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Northampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 28,978 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Hampshire County. History
The area now known as Northampton was inhabited by Native Americans, such as the Pocomtuc, Nonotuck Mohawk, and Mahican, for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. They called it Norwottuck, or Nonotuck, meaning "the midst of the river." Colonial Northampton was founded in 1654 by settlers from Springfield, Massachusetts. Initial cooperation between the settlers and the Natives gave way to conflict, evidence of which can today be seen most clearly in nearby Historic Deerfield. Northampton hosted its own witch trials in the 18th century, although no (accused) witches were executed. Members of the community were among the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. (See the external link to Historic Northampton below for more.) Northampton was linked to the sea by the Hampshire and Hampden Canal in 1835, but the canal enterprise foundered and after about a decade was replaced by a railroad running along the same route. A flood on the Mill River on May 16, 1874, killed 51 people in the village of Leeds in the township of Northampton. Northampton, which was incorporated as a city in 1883, developed into a thriving community and a local center for commerce, education, and the arts, even supporting a still-extant opera house, the Academy of Music, though the building now functions as an independent movie theatre. In 1851, opera singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," declared Northampton to be the "Paradise of America." The first game of women's basketball was played in 1892 at Smith College. Immigrant groups that settled here in large numbers included Irish, Polish, and French-Canadian; in more recent years, Puerto Ricans, Indians, Vietnamese and Cambodians have continued to add to the cultural mosaic. Segments of the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? were filmed in and around Northampton during the fall of 1965. When not filming, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton frequented Northampton's Academy of Music, where they sat in the balcony to watch movies. Other films filmed in Northampton include the Academy-Award-winning Cider House Rules, Malice with Nicole Kidman and Alec Baldwin, In Dreams with Annette Bening and Robert Downey Jr., and Sylvia with Gwyneth Paltrow. Northampton today is a popular destination for tourists, who come to sample the city's shopping and restaurants. It remains a showplace for the arts, and was rated as the top "Small Arts Town" in the country by travel writer John Villani, author of "The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America" (3rd edition, published by John Muir Publications). It is an open and tolerant community, and is home to a sizeable lesbian community, earning it the nickname, "Lesbianville, USA." The town has ties to the controversial children's book, "Heather Has Two Mommies." Author Tracy Kidder documented the many layers of Northampton society at the end of the 20th century in his nonfiction book Home Town. Research Tips
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