First Level Canal, Factories & Railroad  1879

A photo taken from the Water Power gatehouse looking down the First Level (upper) canal in 1879.   Factories shown in the picture include the Parsons Paper Mill on the left, and the Merrick Thread Co. (center).  The Parsons mill would later become American Writing Company's No. 2 mill. The building on the right was a storage building for the coal shed of the Holyoke Gas & Electric Company. The area is now the home of the skate board park located just below Pulaski Park.  (Seminole Bailey Archive)