Region – Northampton & The Pioneer Valley
Western Massachusetts is a great place to live! The outdoors offers a myriad of activities year-round: hiking, boating, swimming in the lakes and rivers, and festivals galore. Arts and entertainment include theater, music, and first-class museums. There are small cities, Northampton, Amherst, Springfield and rural areas. Housing is still relatively affordable (when compared to the larger traditional gay centers) and thus Northampton has the best of both worlds - a sophisticated rural lifestyle with all the cultural, artistic, academic, and business amenities of a big city.
Northampton also features one of the most vibrant downtown centers in New England offering a unique blend of independent retail shops, eclectic restaurants and cafes, art galleries, museums, clubs, and theaters earning its name as “Number One Best Small Arts Town in America” by author John Villani and one of the “Top 25 Arts Destinations” in the nation by American Style magazine.
“This small city offers more restaurants and shops, certainly more galleries, theaters and performance venues than most urban centers dozens of times its size. Add two rivers, mountain views, landscaped parks and meadow walks, and you begin to see why people call it paradise.”-The Boston Globe
Northampton has retained much of its historic character in downtown Northampton, its residential neighborhoods, and the smaller commercial village centers of Florence and Leeds. Historic Northampton offers a Visitors’ Guide to Paradise: Historical Walking Tours of Northampton, Massachusetts. Northampton is also located in the heart of a lively college community that includes Smith College, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College. The Five Colleges are host to a wide array of educational, cultural, arts, theater, and music events as well as museums.
The Smith College campus is open to the public and only a short walk up Main Street in downtown Northampton. The campus offers beautiful gardens, walks around Paradise Pond, the Lyman Conservatory, and the Smith College Museum of Art.
Local Media
Radio
WHMP, am1400
WRSI (93.9 fm)
The local public radio station is WFCR (88.5 fm). WAMC (91.3 fm)is also available from Albany.
Newspapers
Northampton's daily newspaper is the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
The Republican, published in Springfield, also covers local news and events.
The Valley Advocate is a free weekly paper focusing on arts and entertainment.
Innewsweekly is the gay regional newspaper
Local Legends
Many well known people have made Northampton their home for at least part of their lives, or have enjoyed visiting "Paradise City." In fact, it was the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, who gave Northampton that nickname more than a century ago when she performed at the Academy of Music Theatre. Some of our famous neighbors have been immortalized here. You can visit President (and our former Mayor) Calvin Coolidge's bust in front of Memorial Hall on Main Street, just nearby to the monument to Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski. Just down the block at Forbes Library, you can arrange to explore the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library Collection. In Florence, there is a bronze statue and small park dedicated to abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth.
Many performers have spent time in Northampton. Recently, singer Bob Dylan gave a rare interview to 60 Minutes from his room at the Hotel Northampton. Margaret Cho shows up at least once a year for one of her infamous and hysterical comedy shows at the Calvin Theater.
Getting Here
Airports
Bradley International Airport is the regional airport serving Northampton and is a 40-minute drive south of town. Great fares to almost everywhere from this small, but very busy airport.
Driving Directions
From the North: Take 91 S to exit 20 (Route 5, King Street). Go through 5 traffic lights. The 6th set of lights is the intersection of Main St. Turn right on Main Street. City Hall will be about a block-and-a-half on your left, on the corner of Main Street and Crafts Avenue.
From the South: Take 91 N to exit 18. Take a left off the exit ramp and travel down Pleasant Street approximately one mile until you reach the traffic lights at the intersection with Main St. Turn left onto Main Street. City Hall will be about a block-and-a-half on your left, on the corner of Main Street and Crafts Avenue