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Holyoke, Massachusetts, circa 1908. "High Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Hard to reconcile the bustling, modestly affluent appearance of this street scene from 104 years ago with the economic basket case Holyoke has become since then. It's become one of those downtowns populated with empty store fronts, slap-dash convenience stores, nail salons, karate studios, low-rent personal injury lawyers, etc. Holyoke is competing with Lawrence for the title of Most Comatose City in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Makes Lynn look prosperous.
The grand Victorian building with the rotunda on the right was called the "Marble Building." It was constructed from Vermont marble and was originally a hotel. By 1900 it was converted to Child's Shoes which was one of the largest shoe stores outside NYC or Boston. In the 1950s it was torn down to build a Grant's dept. store that moved "uptown" in the early 1970s and is now a K-Mart. Downtown Holyoke's major downfall was not until the 1970s, the the construction of the local malls and general inner city decline. The Steigers dept. store just outside the view on the left didn't close until 1984 despite their opening of a location at the Holyoke Mall in 1979.
My grandmother graduated from Mt. Holyoke College in nearby South Hadley, Mass. in 1908, so she could easily be one of the ladies sauntering down the main drag in the distance.
I'm happy to note that the gentleman sitting in the fourth floor window of the central building in 1908, and wearing a straw boater hat, decided to leave some time before 2012.
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