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"Post Office Old Deerfield, Mass."

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Americans at the turn of the 20th century possessed a seemingly inexhaustible appetite for association and reform. New buildings to house many of these organizations sprang up across the landscape, and existing structures gained new identities. This building operated as the "Town Street School" after the center district brick school on the Common burned in 1841. The local chapter of the Grange Association bought it from the town in 1874. Originally a society for farmers and their families, the Grange rapidly evolved into a nation-wide movement to combat profiteering and manipulation of markets by wealthy businessmen. This building also housed the Deerfield Post Office until 1911. The uses to which residents of towns like Deerfield, Massachusetts, put public buildings testified to the social, cultural and political diversity of their communities.

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