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By the early 18th century, most towns had at least one tavern for travelers to eat and stay lodge overnight. These taverns also were important gathering places for local men. The street running through the center village section of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was ideally located to attract local and out-of-town business. The Pocumtuck Hotel was one of a number of taverns and hotels that stood on a lot in the center of Deerfield, Massachusetts beginning in 1805. Its large assembly rooms attracted local and out-of-town traffic. Of particular interest was the hatchet-scarred door salvaged from a house that had survived an attack by a group of French and Native Americans in 1704 during Queen Anne's War. A fire in 1877 destroyed the hotel and prompted a group of local men to brave the flames to rescue the old "Indian House Door." An even larger hotel replaced the Pocumtuck Hotel in 1881. It, too, burned in 1883. A final hotel became a dormitory when Deerfield Academy purchased the lot in 1935. The Academy tore down the building and erected the Pocumtuck Dormitory in 1956.

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