LONGMEADOW – History buffs and townies rejoice! Arcadia Publishing, known for publishing the Images of America book series, has published Longmeadow’s first book with the help of town resident Thomas Higgins.

Higgins is a critical care physician and researcher who has compiled two prior Images of America books; one on Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and the other on Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield. Higgins is originally from Everett, and after a series of moves around the country for medical school and training, in 1996 he came to Longmeadow to be closer to his parents and took a job at Baystate.

“I had a lot of fun doing this. I was surprised, they [Arcadia] has these books for pretty much every place, there are two or three in East Longmeadow, Agawam, Enfield has their book,” Higgins said of his surprise that Longmeadow did not have an Images of America book.

While he had planned on doing a third Baystate book on the Noble location, he explained the project wasn’t panning out. After speaking with his editor, she suggested he compile a book on Longmeadow. Higgins thought this was a great idea, and noted he already knew members of the Historical Society and it should prove easy enough to work with them.

Higgins began to work on the book in April of 2017, and he believes most of his work was completed within that year. The rest, he said, was waiting on the publisher.

“I had the advantage of having done two of these before and knowing what the requirements are. Arcadia uses a very good model, if you have a working model for doing these books it’s fairly straightforward,” he said. “They [the books] are all the same amount of pages, which really limits you to 200 or 220 images. With electronic technology we can scan things which really cuts down the time to put things together.”

Though Higgins was able to obtain plenty of photos from the Longmeadow Historical Society, he did note that he traveled to the East Longmeadow library to use some of their photos.

“They were very welcoming and let me take it out of the room where they store it, brought me to their scanners, so within two hours I had all of the images I needed from East Longmeadow,” he said.

The “Images of America Longmeadow” book is chock–full of stunning black and white photos with detailed description explaining historical facts and the lives of town residents past.

While Higgins recounted many stories that piqued his interest as he compiled the book, he spotlighted the tale of William Sheldon, who he stated was “a colorful character in Longmeadow history.”

“He was a scientist and an inventor. He lived as a recluse in the Northeast corner of the green. He used to dress as British soldier and he believed that England was the chosen land. He invented a flying machine, although it probably wouldn’t have worked, his notebooks are filled with sketches,” Higgins shared.

Another individual of the past that Higgins said the book would not be possible without was Paesieloo Emerson. Emerson took up photographer as a hobby in his 60s following his retirement, and for 20 years he took hundreds of photos in Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Spencer and Worcester.

“All of his pictures were available online, you can get them through the Longmeadow Historical Society. They’re fantastic pictures. I would say around half to 60 percent of this book were his [photos],” Higgins said. “It’s really nice to be able to circulate these pictures to the public.”

The “Images of America Longmeadow” book will be published on July 30 and available for purchase at Costco in Enfield as well as on Arcadia’s website at https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467129251 for $23.99.

 “I received enormous support from the community in sharing pictures and stories. In particular, Beth Hoff, Al and Betsy McKee and Jim Moran at the Longmeadow Historical Society spent many hours helping me dig through their archives,” Higgins recalled. “Whether it was the police or fire department, Longmeadow Country Club, Bay Path University or Big Y, everyone enthusiastically shared previously unpublished photos and provided background information. I’m really grateful to the dozens of individuals who helped me create this book.”