Whiting Farms is a neighborhood in

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 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,247. Loca ...

, located to the southwest of the city center, approximately from downtown. Following the construction of Whiting Farms Road in 1961, the area was developed as a residential and commercial area in the 1960s and 1970s. Its name derives from its original use as site of the farm of William Whiting, where the former mayor and papermaker bred a prizewinning herd of

Jersey cattle The Jersey is a British breed of small dairy cattle from Jersey, in the British Channel Islands. It is one of three Channel Island cattle breeds, the others being the Alderney – now extinct – and the Guernsey. The milk is high in butterf ...

in the late 19th and early 20th century, many of which were sold for breeding to all parts of the country. A disastrous fire caused by arson in 1919 would kill off the entire herd of 75 head, and following this the farm, then-owned by William F. Whiting, became largely defunct. At the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it was proposed that the property be redeveloped into an

airpark A residential airpark (also spelled air park) is a "fly-in community" specifically designed around an airport where the residents own their privately owned airplanes which they park in their hangars, usually attached to the home or integrated i ...

, however these plans would never come to fruition. Shortly after another case of arson in 1967 which destroyed a remaining barn, the property began to see the medium-density residential development that characterizes it today, with the First Whiting Farms Cooperative Housing breaking ground later that year. Initially criticized as the "Road to Nowhere" during Samuel Resnic's administration in the early 1960s, Whiting Farms Road today serves as a major artery for retail businesses and traffic to

I-91 Interstate 91 (I-91) is an Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the New England region of the United States. It is the primary north–south thoroughfare in the western part of the region. Its southern terminus is in New Haven, ...

in the area.

References

External links

Holyoke
by Craig Della Penna; features photographs of Whiting Farms Neighborhoods in Holyoke, Massachusetts {{HampdenCountyMA-geo-stub