Whately MA

Below left is an Interactive Map provided by Google. Use it to get directions to and from locations in Whately MA. Various icons link to our community pages plus Real Estate Listings, Wikipedia article, official town page, and a Google web search of the community.

Whately MA is located in Franklin County, Massachusetts with a population of around 1500 people.

Image below shows a view of the valley. (Click image for a larger image in new window)

Whately Information and History

Whately has a town website. Quick Links include: About Whately, Departments, Boards and Committees, Residents, Procurement, Public Records, Assessor’s Maps, Bylaws, Forms and Publications, and Minutes and Agendas.

From wikipedia:

Whately was first settled in 1672 as a northern section of Hatfield. The town peaceably petitioned for separation from the town because of its relatively long distance from the rest of Hatfield, and was officially incorporated in 1771, named by Governor Thomas Hutchinson for Thomas Whately, a Member of Parliament whose letter to Hutchinson would later be involved in the controversy which brought on Hutchinson’s dismissal. Julian Whately, a descendant of Thomas, visited the town during the Bicentennial celebration in 1971. Whately was the site of the state’s first gin distillery, as well as other small mills, including wool and furniture mills.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 20.7 square miles (54 km²), of which 20.2 square miles (52 km²) is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²), or 2.32%, is water. Whately lies along the southern border of the county, north of Hampshire County, and is bordered by Conway to the northwest, Deerfield to the northeast, Sunderland to the east, Hatfield to the south, and Williamsburg to the west. Whately is located 11 miles (18 km) south of Greenfield, 26 miles (42 km) north of Springfield, and 95 miles (153 km) west of Boston.

Whately lies along the western banks of the Connecticut River in the Pioneer Valley. The western part of town is hilly, with the highest point being the 980-foot (300 m) Mount Esther. East of the hills, the Mill River flows through town, with some swampland to the east between it and the Great Swamp Brook, a tributary which meets in the town. There is more marshy land in the southeast of town, closer to the Connecticut, and some small ponds between the two. Much of the land around the two rivers is cleared for farmland.

Whately is crossed by Interstate 91, which passes from north to south in the town, and is accessed at Exit 23 by U.S. Route 5 and the concurrently-running Massachusetts Route 10. The combined routes run roughly parallel to the interstate, crossing it twice in the town. In the north of town, a short, 200-yard stretch of Route 116 follows the same road as Routes 5 & 10 before another 400-yard stretch heads east back into the town of Deerfield, a result of the realignment of the route due to the building of the interstate. Whately shared the Pilgrim Airport, a small, general aviation airport, with neighboring Hatfield, but the field was closed and is currently used as farmland. The nearest general aviation airport is Northampton Airport, with the nearest national air service being at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

Whately employs the open town meeting form of government, and is led by a board of selectmen and an administrative assistant. The town has its own police, fire and public works departments, as well as its own post office. While most state offices and the regional waste management area are based in Greenfield, the town is actually closer to Northampton, the former seat of Hampshire County. The nearest hospital is also in Northampton.

Whately is a member of Frontier Regional and Union 38 School Districts, which also includes Conway, Deerfield and Sunderland. Each town operates its own elementary school, with Whately Elementary School serving the town’s students from pre-k through sixth grades. All four towns send seventh through twelfth grade students to Frontier Regional High School in Deerfield. There are several private schools in neighboring Deerfield, with more in the Greenfield and Northampton areas.

The nearest community college, Greenfield Community College, is located in Greenfield. The nearest state college is Westfield State University, and the nearest state university is the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The nearest private colleges, including members of the Five Colleges and Seven Sisters, are located southeast in the Northampton area.

Whately MA Satellite Imagery – Zoom in and Zoom Out

Whately Photos

Click Photo for a larger view in new window