A Zoom Presentation by co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders.

During the 19th century, a movement to establish parks was born in cities across the United States. In response to America’s rapid industrialization and rising urban populations, recreation advocates championed the creation of parks as places where workers could escape from crowded living conditions, breathe clean air, and get a break from the unrelenting noise of factories.
 
But what about Northampton? With its highly industrialized Mill River region, how did its citizens respond to the idea of creating public parks?  Laurie Sanders will describe the origins of the parks that we enjoy today and tell the tales of those that were never created.  It is no surprise that the establishment of nearly all of them was controversial.

Part 5 of series: Rediscovering Northampton: Local History Viewed Through an Ecological Lens