Category Archives: Queen Anne

The house at 181 Elm Street in Holyoke was built around 1880. From 1882 to 1884, it was the residence of Clemens Herschel, who worked as a hydraulic engineer at the Holyoke Water Power Company from 1879 to 1889. During that time, Herschel designed a new testing flume for hydraulic turbines, waterwheels, pumps, and meters. He also invented the Venturi meter, used to measure the flow of water, which he first tested in 1886. By that same year, the house had become the residence of Edward Whitman Chapin, a lawyer who began practicing law in Holyoke in 1865 and was appointed an associate justice of the Holyoke district court in 1877. He later served twenty years as presiding justice of the court. He was a member of “The Club,” which focused on literary endeavors and was organized at his home on On November 15, 1890. Judge Chapin married Mary Beebe in May 1866 and had four children. He died in 1924 and the house was passed on to his two unmarried daughters, Clara M. and Alice M. Chapin. Today, the Edward W. Chapin House is called Chapin Mansion and is operated by the Valley Opportunity Council as a residence for homeless veterans.