Highland Park, Holyoke, Massachusetts

The Highlands is a neighborhood in Holyoke, Massachusetts located northwest of the city center, adjacent to the downtown. Originally a series of farms and estates, it was first known as Manchester Grounds, as the area's land was reportedly purchased by a company of landowners from Manchester, New Hampshire soon after Holyoke was first chartered, in 1852. However while this name persisted for much of the 19th century, these holders would default on their estates by 1856. The area was further divided into new building lots in the 1870s and saw considerable development as a streetcar suburb when the Holyoke Street Railway completed an extension to the area in 1886. Another early name for the section between Lincoln and Hampden streets was Money Hole Hill, a name also used by Mary Doyle Curran in her portrayal of the neighborhood in her novel The Parish and the Hill. By 1897 the neighborhood had been christened its present name for its higher elevation at the foot of the Mount Tom Range. Today the neighborhood contains many historic Victorian houses and about 400 acres (160 ha) of predominantly residential zoning with some commercial development, as well as the Kennedy and Morgan Street Parks.

The Sexual Minorities Archives is one of the longest continually operating archives of LGBT material in the United States, which holds the Leslie Feinberg Library, a collection of the late writer's personal research materials. The physical archive is located in a large converted Victorian home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, as of 2017. It was located in the home of curator Ben Power in Northampton, Massachusetts, from 1979 to 2017. It was founded in Chicago in 1974 by a lesbian-feminist organization known as the New Alexandria Lesbian Library.

Log Pond Cove, previously known as Money Hole, is a former log pond and scenic wayside on the Connecticut River, about half a mile upstream from the Holyoke Dam at South Hadley Falls. The 18.5-acre (75,000 m2) pond was once used for ice cutting, as well as log drives from points north, diverted there in the late 19th and early 20th century. The log boom once set up there supplied contractors and the paper mills of Holyoke's industrial economy. After the last of these logging drives in 1915, silt gradually began to fill in the cove, gradually changing its river island border into a peninsula. By the mid-20th century the water body and its immediate surroundings had been acquired by the Holyoke Water Power Company, and in 1987 the site was briefly considered for use as the site of a children's nature camp. In 1998 it was recorded as the first body of water in the Connecticut River watershed to become infested with water chestnut, an invasive species that, despite efforts by Federal and local authorities, has persisted since that time. The area was acquired by Holyoke Gas & Electric as part of the dam and canal network on December 14, 2001, and is presently managed in part by US Fish and Wildlife Service staff and volunteers as an extension of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. Today the cove is surrounded by 62 acres of undeveloped wetlands and functions as a sanctuary to many bird species, including great blue herons and several duck species.

The South Hadley Canal was a canal along the Connecticut River in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the earliest navigable canal in the United States, with operation commencing in 1795. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the South Hadley Canal Historic District. The canal dates to February 1792, when leading citizens of western Massachusetts proposed to build a canal around the Great Falls at South Hadley, a 53-foot (16 m) drop in the Connecticut River that blocked boat transport. At that time, all cargo needed to be unloaded for 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of land transport around the falls, driving river transport cost for a bushel of wheat from Northampton, Massachusetts to Windsor, Connecticut to more than double its transport costs by sea from Hartford to Boston. John Hancock, then Governor of Massachusetts, signed the charter which incorporated the Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on the Connecticut River. Their corporate seal bore the motto "SIC TRANSIT - Public & Private Good". Funds were raised both locally and internationally, with four Dutch investment houses owning slightly over 50% of the stock. The canal was built by some 240 local workers. In April 1795 it opened to commercial traffic. (Nearby Turners Falls Canal opened three years later.) First year revenue came to $3,109 at 75 cents per ton. By 1816 tolls had grown to over $16,000. In 1826 the Barnet, the first steamboat to operate on the Connecticut River, passed through the South Hadley Canal on its way to Vermont. However, by 1843 competing railroads had begun to erode income, and the canal closed as uneconomical in 1862. Rather than use locks, the canal was built with an unusual "inclined plane" to transport 20-foot (6.1 m) by 60-foot (18 m) flatboats over the falls. The inclined plane appears to have been pioneered on England's Ketley Canal in 1788. This was its first use in American canals, and served as a pattern for others including the Morris Canal in New Jersey. On the South Hadley Canal's inclined plane, the boat was first maneuvered into a special cart, then hauled up or down a ramp built of solid stone, 275 feet (84 m) long by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, covered with strong wood planks, and having a slope of 13.5 degrees. Lifting power was supplied by two overshot waterwheels 16 feet (4.9 m) in diameter, one on each side of the inclined plane, connected to the cart with chains. The cart had unequal wheel sizes to keep the boat level during transport. Total transport time was about 15 minutes. In 1805, after about 10 years of use, however, the inclined plane was replaced by a series of five locks when it was necessary to deepen the canal. Today The Bicentennial Canal Park serves as a historic memorial, preserving the historical remnants of the canal. The overlook deck provides vistas of the Mount Tom Range and the Connecticut River. Holyoke Gas & Electric maintains Texon Park, Lower Riverside Park, and Gatehouse Park along the Holyoke dam. Lower Riverside Park overlooks the site of the former inclined plane and lock system, remnants of which are still visible today.

The Joseph E. Muller Bridge is a crossing of the Connecticut River in Western Massachusetts, connecting the communities of Holyoke and South Hadley. The bridge carries U.S. Route 202 (US 202).

Forestdale Cemetery is a public secular cemetery located in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The cemetery was officially organized on November 1, 1860, after a town meeting in October of that year designated a sum of $1,500 (approx. $41,000 2016 USD) for the purchase of land; contributions for this land came from the Holyoke Water Power Company as well as local mills, with the acquisitions presided over by Jones S. Davis, engineer of Lyman Mills. The cemetery acquisitions were completed and dedicated on June 22, 1862 with speeches by Amherst professor J.G. Voss and one of Holyoke's founding figures, George C. Ewing. The cemetery, built during a time of great interest in landscape architecture, contains a deliberately chosen layout of ornamental trees and shrubs.In addition to the many founding families of Holyoke, the cemetery is the resting place of many of the city's mayors and city officials, including William Whiting II and Roswell P. Crafts. Serving as a common burial ground for all citizens, it also contains a potter's field for indigents.

The US Post Office—Holyoke Main is a historic post office building at 650 Dwight Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It opened in 1935, as a replacement for an earlier post office location at 31 Main Street, and is a distinctive local example of Art Deco architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.The building is one of two post office locations serving the city, with a second in Ingleside at the Holyoke Mall.

Wistariahurst is a historic house museum and the former estate of the Skinner family, located at 238 Cabot Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It was built in 1868 for William Skinner, the owner of a successful silk spinning and textile business, and is named for the abundant wisteria vines which cascade across its eastern facade. Originally constructed in Williamsburg in 1868, the mansion designed by Northampton architect William Ferro Pratt was moved to Holyoke in 1874, following the devastating flood which swept away the original Skinner mills. Following the death of Belle Skinner, its music room was operated as a private museum from 1930 to 1959, housing the Belle Skinner Collection of Old Musical Instruments, before their donation by the family to Yale University. Since 1959 it has been operated as the Wistariahurst Museum, and is open to the public. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

The Joseph Allen Skinner Museum is a cabinet of curiosities collected by silk magnate Joseph Skinner throughout his life. The collection is housed in the former First Congregational Church of Prescott, Massachusetts, which was built in 1846 and moved to South Hadley by Skinner in 1930 during the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir. Skinner, a benefactor of the college, deeded the entire collection to Mount Holyoke College following his death in 1946. Today the museum is maintained by the college's art museum. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the museum has been closed indefinitely.

Pulaski Park is a city park along the Connecticut River in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Originally called Prospect Park when it was laid out in 1884, it was given its present name in 1939 in honor of American Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski, for whom there is a memorial in the park's center. The original 5.1-acre (2.1 ha) park was designed by the Olmsted Brothers landscape design firm.

The Essex Street Historic District is a residential historic district in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It runs along Essex Street between Chestnut and Pine Streets, with additional properties on the adjacent side streets. It contains a diversity of housing representative of styles covering a century of development in the area. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

Veterans Park is a city park in the downtown area of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Originally called Hampden Park when it was given to the city by the Holyoke Water Power Company in 1861, it was rededicated in 1962 to honor the city's military veterans. The park and a few surrounding buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 as the Hampden Park Historic District. Included in this designation are St. Jerome's Church (built during the late 1850s), the Convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Lourdes (1869), and the former Central Fire Station (1914), and other buildings.