{"nrhp_refnum":"80000475","name":"Polish National Home","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"136-144 Cabot St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicopee","county":"Hampden County","state":"MA","lat":42.14484724500005,"lon":-72.60924531499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-11-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["European","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story masonry building at 136-144 Cabot Street in Chicopee, Massachusetts, built in 1912-14 in the Georgian Colonial Revival style, with a brick athletic annex added in 1922.","why_significant":"It served as the focus of social life for Chicopee's Polish immigrant population for many years. It is also seen as a public symbol of the immigrants' acculturation and their social and economic advancement. Its construction, heavy use and later decline mirror the growth and assimilation of the Polish community.","narrative":"Bom Narodowy Polski, the Polish National Home, is a five-story masonry building at 136-144 Cabot Street in Chicopee, Massachusetts. Built in 1912-14 with a steel frame, it follows the Georgian Colonial Revival style, with white limestone trim, red brick, a projecting center pavilion and a terneplate cornice. A utilitarian brick annex added in 1922 housed bowling alleys, showers and a gymnasium, and was designed by local architect George P. Dion. The architect of the main building has not been identified. The building held storefronts, a second-floor meeting hall, a barroom, cellar bowling alleys and small rented apartments for recent immigrants. It was a social center for Chicopee's large Polish population, most of whom worked in the textile industry, and hosted language classes, theater, music and boxing matches. It is significant as a symbol of the immigrants' acculturation and advancement. Use declined after the 1960s, and a Boston firm bought it in 1979 to convert it to elderly housing.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Main building: unknown. The 1922 annex was designed by George P. Dion, a self-trained local architect.","architectural_style":"Georgian Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied at the time of nomination. Use declined in the 1960s and 1970s, and the buildings were sold in 1979 for planned rehabilitation as elderly housing. The Polish National Home Association is to keep a meeting room and library in the cellar.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.000545-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/57/7953/63795357/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000475.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000475/0a31eeb10b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000475/0a31eeb10b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polish_National_Home,_Chicopee_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Polish_National_Home,_Chicopee_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795357","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_National_Home_(Chicopee,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7209953"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampden-county/polish-national-home-80000475/"}