Belchertown (previously known as Cold Spring and Belcher's Town) is a New England town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan area. The population was 12,968 at the 2000 census. It is the home of Belchertown High School, and the infamous Belchertown State School mental institution (closed in 1992).

Part of the town is part of the census-designated place of Belchertown (CDP), Massachusetts.

History
Belchertown was first settled in 1731 and was officially incorporated in 1761. At first it was nothing but a resting place at a spring...

Belchertown (previously known as Cold Spring and Belcher's Town) is a New England town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield, Massachusetts metropolitan area. The population was 12,968 at the 2000 census. It is the home of Belchertown High School, and the infamous Belchertown State School mental institution (closed in 1992).

Part of the town is part of the census-designated place of Belchertown (CDP), Massachusetts.

History
Belchertown was first settled in 1731 and was officially incorporated in 1761. At first it was nothing but a resting place at a spring for travelers. Eventually people set up residence there and opened up shops, and it was dubbed Cold Spring (although some people accidentally referred to it as Cole's Spring, as that was the name of one of the shopkeepers). Once it grew large enough the people of Cold Spring wanted to become an official town. This required an inspection of the governor of Massachusetts at the time, Jonathan Belcher. Request after request poured in, but he never bothered coming. Eventually they decided to name the town in honor of him in hopes that he would decide to come, but he died first. The next governor did inspect the town, and Belcher's body is buried in the town's first graveyard.

In 1816, part of Belchertown was combined with part of the town of Greenwich, Massachusetts to form Enfield, Massachusetts. In 1938, Enfield and Greenwich were two of the four towns that were disincorporated in 1938 to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir, and part of Enfield was merged back into Belchertown.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 55.4 square miles (143.4 km²), of which, 52.7 square miles (136.6 km²) of it is land and 2.6 square miles (6.8 km²) of it (4.77%) is water.