CHICOPEE HOME SECURITY SYSTEMS

Welcome to Alarm New England's business and home security page for Chicopee, Massachusetts. This informational page provides important crime data along with additional information for those living in or considering moving to Chicopee.

Population: 55,478
Number of Households:  23,008
County: Hampden
ZIP Codes: 01013, 01014, 01020, 01021, 01022

• The indigenous people called Nipmucs were the ones who inhabited the land that is present-day Chicopee City before the European colonists arrived in the area.
• The name of the city derives from the Chicopee River. The mouth of the Chicopee River empties into the Connecticut River in its boundaries.
• Chicopee is a Nipmuc word which means violent waters. Chicopee also translates to cedar.
• The motto of Chicopee City is Various Industries and it was chosen because many industries were located in the town. Such industries include cotton mills, brass foundries, woolen mills, iron foundries, textiles, leather products, paper making, ship building, and the first lucifer matches.
• The nickname of Chicopee is Crossroads of New England because the city is conveniently located among different metropolitan areas and their transportation network. West Springfield also uses the same nickname.
• The first gasoline-powered automobile made in the US was produced in Chicopee.
• Chicopee Falls was a major manufacturing center of bicycles in the late 1800s.
• The first city west of Boston to form a publicly funded public library is Chicopee.
• The Ames Manufacturing Company in Chicopee was a manufacturer of swords, cutlery and tools, and the company was also a bronze and iron foundry. They supplied majority of the weapons (swords, sidearms, light artillery, heavy ordnance) to the Union during the American Civil War.
• The Thomas Ball’s monument equestrian statue of George Washington in Boston’s Public Garden was cast by Ames Manufacturing Company in Chicopee.

Edward Bellamy, the American author and socialist, was born in Chicopee in March 1850. He is popular for his novel Looking Backward, which was set in the year 2000.

Fred Belcher, the American race car driver that participated in the first Indianapolis 500 race, was born in Chicopee in June 1881.

Philip Steven Labonte, the lead singer of the American heavy metal band All That Remains, was born in April 1975 in Chicopee. He was the former lead vocalist for the team Shadow Fall.

William Pynchon, in 1636, bought land from Agawam Indians on the eastern side of the Connecticut River and in 1640 moved from Roxbury to Springfield to settle in the area. The area where he settled comprises of present day Chicopee Center (Cabotville).

The land which was bought from the Indians was divided into districts. The name given to Chicopee Center and Chicopee Falls, which was one district was Nayasett. Another district to the north was called Skipmuck and it was located on the south side of the river, above the falls. The falls was first settled in 1660.

The villages of Cabotville and the Falls started out as centers of manufacturing. The first river industry in the town was a sawmill built at Skenungonuck Falls (present-day Chicopee Falls) by Japhet Chapin, John Hitchcock and Nathaniel Foote in 1678.

Jonathan Dwight bought the water privilege at Skenungonuck Falls in Chicopee in 1823 and the textile mill in the area had in five years become the second-largest industrial operation in the entire state. The Chicopee River had, by 1831, two waterpower canals, tow giant dams and two manufacturing industries.
In 1848, Chicopee separated from Springfield which it had been a part of for more than two hundred years and became incorporated as a town. Chicopee became incorporated as a city in 1890.

• http://www.chicopeema.gov/
• http://www.chicopeepubliclibrary.org/
• http://www.chicopeelocalnews.com/