By Jacqueline T. Lynch, Vice President
July 4, 1926, was the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Though the second-grade students at Alvord School in the photo above in colonial costume look sedate and dignified in their practice of the minuet, we were in the midst of the Roaring Twenties.
There were 48 states now. Calvin Coolidge, former mayor of Northampton and former Governor of Massachusetts, was President. He had taken over after the death of Warren G. Harding, and had been elected in his own right two years previously. Herbert Hoover was his Vice President. It had been less than a decade since we’d endured another war, World War I, and the notorious pandemic of the Spanish Influenza.
In Chicopee, our population climbed to just under 42,000. Michael I. Shea was our Mayor. There were cars on the streets and less horses, but the inclusion of trolley tracks made the three modes of transportation an exciting, if often dangerous, obstacle course. In this era, with our separate villages co-existing more or less independently from one another, most people lived, worked, went to school, and shopped in such close proximity that they did not need horses, cars, or trolleys to get about their daily lives.
But these new conveyances, as well as the train, did give many people for the first time an opportunity to make summertime vacations at nearby lakes, Riverside Park, and to visit the ocean.(Not to dismiss horse-and-carriage traffic: there were still four blacksmiths in town.)
If one chose to stay at home, the new invention of radio seemed to bring the nation, and a world of entertainment, to one’s living room. There were also silent movies (called “photoplays”) packing them in at five theaters in town: the Grand, and the Royal in the Falls; The Midway on Grattan Street in Aldenville; the Playhouse in the Center (the Rivoli wouldn’t open until the following year of 1927 as “The Elms”); and the newest theater in town opening just this year: the Willow in Willimansett.
Prohibition, and the defiance of that law, made for even more exciting times, which could, like the traffic, prove sometimes dangerous.
We lost one of our most noted citizens this year when nationally known sculptor and bronze founder Melzar H. Mosman passed away at the age of 82 in January. You’ll remember from the post on July 4, 1876: he assisted his father in casting The Minute Man statue for Concord. Since then, he had created several monuments around the region and the country in Civil War memorials, Spanish-American War memorials, monuments to Lincoln, Grant, and other figures. His last statue was made for Chicopee, and it still stands on Front Street: his “Peace” statue celebrating the end of World War I, “the War to End All Wars.”
There were 1,277 men and women from Chicopee who served in World War I; 27 were killed or died in service. This included Private Frank J. Szot, who enlisted at the age of 21 and was the first in town to give his life in the war. In 1939, Szot Park would be created and dedicated in his honor.
July 4th was a special celebration this year, being the 150th anniversary of our nation. Many towns locally had much larger parades and events than was usual. It’s as if all the stops were pulled out in this decade of exuberance.
Chicopee’s parade, smaller than Holyoke or Springfield, but still substantial, had 1,000 marchers, including bands and floats. Organizations like the Knights of Columbus, the Chicopee Rod & Gun Club, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and churches were represented, and some manufacturers, like the J. Stevens Arms Company of the Falls. An estimated 20,000 lined the parade route, nearly half the population.
After the parade, children and adults participated in a field day at Lincoln Grove in the Falls. Among the foot races were a half-mile run, and a six-mile run, the route for which, upon leaving the park, went down Broadway, across the bridge and up Montgomery, to Columba, Grattan, down McKinstry, northward on Chicopee Street, down Front, then Ellerton and back to Lincoln Grove.
The parade route began in Chicopee Center, with a reviewing stand in front of the City Hall. Apparently, it was to progress up through either Chicopee or Meadow Street to Prospect Street in Willimansett. Five surviving Civil War vets rode in a car. The different divisions of the parade were headed by a rider on horseback; one of the riders was Dr. Armand O. Metivier, whose office was in Chicopee Falls and who was one of the city physicians.
There was a glitch, however. It seems the first division, having reached the Chicopee Street area, was supposed to pause and wait for the other divisions to catch up from the starting point on Exchange Street, but “broke away from the line of march agreed upon.” It seems they were not at the appointed spot when the rest of the parade caught up. “It was some time before it was found, three miles away.” They reunited at the foot of the Prospect Street hill. The division was jokingly referred to as “the lost parade.”
That evening, 10,000 assembled to watch fireworks, but the newspaper accounts don’t mention where they were held. Only one point stood out to the reporter: an enormous firework display to depict the famous “Spirit of ’76,” – “which was comprised of a mile and a half of fuse.”
Next week, a look at the 175th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – July 4, 1951.
Sources
Chicopee City Directory 1926.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The Decennial Census 1925, compiled by Frederic W. Cook, Secretary of the Commonwealth; and William G. Grundy, State Census Director.
Springfield Daily News, July 6, 1926.
Springfield Daily Republican, July 6, 1926.
Springfield Sunday Republican, July 4, 1926.
Szetela, Thaddeus M. Chicopee (Chicopee, MA: Szetela & Rich Publishing Co., 1948).
Mosman statue photos by Jacqueline T. Lynch.
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