Holyoke's early 20th-century history was rich with the creation of playgrounds and ball fields. Developing additional recreational areas carried into the 1930s. Here's the story of Waterfront Park, a fascinating conceptual plan to develop the cove area along the Connecticut River.
The story begins with William J. Howes, a distinguished Holyoke architect who designed some of the city's prominent buildings and playground layouts. Part 1 of this two-part series provides more detail on several of his major projects.
Mr. Howes was about planning for the present and the future; after all, Holyoke was developed as a planned city. He was influenced by the quote attributed to Senator Dwight Morrow about procrastination, who stated, "We hear a good deal about the cost of a city plan. Somebody ought really [to] write a book upon the cost of not planning."
Back as far as 1907, Mr. Howes developed plans for a waterfront park he designed that would create a continuous park from Prospect, now Pulaski, Park to Jones Point. This was part of the "Planned City of the Future" movement promoted by architects, with the hope that city officials would envision recreation benefits and move forward with adopting the plan. One of his plans for the cove area was revealed on October 15, 1934, on the front page of the Holyoke Transcript.
This would result in a riverfront parkland approximately 1.25 miles long, with abundant recreational space added throughout the Cove. Viewing the map below, this is the area around the lagoon, which still exists today and appears much larger now than the yesteryear design shows.
The Waterfront Park Island development plan included:
> A community field with a stadium
> Picnic grove and playfields
> 12 tennis courts
> Canals for boaters
> A large outlet into the river from the lagoon for bathing and skating
> An Amusement Center and a boulevard (Lyman Street extended) through the area to connect Prospect Park to Highland Park, then owned by the city.
> A lighted boom for boaters across the Connecticut River to South Hadley
> Formal Gardens, a greenhouse, and a nursery
> Sufficient parking areas
> If numbers of visitors warrant, a small passenger rail station could be added.
> A port could be built for boaters and seaplanes to access the park.
> An incinerator and a disposal area
Many thought his plans for a beautiful Holyoke were visionary, enjoyable to read, but outside the range of practicality. However, Mr. Howes pointed to the beautiful New York City ideas advanced by Robert Moses, the city's Park Commissioner, which were initially viewed with skepticism. These included plans for Jones Beach, Randall's Island, Pelham Park, and landscaped drives along the East River, all of which were adopted to improve city life.
A portion of the Cove was previously home to the Connecticut River Lumber Company sawmill, which received its logs from log drives originating at the far northern reaches of Vermont and New Hampshire. After the departure of the sawmill, the lagoon area was a dumping ground.
Looking back through the thoughts and eyes of this eminent architect, he surmised that without planning for this area, the land would "become a quagmire, and a spot of pestilence, breeding mosquitoes and their attendant diseases, after the high waters of springhave flooded the land, washing away the top layer of dirrtand leaving bare the ashes and other dumpings now used to fill in the cove."
Some of the significant changes that would be needed to facilitate the park included:
> Extending Lyman Street to Jones Point with a park boulevard for access to the park's many amenities.
> Relocating the rail to run along the Connecticut River bank. A train bridge would be built over the lagoon's entry point at the river.
William J. Howes' dream did not materialize, but one could imagine the beauty of the area he envisioned. Thinking about it, I'm sure many Holyokers, past and present, had their beautification dreams for different sections of the city. Dreams can evolve into reality.
Newspapers.com (paid subscription): Citations: Holyoke (Massachusetts) Transcript & Transcript-Telegram; publication dates and pages are shown.
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