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Letter from James Wells Champney to Misses Baker & Coleman regarding trolley

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This three-page document contains a friendly letter from New York artist J. Wells Champney to the Misses Baker and Coleman, followed by a copy of the two-page letter written to the Editor of the Greenfield Gazette, the local newspaper. Mr. and Mrs. Champney spent part of each year in New York City and part in Deerfield, where they owned a house on the main street. The letter is dated March 11, 1900 in the midst of the debate about the location of the trolley through Deerfield. Mr. Champney is absolutely opposed to the train coming down the main street and vows that "no convenience can make amends for the crime of destruction of one of the most beautiful avenues in the world."

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