The North High Street Historic District is rich with buildings evoking the early commercial history of Holyoke. Many of these buildings remain, although some, such as what was to be known as Daly's Hotel, no longer stand.
The story of the Daly Hotel predates its name by over 60 years. 20th-century newspaper reports and resource materials point to the hotel's construction date as 1878, noting the building as the Hutchin's Block. However, several pieces of information may be indicative of its mid-to-late 1860s construction, as well as a different name.
On June 14, 1862, Holyoke Water Power Co. sold a 24.5 by 80-foot parcel of land at the northeast corner of High and Oliver Streets to Sylvester J. Donahue. At the time, he was 36 years old and had emigrated from Ireland.
Between 1862 and 1868, Sylvester J. Donahue constructed a building on the land and opened what was then known as a Millinery and Fancy Goods Store. The 1869 Holyoke City Directory shows S. Donahoe Millinery and Fancy Goods Shop in the Donahoe Block on High Street. The 1871 Holyoke City Directory reveals S. J. Donahoe was a merchant, residing at the corner of High and Oliver Streets.
The Combined Map of Holyoke and Chicopee, published in 1870, shows that a building was situated on the plot of land Mr. Donahue purchased. The 1870 F. W. Beers Atlas of Hampden County shows the same.
At the time, the street address was 22 High Street, as street numbers ran north starting from the intersection of Dwight and High Street.
In 1877, the Springfield Republican newspaper indicated Mr. Donahue had plans to renovate the building. Another article published in 1878 reported that work was nearing completion. The project included raising the ceilings on the lower three floors, adding a fourth story to the building, and constructing an ornate cornice on the High and Oliver Streets' sides of the building. The project was completed in 1878, and the building was named the S.J. Donahue.
In 1882, S.J. Donahue died. He was living on High Street at Oliver and had served on one of Holyoke's first aldermanic boards.
The real estate, which was owned solely by Mr. Donahue, went into his estate. The property was managed by Honora (Donahue) Manning from that point forward. Honora Manning was a partner in the millinery shop, and although not indicated, may have been the sister of S.J. Sylvester.
When the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram began publishing in 1882, Mrs. Manning regularly placed ads offering furnished and unfurnished rooms along with tenement space. It was not listed amongst Holyoke's hotels at the time. Residents included members of the legal and medical community, some of whom used the space for their practice.
Honora Manning died in 1900. The 122-124 High Street family real estate, in which she held an interest in the estate of S.J. Donahue, was sold for $15,500 to Flora E. Jopson in 2005.
The story continues in Part 2, when new owners convert all or part of the upper floors into a hotel.
Citations:
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican; publication dates and pages are shown.
Holyoke - Chicopee A Perspective, Ella Merkel Dicarlo, Publisher, Transcript-Telegram, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1982
Ancestry.com (paid subscription), Price & Lee City Directories, Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Assessors' Office, City of Holyoke, Massachusetts
MACRIS, Massachusetts Cultural Research Information System
Registry of Deeds, Hampden County, Springfield, Massachusetts
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