page_title: Timeline of Holyoke, Massachusetts
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of Holyoke, Massachusetts / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: A pencil sketch of the Holyoke skyline soon after its peak as an industrial city, with the Connecticut River in the foreground and Mount Tom in the center of the background.
context_page_description: This is a timeline of the history of the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA.
context_section_description: 1900 – Holyoke reaches its peak rank among American cities by population, as the 82nd largest in the United States, with a population of 45,712; in rank, comparable to Buffalo (83rd) or Scottsdale (85th) in 2018.
  January 5: The last stone is placed in the third and current dam, constructed of granite, at approximately 3pm.
  February 3: During his 1900 presidential campaign against William McKinley, orator and anti-imperialist William Jennings Bryan makes a speech at the City Hall, greeted by a reported 2500-3000 attendees who completely filled the grand hall and corridors, with another 1000 waiting to greet him on the lower floors.
  1901 – November 9: The local chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union dedicates a Temperance fountain donated to the city, at the corner of Dwight and High Streets by City Hall, the granite drinking fountain is fitted with a chamber for ice for cooling.
  1902
  October 27: Mother Jones delivers a speech in Holyoke about the coal strike of 1902 and its aftermath.
  December 15: The Holyoke Gas & Electric Department is established, purchasing utilities from the Holyoke Water Power Company.
  1903 – August 20: Workers for the American Writing Paper Company return to work following an operator strike by the Eagle Lodge of Papermakers, which began on June 15 of that year, and was described as the second major strike in the history of the city's paper mills.
  1904
  February 11: Dr. Henry E. Chaput publishes the first edition of La Justice, Holyoke's longest running French-language newspaper.
  August 4: Under the supervision of engineer George E. Pellissier, the Holyoke Street Railway becomes the first railroad operator in the Americas to use thermite welding to lay track.
  1906 – The Olmsted Brothers complete Springdale Park, the largest of the city's public parks.
  1908 – The University of Notre Dame's fight song, the Victory March is first publicly played in the Second Congregational Church of Holyoke. Father Michael Shea, organist of New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral was home visiting his brother John Shea, to compose the song, when he ran into his former music teacher and the church's music director, Professor William C. Hammond, who suggested he try the new song on the church's organ.
  1909 — June 9: The Massachusetts Legislature approves the sale of Smith's Ferry by Northampton officially to Holyoke for $55,000. For his advocacy in connecting the village to Holyoke, stationery manufacturer Joseph Wyckoff is given the key to the city.
  1910 — In the 1910 US Census, Holyoke is described as the 3rd most crowded city in the nation, behind New York and Hoboken, with 11.9 people per household. Conditions were especially poor in crowded French-Canadian homes in Ward 2 where the number rose to 22.3 per dwelling.
  September 16: Charles F. Willard, the first barnstormer, as well as first to fly a plane shot down by bullet, and first American pilot of a 3-passenger flight, performed an exhibition for the YMCA at Highland Park, for a crowd of more than 7,000, and many other thousands who watched his flight from the Connecticut River and South Hadley.
  1911 – September 6: William Jennings Bryan makes the inaugural luncheon speech at the Holyoke Board of Trade's then-new banquet hall in the top floor of the Smith/Prew Building, with attendance at it and a second speech at the High School reported to be at-capacity.
  1912
  March: William Skinner & Sons completes the largest silk mill, under one roof, in the world.
  April 27: New Jersey Governor and then-presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson holds a rally at City Hall, concluding a long day of touring in Boston, Worcester, and Springfield, among other stops. The evening also includes speeches by Dudley Field Malone and Mayor of Cleveland Newton D. Baker.
  November 8: The New York Philharmonic holds the first of its annual tour stops to Holyoke City Hall, where it continues to perform annually until 1926.
  November 18: Naturalist and writer John Burroughs tours the paper mills in Holyoke, as a guest of Clifton Johnson who later writes, "Burroughs was impressed by the marv
caption: Holyoke, the World's Paper City, 1920, by Vernon Howe Bailey
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