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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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By 1913, Greenfield, Massachusetts, had been transitioning from being a rural market center to a manufacturing town for nearly a generation. By 1913, what had been a village had become a town. Symbolic changes included the construction, in 1911, of the imposing stone-faced Savings Bank, which replaced the wooden frame building Corner Store Block. Trolley tracks (referred to here as "electric car tracks") ran down the center of Main Street, causing a clear threat to the teams of horses tied in the midst of town. But probably the single largest factor, unstated in this article, came from the growth of the automobile. By 1913, cars had become roughly equal to horses for transportation. In only five to seven years they would overthrow the horse to become the transportation of choice.

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