With crop failure a common occurrence in 1830s Ireland,immigration from Irish to New England surgedwith workers and families looking for a better life. Labor opportunities were abundant in the newly established mill town ofChicopee, with the Irish flocking here to dig canals, build dams and mills and later work in those same buildings. Their wives and daughters would work as cooks and maids, but later as operatives in those same mills. As many Irish were Catholic, it became apparent that a Catholic congregation should be established, St. Matthews was first organized inChicopeein 1838. An earlier wood-frame church was built and used for a number of years untila large site on South Streetwas purchased by the Diocese for a new campus. Irish-born ecclesiastical architectPatrick Keelydesigned the church building which was constructed between 1857-1859 in the Gothic Revival style. The church was dedicated the Holy Name of Jesus church and exhibited sandstone-topped buttresses, rows of pointed dormers running down the clerestory on the sides, and a prominent central steeple. In 1910, the present copper spirereplaced the original steeplewhich was damaged and burned in a lightning strike. The complex grew throughout the 19thand 20thcenturies, with a rectory, schools, convent and monastery built on the site. Sadly, due to dwindling membership and fiscal considerations, many of these buildings were demolished in the past decades. The church appears now to be closed and is stillowned by the Archdiocese of Springfield. I hope something can be done to preserve this landmark structure and the remaining buildings on the site.