John Van de Graaff

By VandeGraaff

History in Hatfield

This is a view of Main Street in Hatfield, across the Connecticut River from us in Northampton, Mass. It is typical of many Main Streets in small New England towns--wide, mostly straight, with attractive older houses mostly set back from the sidewalks.

We see the First Congregational Church, also typical: white and even more vertical than the one I blipped in Haydenville a couple of weeks ago. On the left is the town's public library, with its cornerstone reading 1894. In front of the library is a group of Civil War cannons*, dedicated in 1989 to the "Hatfield men who died in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 [remember it?], and Civil War."

*The Civil War cannons are "24-pound iron flank howitzers, Model 1844" brought to Hatfield in 1894 and dedicated in 1989. (From a plaque on the cannons' mount)

The image was a bit too high for a single shot, so I took two horizontal ones and merged them with Photoshop's Photomerge tool. (Here it was CS 4, but it has also worked well for me in CS 3)

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