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Date: 5/26/2021
WESTFIELD - The Historical Commission met May 17 to discuss a virtual tour of City Hall, an update on the efforts to survey Westfield's old canal, and an update on a project to map the Old Burying Ground.
Local historian Bruce Cortis is working on a project to identify and map every grave in the Old Burying Ground on Mechanic Street. His end goal is to have a fully searchable PDF file that lists every grave and where in the cemetery it is located. The main focus of his efforts is to find graves that have been lost to history and no longer have a visible gravestone.
Historical Commission Chair Cindy Gaylord said that Cortis is nearly finished with his project. She said he has had to come up with some creative methods of finding lost graves as his project nears completion. "Bruce figured out a way to insert a metal rod using the stick of a hockey stick," said Gaylord, "He found two stones doing that last week."
Gaylord said that she expects Cortis to present the Historical Commission with a completed inventory soon. The commission also discussed the next steps in getting the Hampden/Hampshire canal onto the National Registry of Historic Sites (NRHS). The canal, which has not been in use for many decades, has largely deteriorated and portions of its path have been lost to time. She said that she and members of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission would be meeting to walk along the known portions of the canal to find the parts that are lost.
"We are going to find the vestiges of the canal," said Gaylord, "The next step is to have the archeological study done and present it to NRHS."
The canal was once part of a larger network that connected the waters off the coast of New Haven, Connecticut to Northampton, Massachusetts. When the company that owned the canal failed, it was replaced with a railroad that ran the length of the canal. When that, too, failed, it was replaced with the rail trail that is still being developed today.
Gaylord also announced that the virtual tour of Westfield's City Hall was complete and online. The tour takes viewers through City Hall and explains the functions of each room and its historical significance. It is narrated by Adam Wright and photographed by Fred Gore. The tour can be viewed at mls.kuu.la/share/collection/7YKVW?fs=1&vr=0&zoom=1&gyro=0&initload=0&thumbs=1.