About
The first Armenians arrived in Whitinsville in the early 1880’s. They worked alongside the French, Polish, Irish, Dutch and others at the Whitin Machine Works, the largest textile machinery manufacturing factory in the world at the turn of the 20th century.
Men originally came from the village of Pazmashen and other villages surrounding Kharpert of what is now central Turkey to work and send money home to their families. The migration picked up in earnest in the 1890’s with the persecutions and pogroms under Sultan Abdul Hamid II and then finally with the Ottoman Turkish Genocides of the Armenians, Assyrians, and the Greeks that began in earnest in 1915.
The website will be an evolution. People who currently live in Whitinsville, or whose descendants once passed through at any point in the past, are welcome to contribute their stories, family or community photographs, recipes, photographs of objects of importance, audio, film or video, written letters, diaries, or anything that they feel portrays their family’s experience. Please note that while older photographs from the Armenian communities of Turkey, along with photographs from the early days of life in Whitinsville are likely the core of the collection, we are also very interested in photographs from more recent times. It’s in this way that together we can portray our diasporan community in transition. If interested in contributing in any way, please contact us at info@armeniansofwhitinsville.com for more information.
We thank the Soorp Asdvadzadzin Armenian Apostolic Church of Whitinsville, MA, the Project SAVE Armenian Photographic Archives and the Armenian Cultural Association of America for their continued support.