Hadley is a growing residential community with a strong agricultural base. This scenic community is bordered on the west by the Connecticut River and on the south by the Mount Holyoke Range.  One of the oldest settlements in the Commonwealth, Hadley was founded by English colonists in 1659 and grew into an active farming and trading center which today has the most acreage of farmland of any Pioneer Valley town. 

Hadley has two village centers; North Hadley, a picturesque New England settlement, and Hadley Center, with its notable historic homes.  The Porter Phelps-Huntington House Museum, built in 1752, hosts folk music concerts and storytelling.  Hadley became the birthplace of broom-making in 1797 and an important cultivator of broom corn thereafter.  The Hadley Farm Museum houses a large collection of early New England farm machinery which illustrates the area's early way of life. 

The town center, with its old stately colonial homes clustered around the large village green is a contrast to the economically vital commercial strip along Route 9.  The Joseph Skinner State Park, on the Mount Holyoke Range, boasts a spectacular view from its 930 feet summit and from Summit House, which was originally built in 1851.