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We are planning on moving to Holden MA after living in the city for 20 years. We love the museums, food, outings, etc but not the crime, $ for property, and living further away from family.
so, will it be that hard to get used to living there? What cultural things are available in thearea? Anyone have a similar move and any tips on adapting to life outside the city?
Holden is one of the more well-to-do suburbs of Worcester. I don't know a ton about Holden specifically, but my impression is that it has the trappings of a typical small suburban town (bands playing at town common gazebo; library bake sales; community chicken dinners; parents pressure cooking their kids to get into Ivy League schools; etc) but most people work and play in and around Worcester, which is just 10-15 min away.
Worcester has great restaurants and the art museum and Higgins Armory museums are small but absolute gems, and it can be fun to catch a cheap Sharks ice hockey game or something, though they are no Bruins. Otherwise the city is pretty off-putting on its surface but with a lot of diamonds in the rough scattered around it. As for adjustment, there's the fact that you will definitely not be in Boston anymore (less cultural access, events, diversity, etc) and you'll be adjusting to a quiet, not-quite-rural, suburb of a second-tier city, a city to which you'll still have to go for many things. It strikes me as a nice pleasant town, with a nice balance of easy access to a city, but also easy access to the "real" country (places more living up to the stereotype of that whole "Westa Wistaaa" thing) if you will, and the great outdoors, in places like Rutland, Oakham, Barre, Hardwick, or Spencer.
The disadvantages, if you have been working in Boston, commuting will eat up your free time. If like me, you are a lifelong learner it will be more difficult to find mental stimulation or mentally stimulating conversations once out of the core. People tend to be more involved with their own lives or just the town they live in and less interested in what is happening around them on a larger scale. There will be fewer opportunities to go to lectures or take continuing education classes. If you work in a field that changes quickly, this could have impact on your professional life. If you are a water person, you will be spending more time at lakes and less on the ocean.
Unless you are a serious outdoor recreation type, you will be spending more time inside your home. There will be nothing open past dinnertime, unless in your situation you venture into Worcester (This takes away two points from the safety benefit of moving to the burbs.)
The positives, you will be able to see stars in the sky at night for the first time. You will likely feel the healthiest you have in years. There will be more places to take walks, bike, ski. Especially being in Worcester county with higher altitude, your lungs will fill with good fresh air. (I live outside the 128 belt and immediately can feel the change in air quality, for the worse, the closer I get to downtown.) You will have access to the freshest food you've ever eaten via farmer's markets and access to many farm stands. You will be able to sleep better at night, without the sounds of traffic and students roaming the streets at night.
You will live a cleaner life. Unless you spend a lot of time in Worcester, you won't often see much trash in the street or derelicts spitting on the sidewalks.
You will have fewer colds in the winter. Any time I am riding the subway downtown in winter, I am surrounded by no less than three rundown college students, noses dripping and I come home with the first virus I have had in years.
Life will move at a much slower pace than you have been living. You will find this positively relaxing at times and tiring and frustrating at others. Frustrating, when you are trying to get somewhere and the person ahead of you decides to drive a 50mph two lane highway 25mph or the cashier at CVS decides to have an hour long conversation with the customer ahead of you. If you are like me, you will miss the vibrancy of the big city and may feel de-energized some days.
Last edited by 495neighbor; 07-04-2013 at 08:46 AM..
Worcester has great restaurants and the art museum and Higgins Armory museums are small but absolute gems,
Just a note, Higgins Armory is merging/bought by the Worcester Art Museum (which BTW is right off WPI's campus, about 1 block north of Rte 9 near Lincoln street). They are in the process of moving the collection, but by 2014, it should be totally moved, so it'll be better in the future.
There's also the Ecotarium if you've got kids, and the Hanover theatre.
The Worcester Union Station is a nice building, with the Amtrak going everywhere south and west that Amtrak goes out of Boston from. Can't get on the downeaster from here though. Peter Pan runs a depot out of/next to Union Station too. But the bus from here to NYC isn't cheap. There is no cheap transit to NYC from here.
Holden itself has a nice downtown area, but in a more midwestern rural way than a quaint New England kinda way. It's not historic, or compact, but there are a few things there.
There's also Fitchburg/Leominster about the same distance from Holden Worcester is, depending on where you live in Holden (on the far north end of Holden, its closer to go through Sterling to Leominster than through Holden to Worcester). I can't tell you much about there though.
In Princeton next door to the NW is Wachusetts mountain. Skiing and snowshowing in the winter. Hiking in the summer. On nice days you can see Boston from the top.
Many of the folks I know who live in the area but are accustomed to more urban environs still look to Boston for entertainment, most just bypassing Worc. YMMV.
I agree with most of what was written above; Holden is a "bedroom" town to Worcester, which is not a good thing! I practically grew up there, where my dad was born and half my family lives. Worcester was, in the 60's, a funky, thriving town full of young people, college kids and hippies. There were great concerts (still often are, but that's it), clubs and record shops. Then, in the 80's-90's, it just died.
So, if you're looking to Worcester to meet the cultural needs that were filled by Boston, you'll be very disappointed. Yes, the Museum is nice, but small. Open-air spaces that used to feature concerts are now closed or plagued by drug-trafficking and crime. It's not safe to walk in the old neighborhoods in the day-time, never mind at night!
As for Barre or Gardner! LOL...they're old, dying hillbilly towns. I lived in Barre for 4 years and unless you are a total homebody who loves trading meatloaf recipes or comparing lawnmowers w/the uneducated neighbors, you won't like it. We could not WAIT to move back to W. Mass., where nobody ever asked, right off the bad, "So, which church do you go to?"!!! (I was living in Barre ONLY because I taught school in Worcester--another bad decision).
If you live in Holden and want a cultural and/or night life, you'll probably end up doing what the college students do: go to Boston or out to Northampton or Springfield. Sorry for being so negative, but I lived it! Good luck to you.
P.S. There is very little racial or cultural diversity in Holden--it is, as someone said--a lot like a Midwestern town!
If you live in Holden and want a cultural and/or night life, you'll probably end up doing what the college students do: go to Boston or out to Northampton or Springfield. Sorry for being so negative, but I lived it! Good luck to you.
P.S. There is very little racial or cultural diversity in Holden--it is, as someone said--a lot like a Midwestern town!
Wait, you will be disappointed by Worcester but you suggest going to Springfield (probably the worst larger city in NE in every way) for culture???
Also, most people don't move to suburbs for racial or cultural diversity (or at least expect it).
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