Chicopee

These vintage postcards illustrate the significant role that manufacturing played in the day-to-day life of the blue-collar community of Chicopee River. The original meaning of "Chicopee" is "place where water rushes. In 1823, Jonathan Dwight purchased the water privilege at Skenungonuck Falls in Chicopee. Five years later, the textile mill had fourteen thousand spindles and nearly five hundred looms, making it the second-largest operation in Massachusetts. By 1831, there were two giant dams, tw