Thursday, September 21, 2023
Big E - 2023
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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Labels: 21st Century, agriculture, fairs, Massachusetts, New England, Rhode Island, tourism
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Westfield River -- Agawam, Massachusetts
Here are three postcard views of the Westfield River in Agawam, Massachusetts. They are all published by the Springfield News Company and printed in Germany, as was common in the early twentieth century. The cards all date from around 1908, and are tinted.
You'll note that on the cards the river is called the Agawam River. The earliest English settlers to the area named it that for the Agawam tribe that lived in the area, but eventually came to be called the Westfield River. It begins in the Berkshires and ends in the Connecticut River, forming the boundary between the towns of Agawam and West Springfield.
Despite these idyllic scenes, by the mid-twentieth century the river became terribly polluted, as many of our rivers were through industrial contaminants, but today is clean for swimming, fishing, and its locally famous Westfield River Whitewater Races.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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8:59 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, colonial period, environment, geography, Massachusetts, natural history, New England
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
Railroad and the Mill River in Northampton, Mass.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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10:19 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, infrastructure, Massachusetts, transportation
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Christian Science Church building - Springfield, Massachusetts
The Christian Science Church of Springfield, Massachusetts, stood on State Street in this 1930s-era colored postcard. The postcard was published by the Springfield News Company.
The congregation merged with another in Longmeadow sometime around 2000. The site is now the Progressive Community Baptist Church.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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7:50 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, architecture, houses of worship, Massachusetts
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
The small town of big practical jokes - MEET ME IN NUTHATCH
Here's a bit about my novel, Meet Me in Nuthatch:
A whimsical, poignant tale about a practical joke-turned publicity stunt that fires up the small town of Nuthatch, Massachusetts, in a desperate attempt to attract tourists.Christmas tree farmer Everett Campbell proposes turning the clock back to 1904 and reviving the town’s cozy past, an idea he gets from watching his young daughter’s favorite classic movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. She is thrilled at being allowed to dress up and pretend, but not everyone in town is enchanted with the nostalgic promotion—including Everett’s moody teenage son.
The media, and the tourists, do come, but the scheme also attracts a large theme park corporation that wants to buy Nuthatch 1904.
Everett now stands to lose his town in a way he never imagined, and his neighbors are divided on which alternate future to choose.
A local drug dealer, Everett’s boyhood enemy, may hold the future of the entire town in his hands unless Everett can pull off one of his most spectacular, and dangerous, practical jokes.
Get your copy here at Amazon in print and eBook, or from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, and a variety of other online shops.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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9:25 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, 21st Century, agriculture, crime, diners, environment, infrastructure, literature, Massachusetts, Meet Me in Nuthatch, mountains, off topic, popular history, Quabbin Reservoir, tourism
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Four aerial views of Springfield, Massachusetts in the 1920s
Here are four aerial views of Springfield, Massachusetts, all probably taken at the same time around the mid-to-late 1920s. They are from a set of postcards published by the Aerial Service of Hartford, Connecticut. Above, starting from the southernmost section of the city, we have the Everett Barney mansion, estate, mausoleum and grounds of Forest Park. The Connecticut River is on the far upper right.
Next, we have the lower State Street area, specifically focused on what the postcard publisher calls The Educational Center, but which we have come to know as The Quadrangle. The library can be seen, as well as the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, The Springfield Science Museum, and the building which currently houses The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss. In this photo, the Museum of Fine Arts is absent, as that was not built until the 1930s. Also absent is the Lyman and Merrie Woods Museum of Springfield History, which was not constructed until 2009.
St. Michael's Cathedral can be spotted, the Springfield Armory, Classical High School, and Springfield Technical High School, which we covered in this previous post.
The next view shows us the city's downtown with Court Square, the City Hall, Campanile, and Symphony Hall prominent in the photo. The new Memorial Bridge, completed in 1922 spans the Connecticut River on the left. Horizontal near the top of the photo we have the rail line and train station. This view gives us a good look at Springfield before Route 91.
Our final view is of the northern section of the city and the expanse of what was the new Springfield Hospital, what would later become the main building of Baystate Medical Center.
Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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Labels: 20th Century, architecture, art, education, geography, infrastructure, Massachusetts, museums
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Northampton, Mass.: the setting for By Your Leave, Sir - The Story of a Wave
During World War II, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was a training camp for WAVES. The story of female midshipmen is recounted by one of its graduates, Lieutenant (J.G.) Helen Hull Jacobs in By Your Leave, Sir – The Story of a Wave.
The book is actually a novel, published in 1943, but as Lt. Jacobs was then in the Public Relations Office of the Naval Reserve Training School in the Bronx, one may assume that writing this book based on her own experience was likely part of her duties in public relations for the WAVES. Though it tells of a troubled young woman named Becky McLeod, who loses her fiancĂ© in a London air raid and seeks a place in the war effort, recounts her challenges and new friendships made, the book serves as a concise outline of the requirements for a woman to serve in the Navy and what she might expect to encounter in Midshipman’s School. WAVES is an acronym for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service and was part of the U.S. Navy Reserves.
Smith College, one of the preeminent women’s colleges in the country, became figuratively the Navy’s U.S.S. Northampton, and the women were trained in military history, military courtesy, discipline, physical training, and classroom education in many subjects. When they graduated, they would be officers, the first branch of the military in which women would receive full military status.
The novel is an interesting look at the life of women in Navy training at this time, and also for a glimpse at Northampton as it served this unique position in America’s war effort.
The author, Helen Hull Jacobs, had her own interesting story. This was one of several books, both fiction and non-fiction she wrote, after having had a very successful career as a professional tennis player in the 1930s and 1940s. She won several U.S. National championships, Wimbledon, and nine Grand Slam titles. She was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1962. She was a farmer, designed sportswear, and her Naval career culminated by achieving the rank of commander while serving in United States Navy intelligence in World War II, one of only five women in the Navy to achieve the rank of commander during the war.
Sources:
Asal, Alex. "Learning to be Navy," Campus Life, June 11, 2019, Smith College website.
Jacobs, Helen Hull. By Your Leave, Sir - The Story of a Wave. (NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1943)
New York Times, "Helen Jacobs, Tennis Champion in the 1930's, Dies at 88" obituary by Susan B. Adams, June 4, 1997.
Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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9:54 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, education, literature, Massachusetts, World War II
Monday, March 6, 2023
Wesson's Home Becomes a Hospital
The home in the foreground of this postcard belonged to inventor and firearms designer Daniel Baird Wesson of Springfield, Massachusetts. With Horace Smith, Mr. Wesson formed both the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and Smith & Wesson firearms manufacturing companies.
The house at 132 High Street, Springfield, was donated by Mr. Wesson in 1906, in memory of his late wife, to become the Hampden Homeopathic Hospital. It became Wesson Memorial Hospital later that year when Wesson himself passed on. It was a 30-bed facility, but Wesson Hospital enlarged with a further endowment from his estate to build a new 100-bed unit at 140 High Street, as well as a new 25-bed maternity hospital in 1908.
The old Wesson home that served as the original Wesson Memorial Hospital no longer stands, and what became Wesson Women's eventually merged with Springfield Hospital and became Baystate Medical Center.
The penny-postcard was published by George S. Graves of Springfield, Mass.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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7:20 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, business, charitable causes, inventions, manufacturing, Massachusetts
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
President Calvin Coolidge's homes in Northampton, Massachusetts
Calvin Coolidge lived in Northampton through much of his political career, and here we have in postcard images his two homes.
First, the duplex on Massasoit Street where he and his wife Grace moved after their marriage in 1905. Coolidge, a graduate of Amherst College and native of Vermont, came here to open his law practice. His wife Grace had been a teacher at the Clarke School for the Deaf. They rented the left side of this duplex and raised their two sons here.
The Coolidges continued to make this their home through the next couple of decades as "Silent Cal" entered politics and served as Mayor of Northampton, Governor of Massachusetts, Vice President of the United States under President Warren G. Harding, and then assuming the presidency in 1923 after Harding's death in office.
Coolidge's presidency ended in 1929 ("I do not choose to run.") and in 1930, he moved his home from the house on Massasoit Street to a new house called "The Beeches" on Hampton Terrace, for more privacy. The tourists gawking at his rented duplex got to be a bit too much.
Calvin Coolidge died at "The Beeches" in 1933, at the age of 60.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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8:47 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, Massachusetts, Presidents
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
First anniversary - Slava Ukraini
Approaching one year since the start of World War III (whether we acknowledge it or not).
Invasion and atrocities.
Putin's Russia has committed mass kidnapping of children, mass torture, extensive war crimes.
Putin's Russia is currently committing genocide.
Support Ukraine in every way possible. We should join the fight against fascism wherever it exists.
Support freedom and democracy.
Slava Ukraini!
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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7:34 AM
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Labels: off topic
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Upcoming talk on Mt. Tom Playhouse - Holyoke, Massachusetts
The book covers the history of summer theatre on Mt. Tom from 1895 to 1965. Many stars of stage and screen, and many newcomers who would one day become stars, performed over several decades on Mt. Tom.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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10:01 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain, entertainment, Massachusetts, popular history, theatre, upcoming events
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Springfield Technical High School - Springfield, Massachusetts
Here are some postcard views of the former Springfield (Mass) Technical High School. Built in 1905 on Elliot Street, it served the city for some 81 years before it was closed in 1986.
Above is postmarked October 1912, with male figures drawn in front of the building. A student wrote this at what must have been the beginning of the school year, "School in here is quite different. I like it very much." He writes to a lady in Monson, Mass.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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8:40 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, architecture, education, Massachusetts
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
View of Mt. Holyoke from the Connecticut River railroad bridge
A vew of Mt. Holyoke in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from the Connecticut River on this postcard "New England Views on Boston & Maine R.R." The photo was probably taken from the Willimansett truss railroad bridge across the river from Chicopee to Holyoke, pictured in the postcard below.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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9:21 AM
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Labels: 20th Century, infrastructure, Massachusetts, mountains
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
First Baptist Church - Springfield, Massachusetts
Here are two postcard views of the First Baptist Church of Springfield, Massachusetts. They are from 1907 and 1908. The Romanesque building is the fourth church used by this congregation and stood on the corner of State and Spring streets.
The church was used for nearly 20 years, then the congregation merged with the Highland Baptist Church (whose own building on Stebbins Street burned down in 1906) becoming First-Highland Baptist for a time, and afterwards the building was sold and became St. Paul's Universalist Church. It no longer exists, replaced by a parking garage.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of The Ames Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts - A Northern Factory Town's Perspective on the Civil War; Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain: 70 Years of Summer Theatre on Mt. Tom, Holyoke, Massachusetts; States of Mind: New England; as well as books on classic films and several novels. Her latest book is Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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9:04 AM
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Labels: 19th century, 20th Century, architecture, houses of worship, Massachusetts
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Nonotuck to Roger Smith to Holyoke House - Holyoke, Massachusetts
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Jacqueline T. Lynch
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12:58 PM
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Labels: 20th Century, business, Massachusetts, tourism