Highland Park is a neighborhood in Holyoke, Massachusetts located to the northwest of the city center, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from downtown, on the banks of the Connecticut River.

Although the neighborhood began with a more turbulent history, within ten years Hoyt would become known as the "father of Highland Park" in the way that other streetcar suburbs like Oakdale and Springdale had their own respective developer-founder figures.

Willard's feats would attract a crowd of more than 7,000 for the YMCA benefit exhibition, and thousands more would view his escapades from South Hadley and boats on the Connecticut River.

[17] Although not well documented, at some point leading up to 1911, the neighborhood was also considered as a railway stop for the Boston and Maine Railroad, whose former tracks run between its homes and the Connecticut River.

[19][20] Up through the mid 1920s the community house would serve as a social space for neighborhood dances, mayoral political campaigns, and even received Second Lady Grace Coolidge for a reception after her husband had become Warren G. Harding's Vice-President.