Central Churchill Historic District

Churchill is a neighborhood in Holyoke, Massachusetts located to the south of the city center, adjacent to the downtown. Its name is a geographic portmanteau as the area was historically known as the Church Hill district prior to its extensive development in the early twentieth century. Located at the southwestern edge of the downtown grid, the area served as housing for mill workers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and today contains 166 acres (67 ha) of mixed residential and commercial zoning, including a number of historical brick tenements as well as the headquarters of the Holyoke Housing Authority, Holyoke Senior Center, Churchill Homes public housing, and the Wistariahurst Museum.

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 8 miles (13 km) north of Springfield, Holyoke is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Area, one of the two distinct metropolitan areas in Massachusetts. Holyoke is among the early planned industrial cities in the United States. Built in tandem with the Holyoke Dam to utilize the water power of Hadley Falls, it is one of a handful of cities in New England built on the grid plan. During the late 19th century the city produced an estimated 80% of the writing paper used in the United States and was home to the largest paper mill architectural firm in the country, as well as the largest paper, silk, and alpaca wool mills in the world. Although a considerably smaller number of businesses in Holyoke work in the paper industry today, it is still commonly referred to as "The Paper City". Today the city contains a number of specialty manufacturing companies, as well as the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, an intercollegiate research facility which opened in 2012. Holyoke is also home to the Volleyball Hall of Fame and known as the "Birthplace of Volleyball", as the internationally played Olympic sport was invented and first played at the local YMCA chapter by William G. Morgan in 1895.While managing the Holyoke Testing Flume in the 1880s, hydraulic engineer Clemens Herschel invented the Venturi meter to determine the water use of individual mills in the Holyoke Canal System. This device, the first accurate means of measuring large-scale flows, is widely used in a number of engineering applications today, including waterworks and carburators, as well as aviation instrumentation. Powered by these municipally owned canals, Holyoke has among the lowest energy rates in the Commonwealth, and as of 2016 between 85% and 90% of the city's energy was carbon neutral, with administrative goals in place to reach 100% in the future.

The Maplewood Hotel is a historic residential hotel at 328-330 Maple Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Consisting of two buildings dating to the late 19th century, it was the first residential building of its type in the city, built by local industrialist Frank Beebe, who occupied one of its units. When opened, it offered high quality furnished and unfurnished residences in a full-service environment. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It continues to be used for residences.

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.

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.

The Holyoke Testing Flume was a hydraulic testing laboratory and apparatus in Holyoke, Massachusetts, operated by the Holyoke Water Power Company from 1870 to 1932, and used to test the performance of water turbine designs, completing 3,176 tests of efficiency in that time.: 100  It was described by Robert E. Horton in court testimony as the only facility of its kind in the 19th and early 20th century, which made possible the standardization of American water turbines. Indeed Clemens Herschel, who managed and redesigned the facility in the 1880s, later described it in Congressional testimony as the "first modern hydraulic laboratory" in the United States and the world. It was through Herschel's need to determine the water power consumption of different mills, and in this testing system that he would invent the Venturi meter, the first accurate means of measuring large-scale flows, which still retains widespread use in modern technology today.

The Friedrich Block is a historic mixed-use commercial and residential block at 449-461 Main Street (the corner with Sargeant Street) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Built in 1908, it is a significant Renaissance Revival work by the local architect George P. B. Alderman, and for its association with the E.H. Friedrich Company, a manufacturer of metal architectural parts. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

The War Memorial Building is a historic municipal building at 310 Appleton Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Built in 1936, it is a distinctive local example of Moderne architecture, and a memorial to the city's military veterans. It houses an auditorium as well as smaller meeting spaces and offices. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.

Mackenzie Stadium is a baseball venue located in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It was home to the Holyoke Millers and today is used by both the Valley Blue Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League (since 2008) and the Elms College Blazers of the New England Collegiate Conference (since 2005). It was built in 1933 and has a capacity of 4,100 people.Mackenzie Stadium hosted the 2009 NECBL All-Star Game on July 18, 2009. The game, attended by an All-Star Game record 4,906 fans, was won by the host West Division 6–5.

The Clovis Robert Block is a historic mixed-use commercial and residential block at 338-348 Main Street (the corner of Cabot Street) in south Holyoke, Massachusetts. Built in 1881 and enlarged in 1888, it is a prominent early example of the work of local architect George P. B. Alderman, and is representative of development patterns in the city that served its growing French Canadian immigrant community. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) is an intercollegiate high-performance computing facility located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, connected to that city's municipal fiber grid and powered by Holyoke Gas and Electric via the Holyoke Canal System and Dam. MGHPCC is a joint venture of Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, and the University of Massachusetts system; the facility holds the capacity for hundreds of thousands of cores in clusters provided by its affiliates. For example, as of 2016 one cluster used by UMass contained a network of 14,376 cores, both Intel and AMD, and more than 1.1 petabytes of on-site storage on an FDR Infiniband network. The facility maintains capacity for regular expansion, with key partners investing capability upgrades in the current building and more than 4 acres of additional undeveloped space.