Built in 1901. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1973. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“Wistariahurst is a historic house museum and the former estate of the Skinner family, located at 238 Cabot Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It was built in 1868 for William Skinner, the owner of a successful silk spinning and textile business, and is named for the abundant wisteria vines which cascade across its eastern facade.”
Wikipedia article Wistariahurst, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 123 National Register listings in Hampden County · listed in 1973 · category: Building · built in 1901.
National Register reference number.73000295- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Holyoke, numbered among the leading and most prosperous manufacturing cities of New England, is situated on the Connecticut river in the western part of Massachusetts and is in close proximity to northern Connecticut. By state census of 1905 the population was 49,934, and it is estimated the census of 1910 will show 58,000 people. The city was incorporated April 7, 1873.
Holyoke owes its growth and prosperity to its excellent water power and advantageous geographical position. It has close railroad connections with Boston, Hartford, Albany and New York, and is fortunate in having in its commercial circles many business men of sagacity, energy and progressive ideas. The leading industries of the city are devoted to the manufacture of paper, blank books, cotton, thread, woolens, alpacas, blankets, wire cloth, machinery, steam pumps, bits, braces, hydrants, boilers, trolley tracks and various auxiliary products.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 326 fires within 5 miles of Wistariahurst between
2014 and 2020, burning about 189 acres in total. 30 started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Equipment and vehicle use
123
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
122
Natural
30
Debris and open burning
30
Recreation and ceremony
14
Smoking
3
Misuse of fire by a minor
2
Arson/incendiarism
2
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 2,243 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Wistariahurst between 1831 and
1975: 1,121 Plantae, 708 Animalia, 380 Fungi, 19 Chromista, 9 Unrecorded, 5 Protozoa, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. Albee, A. B. Seymour, A. C. Gibson and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
25 workings within 5 miles of Wistariahurst: 13 producers, 11 past producers, 1 occurrence.
13 still produce. What was taken out: Brick Clay, Clay, Stone, Dimension, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Holyoke, the town this property stands in, in 22 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 14 thunderstorm wind, 5 flood, 3 hail.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Four golfers were struck by lightning while standing in a shelter at the Wycoff Country Club. All were wearing cleats. Three were seriously injured and the other received minor injury. Two went into cardiac arrest. Three of the injured were recovering at local area hospitals. The lightning apparently struck a nearby tree and then jumped to the shelter.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
2,486 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Wistariahurst, with its mansion, lawns and gardens, occupies a city block in Holyoke bounded by Beech (Route 202), Cabot, Pine and Hampshire Streets. Two large marble lions, imported from Italy in the 1880's, decorate either side of the Cabot Street walkway entrance. Rhododendrons, laurel, azaleas and other shrubs border the estate while the grounds contain rose beds, a small sunken pool and an oriental teahouse. What once was the carriage house is now a youth museum. The name of the mansion derives from the wistaria vines which cover most of its outer walls. The mansion is a clapboard structure and consists of three sections: the three-story original section, a two-story hall, attached to the west end, and a wing containing a conservatory and music room.
The mansion is approached by a semi-circular drive which leads from Beech Street to the porte-cochere. From here the entrance gives into the main hall, which is the newest part of the house. Designed in 1927 by Wilson, Eyre and McIllvaine, this two-story roow contains a marble lobby and circular staircase with decorative iron balustrade-m The music room (joined to the hall by the conservatory) was added in 1913. Its east wall is broken by a pair of bronze French doors while the west wall carries the decorative brickwork of the exterior chimney for the two fireplaces in the room. The oldest and most dominant portion of the mansion is the original three-story square house to which the main hall was attached. Built c. 1848, this section was moved to this location in sections in 1874.
At this time, the roof was altered to its present Mansard style. Slate shingles cover the roof and segmentally arched pediments top the dormers. Iwo porches, one above the other, are attached to the east side of this section.
Wistariahurst, the former estate of the Skinner family, occupies a city block in Holyoke, Massachusetts. For three generations, "skinner" was the leading word in the manufacture of silk and satin in the United States. The estate, built on the profits of that manufacture, includes the family mansion, the carriage house, extensive lawns, and formal gardens with an oriental tea- house. The first Skinner mill was built by William Skinner at Williamsburg, Massachusetts, in 1848. The business expanded rapidly and that town became known as "Skinnerville." In 1874, when the mill dam and buildings were des- troyed by a flood, the Holyoke Water Power Company contacted Skinner and in- vited him to relocate his business in Holyoke.
As an inducement, Skinner was given the land on which Wistariahurst stands. The mills again prospered and played a major role in the economic growth of Holyoke. The original section of the mansion was constructed c.r1848 in Williams- burg and was moved to its present location in 1874 when Skinner relocated. In 1913, a conservatory and music hall, designed by Luce of Philadelphia, were added to the southwest facade of the house. A second addition was made to the mansion in 1927. A two-story main hall, it includes a marble lobby and circular stairway; it was designed by Wilson Eyre. ::TEC- As well as being manufacturers, members of the Skinner family were also known as philanthropists and patrons of art and music.
William Skinner was noted for his support of religious and educational institutions, including Grace and Holy Rosary Churches in Holyoke and Smith, Vassar and Mount Holyoke Colleges. William's son Joseph established the Joseph A. Skinner Museum, which he bequeathed to Mount Holyoke College; he was also the donor of the S Skinner State Park, South Hadley.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 73000295, 13 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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