Places in Northampton

  • Image of a red fox facing the camera in a wooded area with snow covering the ground.

    Barrett Street Marsh Conservation Area

    This 25-acre plot of wildness, with a 200-year history of ditching, draining, filling, and clearing, now supports a diversity of plants and animals. See videos of wildlife.

  • Bay State Village

    Bay State Village is a small industrial community along the Mill River where paper and cutlery factories flourished.

  • Black-and-white photograph of high school aged boys posing for basketball team photo at Clarke School.

    Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech

    Clarke School, which opened in 1867 as the Clarke School for Deaf Mutes, was an ardent and early supporter of oralism.

  • Damon House

    Early 19th-century architect-builder Isaac Damon built the house at 46 Bridge Street in 1813 for his family. It is now the home of Historic Northampton.

  • Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area

    The area encompasses nearly 1,000 acres and includes miles of trails, a diversity of habitats, and a place to paddle and fish. See videos of wildlife.

  • A photograph showing the exterior of the Florence Pie Bar, a single-story bakery and cafe housed in a rustic, wood-paneled building. The building’s facade features a mix of weathered blue siding on the left and a warm, tan-painted storefront on the right. A large, prominent rectangular sign reading "FLORENCE PIE BAR" in bold, white capital letters against a blue background is mounted above the main windows, flanked by three stylized horizontal lines on either side. Below this sign, six large, dark-framed glass window panes showcase the cafe's offerings with smaller, decorative signs reading "HOLIDAY ORDERS," "SOUP AND SAVORIES," "CATERED EVENTS," "BAKERY," "COFFEE AND ESPRESSO," and "SWEETS." A rainbow flag hangs at an angle near the center of the roofline. To the right, a bright orange-red door with window panes serves as the entrance, next to a black handrail on a small set of steps. In front of the building, an outdoor seating area is arranged on the asphalt, featuring several white and blue folding metal chairs and small tables. A row of large, dark rectangular planter boxes filled with low-growing plants lines the front of the seating area.

    Florence Downtown

    Florence’s history as a thriving industrial center can be seen in the village today.

  • Leeds

    Leeds was once a manufacturing village where buttons and silk thread were made with power from the Mill River.

  • Loudville

    Loudville is a hamlet along a tributary of the Manhan River where mills and factories hummed from the early 18th to early 20th centuries.

  • Main Street (Then & Now)

    Look at side-by-side photos of Main Street buildings, taken 100 years ago (or more) and today.

  • Mill River

    The Mill River has shaped Northampton from the time Native people called it Pawagonnick, through the waterpower industrial age of the 19th century to today.

  • Nature scene at Mineral Hills Conservation Area

    Mineral Hills Greenway

    Mineral Hills incorporates former pastures and a quarry. It includes 500 acres of forested hillsides, wetlands, and beaver ponds. See videos of wildlife.

  • New Haven – Northampton Canal

    From 1835 to 1847, a canal operated from New Haven to Northampton entering downtown Northampton along South Street and State Street, then known as Canal Street.

  • Black-and-white photograph of the silk mill and NAEI boarding house.

    Northampton Association of Education and Industry

    NAEI was an intentional community (1842–1846) within the village of Florence that modeled cooperative work and life in a society with social, gender, and racial equality.

  • Northampton State Hospital

    Opened in 1858 as a bucolic place to cure mental illness, the treatment degraded until the hospital closed in 1993.

  • Parsons House

    Parsons House was built in 1719 on its present site. It is one of Historic Northampton’s three historic houses.

  • Black-and-white photograph of a family with two horses, in front of their house. A little girl has her bicycle.

    Roberts Meadow

    For more than 100 years, the village of Roberts Meadow was a bustling hamlet of agricultural and industrial activity.

  • Smooth serviceberry, Amelanchier laevis. Note that the leaves are reddish & emerging, while the leaves in the preceding species were still folded and, as the name suggest, covered with hairs.

    Sawmill Hills Conservation Area

    Sawmill Hills, named for the 19th-century sawmill run by the Bartlett family, encompasses roughly 2,200 acres. See videos of wildlife.

  • Shepherd Barn

    Built in 1805 and restored in 2023, Shepherd Barn is now a performance and community space.

  • Shepherd House.

    Shepherd House

    Built in 1798, it occupies the same location and footprint at 66 Bridge Street, with the exception of its front and side porches. It belongs to Historic Northampton.

  • Black and white photograph in "The Belt" neighborhood. Young man leaning on a car, two other cars next to him.

    The Belt

    The author reflects on this section of town where working people lived, including his own family.

  • West Farms

    West Farms is a section in the western area of Northampton with one of the oldest Methodist meetinghouses in the Valley.