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"Greenfield 200th Anniversary" plate

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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As a part of the town of Greenfield, Massachusetts', 200th anniversary, the bicentennial committee commissioned a number of commemorative items. These included this special porcelain plate, made by David T. Robertson and Company of Appomattox, Virginia. A huge celebration marked the town's two hundredth birthday. Greenfield had officially been created on June 9th, 1753; at 7pm on that date in 1953 the town's fire alarm blew forty blasts to signal the start of the celebration. Organizers scheduled peak activities on Saturday, June 13th, to ensure the largest number of participants. Tens of thousands of spectators from throughout Franklin County filled the town of 17,000. The day was filled with spectacle and display; the central event was a parade, led by Massachusetts governor Christian Herter, that marched past the reviewing stand for two and a half hours. The culminating event was an evening display of fireworks unmatched, the town's history from 1953 reported, "for volume, variety, and duration."

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