Enfield, Massachusetts

See Enfield, Connecticut for the town that was located in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1683-1749.
Enfield, Massachusetts
Town

"The end of Enfield." A photograph of downtown Enfield, after 1938.

Seal
Coordinates: 42°19′0″N 72°19′58″W / 42.31667°N 72.33278°W / 42.31667; -72.33278Coordinates: 42°19′0″N 72°19′58″W / 42.31667°N 72.33278°W / 42.31667; -72.33278
Country United States
State Massachusetts
County Hampshire
Incorporated February 15, 1816[1]
Disincorporated April 28, 1938
Time zone Eastern (UTC-5)
  Summer (DST) Eastern (UTC)
GNIS feature ID 617477[2]

Enfield was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, The town was lost a result from the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir.

History

Incorporated in 1816 from portions of Greenwich and Belchertown. It was named in honor of one of its early settlers, Robert Field.[3] General Joseph Hooker, Union general during the American Civil War, was once a resident, and his grandfather was once a town leader. It was centered at the junction of the east and west branches of the Swift River, and the Athol Branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad ran through the town. The town bordered six other towns - Belchertown, Pelham, Greenwich, Prescott, Ware, and Hardwick.

Enfield was disincorporated on April 28, 1938 and portions of the town were annexed to the adjacent towns of Belchertown, New Salem, Pelham, and Ware. (Not all of the former town is now in Hampshire County: the portion ceded to New Salem is now in Franklin County.) The headquarters of the Metropolitan District Commission during the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir was located in the former town hall, and was the last building razed in the Swift River Valley, in 1940. The majority of the town center now lies submerged beneath the reservoir, although the Quabbin Observatory and Enfield Lookout, located on scenic Quabbin Hill, as well as the main entrance and headquarters of Quabbin State Park, a popular tourist destination with an emphasis on state history and nature, are all within the former town's limits.

Enfield House, an on-campus living facility at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, is named after the former town.

Enfield in popular culture

Quabbin towns that were disincorporated

Photos

References

  1. Chickering, Jesse (1846). A Statistical View of the Population of Massachusetts, from 1765 to 1840. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown. p. 23. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  2. "Enfield, Massachusetts (historical)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved Aug 2015.
  3. Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. p. 119.

Further reading

External links

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