Ludlow is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 21,103 as of the 2010 census. It is located in western Massachusetts, north of Springfield, east of Chicopee, southeast of Granby, southwest of Belchertown, west of Wilbraham and is considered part of the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. It has a sizable and visible Portuguese community. Although plans were drawn up for settlement in 1685, the northeast partition of Springfield, Massachusetts was settled in 1751 as Stony Hill. However, the town was later renamed Ludlow and incorporated as a separate... entity in 1774, just before the breakout of the American Revolution. For much of its early history the town was agrarian and today many of Ludlow's street names are derived from the names of these farming families . Ludlow was home to many sawmills and gristmills, utilizing the power from several sources of water nearby, including the Chicopee River, Broad Brook, Higher Brook, and Stony Brook. Before the Civil War, the town began to develop into a New England mill town.
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