent Lands in 1717 ''Historical Collections''
John Warner Barber; Dorr; 1841. and was officially incorporated in 1775. It is named after the town of in
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New Salem, Massachusetts
New Salem is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 983 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History New Salem was first settled in 1737 and was officially incorporated in 1753, named for the settlers from Salem that founded the town. The geography of New Salem benefited greatly from the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir. Prior to its building, New Salem, which has always been the southeast corner of Franklin County, did not extend much further south than the village of Cooleyville, now along U.S. Route 202. However, with the forming of the reservoir, the town received all lands above the water line between the two forks of the reservoir, as it was the only land connection to the peninsula. With its southern borders now following former branches of the Swift River, New Salem now includes most of the former town of Prescott (except for a small corner east of the Middle Branch ...
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Pelham, Massachusetts
Pelham is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2020 census. Its ZIP Code is shared with Amherst. Pelham is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Pelham (pronounced "PEL-am"; the "h" is silent) was part of the Equivalent Lands compromise, and was first settled in 1738 by mostly Presbyterian Scotch-Irish immigrants. It was officially incorporated in 1743. The town is named for the Pelham family; Henry Pelham was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time of the town's incorporation. The town is best known as being home to Daniel Shays, leader of Shays' Rebellion, a series of protests against crushing austerity measures in Massachusetts during 1786 and 1787. The rebellion, planned in Conkey's Tavern in town, drew support from many towns in central and western Massachusetts, but it met its practical end when the angry farmers' force refused to fight Governor Bowdoin's army and the ...
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Palmer, Massachusetts
Palmer is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,448 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Palmer adopted a home rule charter in 2004 with a council-manager form of government. Palmer is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipalities that have city forms of government but retain "The town of" in their official names. The villages of Bondsville, Thorndike, Depot Village, and Three Rivers are located in Palmer. History Palmer is composed of four separate and distinct villages: Depot Village, typically referred to simply as "Palmer" (named for the ornate Union Station railroad terminal designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson), Thorndike, Three Rivers, and Bondsville. The villages began to develop their distinctive characters in the 18th century, and by the 19th century two rail lines and a trolley line opened the town to population growth. Today, each village has its own pos ...
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Area Code 413
Area code 413 ( LATA code 126) is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the western third of Massachusetts. It is the largest numbering plan area in the Commonwealth, and extends from the New York state line eastward into Worcester County (only the towns of Hardwick and Warren), while excluding the Franklin County towns of Orange, New Salem, Warwick, and Wendell, which use the overlay of area codes 978 and 351. The most-populous city of area code 413 is Springfield. 413 also includes Great Barrington, Greenfield, North Adams, Northampton and Pittsfield. History In the preliminary model of the North American Numbering Plan, Massachusetts was allotted two area codes, the only state in New England to be split between multiple numbering plan areas. Area code 413 was intended for use in Pennsylvania. When the area code map was finalized, Massachusetts remained split between two numbering plan areas. However, the eastern two-thirds of the ...
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