Westfield

History

The area was originally inhabited by the Pocomtuc, and was called Waranoke or Woronoco (meaning "the winding land"). Trading houses were built in 1639 to 1640 by European settlers from the Connecticut Colony. Massachusetts asserted jurisdiction, and prevailed after a boundary survey. In 1647, Massachusetts made Woronoco part of Springfield. Land was "incrementally purchased from the Native Americans and granted by the Springfield town meeting to English settlers, beginning in 1658." The area of Woronoco or "Streamfield" began to be permanently settled in the 1660s. in 1920, it would be re-incorporated as a city. The name Westfield would be named for being at the time the most westerly settlement. "Streamfield" was considered a name for the town for being settled in between two "streams" that flow downtown, the Westfield River and the Little River. From its founding until 1725, Westfield was the westernmost settlement in the Massachusetts Colony, and portions of it fell within the Equivalent Lands. Town meetings were held in a church meeting house until 1839, when Town Hall was erected on Broad Street. This building also served as City Hall from 1920 to 1958. Due to its alluvial lands, the inhabitants of the Westfield area were entirely devoted to agricultural pursuits for about 150 years. Early in the 19th century, the manufacture of bricks, whips, and cigars became economically important. At one point in the 19th century, Westfield was a prominent center of the buggy whip industry, and the city is still known as the "Whip City". Other firms produced bicycles, paper products, pipe organs, boilers and radiators, textile machinery, abrasives, wood products, and precision tools. Westfield transformed itself from an agricultural town into a thriving industrial city in…

Geography

Westfield is located at (42.129492, −72.745986). It is bordered on the north by Southampton, on the northeast by Holyoke, on the east by West Springfield, on the southeast by Agawam, on the south by Southwick, on the southwest by Granville, on the west by Russell, and on the northwest by Montgomery. Westfield is split into the "South Side" and the "North Side" by the Westfield River, and the northwestern section of town is known as Wyben. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 2.24%, are water. Westfield is situated at the western edge of the downfaulted Connecticut River Valley where the Westfield River emerges from the Berkshire Hills and flows through the center of the city on its way to the Connecticut River some downstream. Because of its large, steep and rocky upstream watershed, the river has a history of severe flood episodes, inundating adjacent parts of Westfield several times. In spite of a complicated system of pumps, dikes, waterways, and upstream dams, Westfield lies in a floodplain zone and is still considered flood-prone. Westfield is bordered on the east by linear cliffs of volcanic trap rock known as East Mountain and Provin Mountain. They are part of the Metacomet Ridge, a mountainous trap rock ridgeline that stretches from Long Island Sound to nearly the Vermont border. Both mountains are traversed by the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, that also crosses the Westfield River with an ill-advised fording or a safer road-walk across the bridge at the junction of Routes 187 and 20. The next road obstacle for hikers in Westfield is the Massachusetts Turnpike, beneath which hikers can safely walk. Westfield is on the fringe of the greater Northeast megalopolis—the most densely populated…

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Holyoke High
  High · Holyoke · 1,515 students · 11.8:1 ratio
• Chicopee Comprehensive High School
  High · Chicopee · 1,206 students · 11.4:1 ratio
• West Springfield High
  High · West Springfield · 1,186 students · 12.8:1 ratio
• High School Of Commerce
  High · Springfield · 1,103 students · 7.9:1 ratio
• Agawam High
  High · Agawam · 1,052 students · 11.1:1 ratio
• Westfield High
  High · Westfield · 1,027 students · 12.2:1 ratio
• Chicopee High
  High · Chicopee · 914 students · 11:1 ratio
• West Springfield Middle
  Middle · West Springfield · 897 students · 12:1 ratio