Local city information for Wilbraham, MA

Wilbraham is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is also a suburb of the City of Springfield, Massachusetts and part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,473 at the 2000 census.

Wilbraham was originally divided between North Wilbraham and Wilbraham. North Wilbraham was home to the industrial side of the town along with the Boston & Albany Railroad Line which is still in use today. Wilbraham was home to the farms and the Wilbraham & Monson Academy. At one time North Wilbraham even had its own zip code which was 01067. However the term North Wilbraham is now very rarely used.

Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Wilbraham.

In 1928, author H. P. Lovecraft visited Wilbraham, after which he modeled the fictional town of Dunwich in his story The Dunwich Horror.

Wilbraham was first settled in either 1730 or 1731 by Nathaniel Hitchcock along with what is now Hampden, Massachusetts as the Fourth District of Springfield. It was also known as the Outward Commons. Hitchcock built a log hut along what is now Main St. The town was officially incorporated as the independent "Wilbraham" in 1763, when its population was about 400.

The Native Americans did not maintain any villages prior to the Colonials arrival in the Outward Commons however they did hunt and fish along the Chicopee River. A Soap Stone Quarry existed on Glendale Rd and you can find arrowheads all over the town, especially in the center of town. The Poplar Trees located along the Chicopee River made excellent canoes and a couple have been found carved out along the Chicopee River over the years. In fact the Native Americans referred to this area as "Minnechaug" which means Berryland.

The Wilbraham town center is among the largest designated historical areas in the country, with fine examples of colonial and Victorian homes From as early as the 1730s along the historical areas of main street. The oldest Methodist meeting house in New England is located in the town's center, as is the campus of Wilbraham & Monson Academy, founded in 1804.

In 1878, the south end of Wilbraham officially broke away from Wilbraham and formed the Town of Hampden.

Wilbraham is also the home of Friendly's. Although this restaurant and ice cream corporation was started in Springfield, Massachusetts, it is currently headquartered in Wilbraham. On the Massachusetts Turnpike, hedges along the side of the "Pike" have been trimmed to welcome drivers to "Wilbraham, home of Friendly's Ice Cream."

On August 7, 1761 on Wilbraham Mountain Timothy Merrick was bitten by a rattlesnake. He died soon afterwards however folklore and legend has made its way over the years about this incident including a song titled "On Springfield Mountain". This song was one of the earliest of the American ballads.

The Underground Railroad ran through the town and several houses along Main St and on Wilbraham Mountain had hiding places.

The Hurricane of 1938 did considerable damage to the town and destroyed the old covered bridge over the Chicopee River on Cottage Ave. A steel bridge rests there today.

The Flood of 1955 washed out many of the roads as well.

Wilbraham had two brothers who once served as Fire Chief, the first being Paul E. Tupper in the 1930's and Ralph E. Tupper from 1943 to 1965.

Wilbraham also has the beautiful Wilbraham Mountain Range which starts at the north end of town and goes all the way down into Hampden. The highest point in town is Mt. Chapin at 937 feet above sea level.

The name of Wilbraham comes from the villages of Little Wilbraham and Great Wilbraham located near Cambridge, England. Those two villages came into existence because Alfred the Great an English King who upon hunting wild boar in a very good spot about 60 miles northeast of London designated that spot as Wild Boar Haven. However Haven was later changed to Ham and over the years the three separate words became combined and distorted until you had Wilbraham.
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