Holyoke, MA

Holyoke, Massachusetts
City
North High Street
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): The Paper City
Motto: Industria et Copia (Latin) "Industry and Abundance"
Holyoke, Massachusetts Location in the United States
Coordinates: 42°12′15″N 72°37′00″W / 42.20417°N 72.61667°W / 42.20417; -72.61667Coordinates: 42°12′15″N 72°37′00″W / 42.20417°N 72.61667°W / 42.20417; -72.61667
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Hampden
Settled	1745
Incorporated	1850
Government
• Type	Mayor-council city
• Mayor	Alex B. Morse
Area
• Total	22.8 sq mi (59.1 km2)
• Land	21.3 sq mi (55.1 km2)
• Water	1.5 sq mi (4.0 km2)
Elevation	200 ft (61 m)
Population (2012)
• Total	40,135
• Density	1,872.3/sq mi (723.8/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	Eastern (UTC-4)
ZIP code	01040
Area code(s)	413
FIPS code	25-30840
GNIS feature ID	0617679
Website	City of Holyoke, Massachusetts

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 2012, the city had an estimated population of 40,135. Sitting eight miles north of Springfield, Holyoke is part of the Springfield Metropolitan Area, one of the two distinct metropolitan areas in Massachusetts.

Englishmen first arrived in the Connecticut River Valley in 1633—a post was established at Windsor, Connecticut by traders from the Plymouth Plantation. In 1636, Massachusetts Bay Colony assistant treasurer and Puritan iconoclast William Pynchon led a group of settlers from Roxbury, Massachusetts to establish Springfield on land that scouts had vetted the previous year. They considered it the most advantageous land in the Connecticut River Valley for farming and trading. This settlement, on fertile farmland just north of the Connecticut River's first major falls (at Enfield Falls), the place where seagoing vessels necessarily had to transfer their cargo into smaller shallops to continue northward on the Connecticut River, quickly became a successful settlement—largely due to its advantageous position on the Bay Path to Boston, the Massachusetts Path to Albany, and beside the Connecticut River. Originally, Springfield spanned both sides of the Connecticut River; the region was eventually partitioned. The land on the western bank of the Connecticut River became West Springfield, Massachusetts. West Springfield's northernmost parish (alternately called Third Parish, North Parish, or Ireland Parish) became Holyoke, named after earlier Springfield settler William Pynchon's son-in-law, Elizur Holyoke, who had first explored the area in the 1650s. The village of Holyoke was first settled in 1745 and was officially incorporated in 1850.