South Hadley, Massachusetts

South Hadley is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, in the United States, with 18,150 residents at the 2020 census. The Connecticut River forms its western border and separates it from the cities of Holyoke and Easthampton. The land was an unsettled part of Hadley from 1659 until 1721, when English settlers moved in from Hadley. A separate town meeting was held in 1753, and the town was officially split off and incorporated in 1775. It covers 18.4 square miles (48 square kilometres), of which about 3.7 percent is water. South Hadley is best known as the home of Mount Holyoke College, founded in 1837 and the oldest continuously operating institution of higher education for women. The town is also the site of the Berkshire Hills Music Academy, a residential post-secondary school for young adults with learning or developmental disabilities.