A Colonial Revival Vision

Memorial Hall

After a decade of accumulating donations of family treasures from across the region, the collections of the fledgling Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association no longer fit in George Sheldon's home. In 1880 they were moved to Memorial Hall, where, from then on, they would be housed and placed on public display. The building was itself a memorial to the town's history. Built in 1798, and designed by Asher Benjamin, it had formerly housed Deerfield Academy. Memorial Hall became central to the appeal of Deerfield as a popular heritage site. Photographer, Mary Allen wrote of the museum for the New England Magazine in September 1892, "It is fitting that the home of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Memorial Hall, should be the first noticeable building a stranger sees, on coming down Academy Lane from the station on the hill."¹

1. Mary Allen, "Old Deerfield" New England Magazine, September 1892.