HOLYOKE (MA)
Valley Advocate
By Maureen Turner
In the late 19th century, the Lyman Street area of downtown Holyoke underwent a significant change. Once home to Irish immigrants, who’d arrived in the city in the 1840s to work on its dams and canals, the neighborhood now began to be dominated by Polish immigrants, many of whom came from across the river in Chicopee, said Olivia Mausel, chairwoman of the Holyoke Historical Commission. The newly arrived Poles opened shops and other businesses and built a Catholic church and school.
Over the years, the neighborhood underwent more changes, most notably during the urban renewal period in the 1950s. But a strong Polish influence remains in the area, from businesses like Kay’s Pastry Shop and the Polish Delicatessen to Pulaski and Kosciuszko parks, both named for Polish-born heroes of the American Revolution. In 2011, city officials began looking into creating a Polish Heritage Historic District in the neighborhood to preserve that piece of Holyoke history, an effort that has met with a good deal of support.
At the heart of the proposed district is the former Mater Dolorosa church—fittingly so, given the central role the church has played in Holyoke’s Polish community since it was built at the turn of the 20th century. But more recently, Mater Dolorosa has also been at the heart of an acrimonious dispute between its one-time parishioners and the Diocese of Springfield, which closed the church in 2011. A group of Mater Dolorosa parishioners has been fighting that closure and hopes that the creation of a historic district would protect the building from redevelopment.
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