region
Northampton & the Pioneer Valley
“This small city [Northampton] 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
Western Massachusetts is a great place to live! The outdoors offers myriad activities year-round: hiking, boating, swimming in the lakes and rivers, kayaking, organized sports, and festivals galore. Arts and entertainment include theater, music, and first-class museums. There are small artsy cities like Northampton and Amherst, bigger cities like Springfield, and lots of surrounding rural areas. Housing is still relatively affordable (when compared to the larger traditional gay centers). Northampton has the best of both worlds--a sophisticated rural lifestyle and all the cultural, artistic, academic, and business amenities of a much larger 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.
Northampton
has retained much of its historic character in its downtown, its
residential neighborhoods, and the smaller commercial village centers of Florence and Leeds.
(Check out
Historic Northampton's
publication:
A Visitor's Guide to Paradise: Historical Walking Tours of Northampton, Massachusetts
to learn more.) Northampton is also located in the heart of a lively college community that includes Smith College, the University of Mass-achusetts, 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
... which then draws in the guys who prefer such things (which I
am assuming includes both you and me).
The
Smith College
campus is open to the public and only a short walk up Main
Street from downtown. The campus offers beautiful gardens, walks
around Paradise Pond, the Lyman Conservatory, and the Smith College Museum of Art.
View of downtown Northampton from Smith College
Northampton -- The Place to Be
Then ...
Many well-known people have made Northampton their home for at least part of their lives, or have enjoyed visiting "Paradise City."
(I know, a title like that is somewhat overly-saccharine in
nature–and
dangerously wide open to ironic statements–but
in this case it really is kind of true.) History will state (OK,
it was actually Wikipedia) that it was the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, who
first gave Northampton that nickname more than a century ago, at
a time when she was performing downtown at the
Academy of Music Theatre.
And, now that we're on the topic, it's worth mentioning that the
Academy really is an amazing treasure. On the National Historic
Register, it also one of the oldest continuously running
theaters in the country. It has seen performers such as Mae West, Liz Burton,
Harry Houdini, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Boris Karloff,
Basil Rathbone, and John Philip Sousa. Pretty much everyone.
I
know, I know, I'll try to be more brief, but–while
we're name-dropping–we
might as well mention that some of our famous citizens are also immortalized here
in town. Check it out: President Calvin Coolidge was actually a
mayor here before going all upwardly-mobile on us and changing
his zip-code to the White House. (Just to prove it, at
Forbes Li
brary
you can arrange to explore the Calvin Coolidge Presidential
Library Collection.) Oh, and over in Florence (a neighboring
village of Northampton), there is a bronze statue and small park
dedicated to the abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth,
who moved to the area due in part to the utopian community that
made its home in Florence at the turn of the last century.
... and now.
Many performers have spent time in Northampton,
and favor the town as a liberal and enthusi-astic venue. Recently, singer
Bob Dylan gave a rare interview to
60 Minutes from his room at the Hotel Northampton. And just
last year, the Dalai Lama came to Smith College because of his
strong ties to the local Tibetan and academic communities. The
amazing Margaret Cho shows up at least once a year to perform
one of her explosively hysterical comedy shows at the
Calvin Theater. The late, really great George Carlin came through town
this year on his final tour. And this summer, Melissa Etheridge
(yeah, I know: she's a lesbian icon, but she'll Guitar
Hero you under the table) rocked out in the gorgeously intimate,
outdoor Pines Theater in local Look Park. And coolest of all, the cleverly confessional
Augusten Burroughs is a Noho native. His bestselling book,
Running with Scissors, takes place right here in
Northampton.
Getting Here
Trying to turn you ... in the right direction.
BY AIR
Bradley International Airport is just outside of Hartford, CT, and
is the regional airport serving Northampton,
located about 40 minutes to the south. (Northampton itself does have a tiny airstrip
near the river that it calls an airport, but I challenge
you to find it on Google Earth. Honestly, it's so small that I think it's
used only for crop-dusting ... or for whisking
celebrities away to rehab.)
DRIVING–FROM
THE NORTH
Take 91 South, and get off exit 20 "Route 5, King Street."
Now, I know you are good and clever people, so please don't
judge us on King Street alone–every
town has its commercial district! Do not fret, beauty awaits: Go through 5 traffic lights
and take a right at the 6th light onto Main Street. There, see?
...
DRIVING–FROM
THE SOUTH
Take 91 North to exit 18. Take a left off the exit ramp and travel down Pleasant Street
(again with these names) approximately one mile until you reach the traffic lights at the intersection with Main St.
(Not only will you see the relieved-looking motorists who are
arriving here from the North, but you will also see a
gorgeous-looking brownstoney courthouse diagonally ahead of you to
the left.) Turn left, just before the courthouse, onto Main
Street. Adventure awaits.
NORTHAMPTON CITY HALL
See? I'm not making this up.
Once you turn onto
Main Street,
City Hall
(the building that looks, impossibly, like a large looming
castle) will be about a block-and-a-half up on your left. You will
think that you are hallucinating, but you are not. Keep moving towards
it;
it will not disappear. When you are feeling like yourself once again,
amble across the street and grab yourself a much-deserved Starbucks.
(Oh, and a word to the wise: in your eagerness to find City Hall,
please don't be one of those people who fall
for the traditional, brownstoney courthouse on the right that
looks like it should be the town hall; because that's just a
courthouse.)
