A DANGEROUS PRACTICE

A prominent Greenfield merchant remarked this week on the hitching post question, that he had long realized the danger of tying horses along the walk in the busiest part of Main street. He spoke of the careless way in which many people leave children in carriages in this location. On some occasions he had gone out and taken children into his store, where there were carriages placed in this dangerous position. Hitching posts on a main street are well enough in the village stage of a town's growth. Greenfield is practically a city to-day. Its position as the center of a widespread outlying country makes its retail trade abnormally large, exceeding that of many towns much larger in population. It can no longer handle the traffic resulting therefrom in the old time rural manner.
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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In this second of two articles from the Greenfield, Massachusetts, Gazette and Courier, the question of horses on the town's main street was once again addressed. The growth of Greenfield was dramatic in the last decades of the 19th and first decade of the 20th centuries. The town moved from being a minor market town to becoming a medium manufacturing center, the largest in Franklin County. Its proximity to rail lines, the Connecticut River, and central location led to remarkable growth. Main Street, the town's major commercial segment, grew from a row of frame houses interspersed with stores to becoming several city blocks of stone buildings, although none were taller than several stories. The commerce and traffic that this engendered filled the streets with traffic. The town chafed between its past - farmers and their goods - and its present as a commercial and manufacturing center.

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