Holyoke City Hall is the historic city hall of
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...
. It is located at 536 Dwight Street, on the south east corner of High Street and Dwight Street. Serving both as the city administrative center and a public timepiece for the industrial city's workers, construction began on the
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
structure in 1871 to a design by architect
Charles B. Atwood
Charles Bowler Atwood (1849–1895) was an architect who designed several buildings and a large number of secondary structures for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He also designed a number of notable buildings in the city of Ch ...
. Difficulties and delays in construction were compounded by Atwood's failure to deliver updated drawings in a timely manner, and the design work was turned over to
Henry F. Kilburn in 1874. The building was completed two years later at a cost of $500,000. It has housed city offices since then.
Architecture
![Holyoke City Hall, Grand Ballroom](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Holyoke_City_Hall%2C_Grand_Ballroom.jpeg/1200px-Holyoke_City_Hall%2C_Grand_Ballroom.jpeg)
City Hall is a large stone structure in the Gothic Revival style, built with granite quarried in
Monson. Basically rectangular in shape, it has
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...
-like wings on both long sides, near the ends. It has pointed-arch windows, and is structurally supported by Gothic buttresses. The roof is predominantly dark slate, with bands of red and green slate interspersed. The main tower is tall, and houses a bell weighing over .
[
The building was listed on the ]National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1975, and included in a boundary expansion of the North High Street Historic District in 1992.
Clock tower
Originally done in blackwood with gold numbers, which many onlookers found difficult to read, today the hall's large clock tower contains four faces of Belgium milk glass. The movement, a Seth Thomas no. 14, eight-day mechanism installed in 1877, contains all bronze components and is one of only three such clock movements sold by the company in New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
. The 2.5 ton bell was cast in 1875 by the Jones & Co. Troy Bell Foundry of Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...
, and contains a custom-built strike movement as the bell sits on a separate floor from the mechanism and the transmission room where the clock faces and lighting sits. In the 1930s the clock was electrified with General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
motors to raise its counterweights.[
File:Holyoke City Hall clock mechanism before restoration.jpg, The Seth Thomas no. 14 clock mechanism, as it appeared in March 2018, prior to restoration
File:Jones & Co Troy bell, Holyoke City Hall.JPG, The 2.5 ton Jones & Co. bell in the clock tower, with the word "rusty" plastered in tar; the ringing mechanism does not function at this time
]
History
Design and construction
The construction of city hall was a multiyear effort, spanning six years. Its foundations were first laid in 1871 by stonemason John Delaney and his crew, who had also overseen the initial construction of the Holyoke Canal System. By December 17, 1874, the roof was reported as complete, and the building was sealed from the elements for the winter. By 1877 its tower was topped out and the clock's timekeeping mechanism was installed.
Early functions
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the building served as the ''de facto'' hub of the Holyoke Street Railway
The Holyoke Street Railway (HSR) was an interurban streetcar and bus system operating in Holyoke, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities with connections in Amherst, Belchertown, Chicopee, Easthampton, Granby, Northampton, Pelham ...
, as all trolley lines converged there, with zone fares based on the distance between that location and the system's various stops. From 1876 until 1902 the building was also home to the until it moved to its current location.
In addition to housing city offices, City Hall's main second-floor ballroom has also been used as a public function space. It has been used for school graduation ceremonies, theatrical productions, dances, receptions for presidential candidates and foreign dignitaries, and from 1912 until 1926 annually hosted the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
as well as at least one such performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...
.
During his 1900 presidential campaign against William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
, orator and anti-imperialist William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running ...
made a speech at the City Hall on his way to another at Harvard on February 3, 1900, greeted by a reported 2500-3000 attendees who completely filled the grand hall and corridors, with another 1000 said to be waiting to greet him on the lower floors. Bryan would return to deliver a second speech in the Hall on January 10, 1902, and later that same year on October 27, Mother Jones
Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
would deliver a speech about the coal strike of 1902
The Coal strike of 1902 (also known as the anthracite coal strike) was a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in the anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania. Miners struck for higher wages, shorter workdays, and the recognition of ...
. During a busy Massachusetts tour in his 1912 presidential campaign, Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
concluded a day of touring in Boston, Worcester, and Springfield with a campaign rally on the evening of April 27, 1912 in the grand ballroom, in tandem with speeches by Dudley Field Malone
Dudley Field Malone (June 3, 1885 – October 5, 1955) was an American attorney, politician, liberal activist, and actor. Malone is best remembered as one of the most prominent liberal attorneys in the United States during the decade of the 1920s ...
and Mayor Newton D. Baker
Newton Diehl Baker Jr. (December 3, 1871 – December 25, 1937) was an American lawyer, Georgist,Noble, Ransom E. "Henry George and the Progressive Movement." The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 8, no. 3, 1949, pp. 259–269. w ...
of Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
. Though prior to his campaign for president, then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) is the title given to certain civilian senior officials in the United States Department of the Navy.
From 1861 to 1954, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was the second-highest civilian office in the Depar ...
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
would lead a fundraiser for the American Red Cross
The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...
in a packed hall in 1918. Following the legalization of boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
in Massachusetts, the grand hall was used for a time as a venue for hundreds of bouts, by the army and other promoters. City Hall's auditorium was also briefly the home venue for the Interstate Basketball League's Holyoke Reds, who played only for a few seasons in the early 1920s, winning the league championship in 1923. At the end of the Second World War the auditorium was renovated, but was kept as a basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
court from 1946 until these changes reversed in 1973 for the city's centennial.[
On November 9, 1901, the ]Woman's Christian Temperance Union
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program th ...
donated and dedicated a Temperance fountain
A temperance fountain was a fountain that was set up, usually by a private benefactor, to encourage temperance, and to make abstinence from beer possible by the provision of clean, safe, and free water. Beer was the main alternative to water, an ...
modeled after the Gothic aesthetic of the City Hall building and made of the same Monson granite,[ which stands at the corner of Dwight and High Street today. The gift, costing between $1,500 and $2,000 at the time, was presented to Mayor Chapin by Mrs. Rosina A. Whiting, and was said to provide drinking water to originally be cooled in pipes by a chamber for ice beneath it. On its sides read two inscriptions from the Bible and one passage from Shakespeare's '']Othello
''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...
'', as follows-
O thou invisible spirit of wine, if
thou hast no name to be known
by, let us call thee devil.
I give waters in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert. To
give drink to my people.
He whose spirit is without restraint
is like a city that is broken
down and hath no walls.
In contrast, during the Prohibition Era
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...
, City Hall's employees, reportedly including mayors and police chiefs of the era, would access a since-razed speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies.
Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States d ...
across Dwight Street through a tunnel connected to the building. Later accounts of P. J. Murray's, better known as The Bud, described this tunnel as located in City Hall's basement or on its grounds, leading to a series of passageways hidden behind the former bar's fireplaces. It is unknown when such a tunnel was constructed or demolished; The Bud however, would be razed in 2015.
A session of the aldermen was interrupted on April 29, 1930, while several councilors, as well as city employees, successfully extinguished a fire on building's roof started by high winds blowing embers from a large blaze in the Caspar Ranger Lumber Yard. Due to the severity of the other fires started across downtown, the public was evacuated and the roof fire had to be extinguished by hand, as too many hydrants were in use to provide adequate pressure for fire hoses.
Contemporary history
Up until the 1980s the clock's bell also rang on special occasions, including every two minutes during the funeral service of President Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
, and with one of the last times being during the re-lighting of the torch of the Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...
on July 4, 1986 by President Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
. However increasing maintenance costs and maintenance deference kept the clock from running much of the time in the latter half of 20th century, with one of the most notable problems being the collapse of a sub-ceiling above the bell chamber in 1975. Until a grate was put across the belfry, damage from birds remained a persistent problem, with one notable repair attempt leaving mechanics to fight off a reported 1,500 blackbirds that returned to roost during one evening in January 1982. For several years the clock gears had also been lubricated with standard motor oil
Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, deterg ...
rather than a specialty lubricant, leading to the coagulation of residue on the gear teeth
A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic p ...
. One problem that prevented the use of the bell was the seepage of water into the wooden driveshaft case, causing it to expand and warp.
While the exact date the clock stopped regularly functioning is unknown, after about 30 years of being out of service the mechanism was restored in the Spring of 2018 by local steeplejack
A steeplejack is a craftsman who scales buildings, chimneys, and church steeples to carry out repairs or maintenance.
Steeplejacks erect ladders on church spires, industrial chimneys, cooling towers, bell towers, clock towers, or any other hi ...
and arborist
An arborist, tree surgeon, or (less commonly) arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants in dendrolo ...
Dave Cotton, and a UMass professor emeritus of English, John Nelson, who worked on the clock of the Old Chapel previously. On July 4, 2018, the clock was restarted with new face lighting and repaired electrical systems, all from donated components and time. Due to problems with its mechanics, the bell however does not function and no immediate plans have been put into place to restore it in the foreseeable future.
During a town hall meeting
Town hall meetings, also referred to as town halls or town hall forums, are a way for local and national politicians to meet with their constituents either to hear from them on topics of interest or to discuss specific upcoming legislation or ...
held at City Hall on September 29, 2018, Senator Elizabeth Warren
Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
first expressed interest in running for president in 2020, saying she would "take a hard look" at the idea; Warren would later make her candidacy official in Lawrence, Massachusetts
Lawrence is a city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 89,143. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and Nort ...
on February 8, 2019.
See also
*
Notes
References
External links
City Hall
City of Holyoke
Panorama of Grand Ballroom
Google Street Views
HLY.101 City Hall
Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System
Friends of City Hall
non-profit dedicated to public tours, restoration of architectural details and furnishings of the building and grounds
Match Records for City Hall
BoxRec
{{Authority control
City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Buildings and structures in Holyoke, Massachusetts
City halls in Massachusetts
Clock towers in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Hampden County, Massachusetts
Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts
Former railway stations in Massachusetts
Gothic Revival architecture in Massachusetts
Government buildings completed in 1876
Granite buildings
Former library buildings in the United States