OLD INDUSTRIAL CITIES IN THE NORTHEAST – THE CASE OF HOLYOKE

Map of Downtown Holyoke showing the Connecticut River and numerous canals.

I had the opportunity recently to be briefed about Holyoke, Massachusetts, as a member of a task force to leverage a planned green high performance computing center (GHPCC) to be located in this old industrial city. Yes, three major research universities – MIT, the University of Massachusetts and Boston University – have chosen Holyoke for this joint high tech venture. At our first task force meeting, the reasons for choosing Holyoke were explained: inexpensive electricity, green (non-carbon) electricity, excellent internet connectivity, available land and excellent superhighway and rail transportation access. (See www.innovateholyoke.com/about-the-project/ for more details).

The electricity is generated by Holyoke Gas and Electric, a city owned utility that uses water power from the Connecticut River to generate the majority of its electricity. Holyoke was originally developed in the 19^th century as an industrial powerhouse with numerous factories run by water power from the Connecticut. How fitting that this same asset may attract a new industry – high speed computing - that may revitalize the City.

Furthermore, to my surprise, the computing center is slated to be built in the center of Holyoke, not on some former farmland at the City outskirts. But on further reflection, downtown Holyoke has an asset that is both extremely desirable and in short supply: waterfront property. The City is built on a bend in the Connecticut River and has numerous canals downtown that provide additional water frontage. And Holyoke was fortunate to have avoided the fate of many Connecticut River cities – Northampton, Springfield, Hartford, and New Haven – that had their frontage on the Connecticut severed by Interstate 91.

In many ways downtown Holyoke is a canvas that although once painted now is ready for a new picture. To see it, we should follow the advice of Massachusetts writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.”

A view of one of Holyoke's canals with industrial buildings taken in 1941 from Library of Congress Archives.