What years did the Holyoke Street Railway operate?
Holyoke Street Railway
Operated by the Holyoke Street Railway Company, abbreviated on livery as the Hly. St. Ry. Co., the streetcar system begin operation on September 24, 1884, consolidated with the Amherst and Sunderland Street Railway in 1907, and ceased operations as a streetcar operator in 1937. Regular bus operations began in 1921, and soon after the incorporation of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority in 1977, the company began serving as a contract operator. This service continued until 1987, when a dispute between labor and management led regular bus service to an abrupt end, with would-be passengers still waiting at stops, on July 1, 1987. After four years of inactivity and with a municipal school bus contract failing to pass negotiations, the company liquidated its assets and had dissolved by 1991.
History of the French in Holyoke
A mass exodus of Quebec workers began after the Civil War with most in higher density textile manufacturing towns, such as Holyoke, as well as Gardner, Lowell, and Fall River. As the French-Canadians arrived in Holyoke in the 1880s, unlike many industrial cities with one or two large employers or institutions, their arrival coincided with the construction of dozens of mills in multiple industries. In less than 30 years the city population tripled in size to 35,000 residents, and with this social structures saw dramatic change. Indeed the influx of Canadian French in Holyoke was attributed to the city having an average of 12 residents per household in 1885, twice the Massachusetts average.