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Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts

1635 establishments in the Massachusetts Bay ColonyMassachusetts populated places on the Connecticut RiverNeighborhoods in MassachusettsPopulated places established in 1635Populated places in Hampden County, Massachusetts
Springfield metropolitan area, MassachusettsUse mdy dates from July 2023
Feeding Hills Congregational Church, Feeding Hills MA
Feeding Hills Congregational Church, Feeding Hills MA

Feeding Hills is a section of the city of Agawam with its own ZIP Code (01030) and post office. Line Street in Agawam is generally accepted by residents as being the unofficial border. In the early to mid-19th century, a ditch was dug here to separate the two sections. Feeding Hills contains one quarter of the total population, as well as Provin Mountain, the highest point in the town, and many moderate-sized farms. Today, Feeding Hills is under extensive land development in and around the Provin Mountain communities. Several farms have been split up and sold to developers, resulting in an increased real estate market. Older sections of Feeding Hills, such as those closer to Line Street and Agawam High School, have remained much the same, although in recent years have experienced an exodus of businesses to other parts of town. Feeding Hills contains several churches, shopping centers, and a variety of eateries. It is home to WWLP-TV's transmitting site atop Provin Mountain (their studio has since moved to Chicopee). Agawam's police station can be found on Springfield St., one of the subsection's most populous roads. Of the four elementary schools and three middle/junior/senior high schools, only the junior high school and Granger Elementary are located in Feeding Hills.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts
North Westfield Street,

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N 42.068138888889 ° E -72.6787 °
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North Westfield Street 35
01030
Massachusetts, United States
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Feeding Hills Congregational Church, Feeding Hills MA
Feeding Hills Congregational Church, Feeding Hills MA
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Thomas and Esther Smith House
Thomas and Esther Smith House

Thomas and Esther Smith House is a historic house at 251 North West Street in Agawam, Massachusetts. It is one of the oldest houses in Agawam. The house is situated on 1 acre (0.40 ha) of land about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of the Connecticut River, at the foot of Provin Mountain. It is a vernacular 1+1⁄2-story house with plain Georgian styling. The main block of the house is three bays wide, with a gambrel roof and a central chimney. A 1+1⁄2-story addition on the western side of the house as a gabled roof. The main block's foundation is fieldstone, while that of the addition is brick and concrete block.Inside the house, the main block follows a fairly standard Georgian four-room plan. A vestibule with a dogleg stair separates a hall and a parlor in the front, and the rear is divided asymmetrically into a large kitchen space and a small bedroom. Fireplaces open from the central chimney onto the hall, parlor and kitchen. The kitchen fireplace is particularly deep, and includes a bake oven (now coated with a layer of concrete) at its rear, rather than a more typical placement on the side. The upstairs of the main block is divided into four bedrooms, all with very basic finishing work. The exterior walls and ceilings are plastered, while the interior walls which separate them are either plastered or of simple wood construction.The addition, built c. 1930s, is accessed from the small bedroom space, and includes a kitchen space that dates roughly to the period of its construction. The kitchen is at the level of the main part of the house, but a doorway leads to stairs going up and down to rooms in the rest of the addition, which were laid out to provide a separate living space.The construction date of the house is uncertain, and is believed to have been sometime before 1758, when a deed mentions the home of one George Mixer on this parcel of land. The purchaser of the land, Thomas Smith, was a carpenter and housewright, and may have been this house's builder. Tree ring dating places some of the house's structural elements somewhat later, circa 1790. The house was built using a plank framing method that is distinctive to the Connecticut River valley.The property remained in the Smith family until 1843. It was owned by the Park family until 1910, and then went through a succession of owners before its acquisition by the Agawam Historical Society in 2002. The house remained without modern amenities until the 1950s. It is now operated by the historical society as a house museum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Mittineague Park
Mittineague Park

Mittineague Park is an approximately 325-acre (1.32 km2) urban park located in the southern section of the town of West Springfield, Massachusetts (In neighborhoods, Tatham and Mittineague). Mittineague derives from the Agawam Algonquian L-dialect, related to Nipmuk "muttinohkou" + "ohke" = "land on the right" (Gustafson, Holly, "A Nipmuck Grammar," Univ. Manitoba, 2008; Goddard, "Loup Languages of Western Massachusetts," Algonquian Conference, 2016; Trumbull, Natick Dictionary, Smithsonian,1905). The park contains a wide range of services typical of a park of this type, including many baseball/softball diamonds, and trails for hiking or cross-country skiing. It has a large pavilion, and a building that is used as a summer camp for children with special needs. Special events are scheduled at the park, including events for children. It contains a greenhouse and a community garden. There is an interpretive trail created by the "Friends of Mittineague Park". Native peoples were active in the area up until 400 years ago. The southwestern part of West Springfield is still called Tatham, a name derived from the Agawam name for the brook ("tattam" = someone encloses; "tattaum" = someone shakes; "taphum" = someone buys it; all in Trumbull, Natick Dictionary, Natick being closest recorded glossary according to Dr. Ives Goddard, "The Loup Languages of Western Massachusetts: Dialectical Diversity in Southern New England, Algonquian Conference 2016). The Westfield River, which runs at the outermost perimeter and most of the park's terrain was created by glaciers (the Hitchcock glacial lake/Laurentide ice sheet) as they retreated 15–20,000 years ago. Mittineague Park is home to wildlife such as hawks, beavers, frogs, foxes, fisher martens (a.k.a. Fisher Cats), and deer. The deer are most active during the winter season, and are found grazing year round in the meadows which were once part of a farm.

Hampshire and Hampden Canal
Hampshire and Hampden Canal

The Hampshire and Hampden Canal was the Massachusetts segment of an 86-mile (138 km) canal that once connected New Haven, Connecticut, to the Connecticut River north of Northampton, Massachusetts. Its Connecticut segment was called the Farmington Canal. The canal dates to 1821 when New Haven businessmen began to raise capital and investigate a possible canal route from their harbor to central Massachusetts, and on to Barnet, Vermont, and Canada beyond. In this original vision, the canal would pass through Farmington, Connecticut, to the border at Southwick, Massachusetts, then join the Connecticut River near Northampton, and from there continue to the St. Lawrence River through Lake Memphremagog and the valley of the St. Francis River. Two side canals were also envisioned: one running from Farmington through Unionville, Connecticut, to Colebrook, Connecticut; the other linking to the Erie Canal via the Hudson River or the proposed (but never built) Boston and Albany Canal. Benjamin Wright, the Erie Canal's chief engineer, was hired to conduct a preliminary survey from New Haven to Southwick, Massachusetts. In 1822 he gave a positive report: "The terrain is favorably formed for a great work of this kind and a canal may be formed for considerable less expense per mile, than the cost of canals now in the making in the state of New York." That same year, the Connecticut legislature granted a charter to the Farmington Canal Company, and on February 4, 1823, Massachusetts granted its corresponding charter to the Hampshire & Hampden Canal Company. After this second charter was granted, work began. Ground-breaking ceremonies took place on July 4, 1825, at the Massachusetts–Connecticut border. However, when Connecticut Governor Oliver Wolcott Jr. employed the ceremonial shovel, it broke in his hands, and this was perhaps emblematic of the canal companies' subsequent fate, as both were substantially under-capitalized and severe financial difficulties plagued their project throughout its existence. Despite these woes, however, construction proceeded with pick and shovel, and by 1828 the canal was open for business from New Haven to Farmington, including its major aqueduct over the Farmington River. By 1835 the complete route to Northampton was finished and operating. When completed, the canal was 86 miles (138 km) long, of which 56 miles (90 km) were in Connecticut and 30 miles (48 km) in Massachusetts. It measured 36 feet (11 m) across on the water's surface, 20 feet (6.1 m) across at the bottom, and 4 feet (1.2 m) deep. Twenty-eight locks were constructed to navigate the 292-foot (89 m) rise in elevation between New Haven and Granby. A further 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of branch canal were constructed to Unionville, later turned into a feeder for the main canal. Financial strains continued, however, and the two canal companies merged to form the New Haven & Northampton Canal Company. A major threat to the canal came in 1838 with the opening of the New Haven Railroad between New Haven and Meriden, Connecticut. Although the canal company took out further loans in the 1840s to improve its efficiency, its stockholders finally petitioned the General Assembly for authority to build a railroad on their canal bed. A charter was granted, and construction commenced in January 1847. The canal closed later that year, and by 1848 trains were running from New Haven to Plainville along the canal's right of way. The company's name remained unchanged, and it kept many of the same investors. It eventually merged with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1887.

Agawam Center Historic District
Agawam Center Historic District

The Agawam Center Historic District is a historic district that encompasses part of the historic center of Agawam, Massachusetts. The district covers most of the buildings along Elm Street and Main Street radiating out from their intersection in both directions. The district is predominantly residential, although it does contain many commercial, industrial, and civic buildings. Many of the buildings in the district stand at a uniform setback from the street, giving the district a coherent feel.Agawam's center began to take shape in the early years of the 18th century. By 1750 the town center lay on one of the main roads connecting Northampton to Hartford, Connecticut, and the area became a significant rest stop along the way. It received significant development in the 1790s when the road was more formally laid out, private homes began to join the taverns, and what is now Elm Street connected the village to points east and west. By 1831 the center also had churches, a school, and a cemetery. The oldest building in the district is a tavern dating to 1750, and there are about a dozen houses that date to the 1790s.As the 19th century progressed the village continued to grow, yet retained some rural character, with only low levels of industrialization. The arrival of streetcars connecting the village to the city of Springfield saw the transformation of the village into one with a more suburban feel. Agawam was not formally incorporated until 1855, and it is during this time that the village assumed its role as the civic center of the town.The district features a variety of architectural styles, from Georgian and Federal buildings of the early period to mid-20th century ranch housing. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.