Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886. 359
assumed the business, and on his death, in Italy, the corner store was
closed forever.
The front corner room of the second story of the brick store was
occupied as a law office, successively by Jonathan Dwight, Jr., John
Howard, William B. Calhoun, George Bliss, Jr., William Dwight,
Richard Bliss, and Henry Vose. Here, also, the Springfield Fire
Insurance Company was organized.
The building adjoining tlie corner store on the north was deeded
by William Colton to " Simeon Ashley, trader ;
" and on the death of
Ashley, his heirs in 1801 conveyed it to Jonathan Dwight, the elder,
and James Scutt Dwight. The school-ground was directly east, in
the rear. A few doors north of the old Dwight store was a building
also owned by Mr. Dwight, and occupied at one time by James Byers
as a post-office and a commissary for supplies to government troops and
armorers on the hill. It was afterwards rented to Sterns & Edwards.
George Bliss, grandson of Moses Bliss, said in 1H66 : —
The land easterly of tiie stores on Main street, and as far north as the alley
leading east by Kirkham's store, was the old school-gronnd. the title of which was
in the First Parish. It extended some 8 or 10 feet easterly of the present old
Town Hall. In my boyhood an old dilapidated two-story brick school-house
stood near the north line of the school-ground, with the play-ground about 80 or
100 feet wide between the school-house and the causeway. On the front of this
ground and adjoining the causeway stood an old engine-house, and the gun-
house for the two artillery cannon. At a pretty early date the old brick school-
house was taken down, and a one-story wooden building erected with two rooms.
This was burned down and a two-story brick house built in its stead. About
1826 these schools were discontinued, and the front part of the lot was sold to
the town for a Town Hall, and the residue to private parties. Market street being
laid out between State and Sandford streets. The part of the school-ground
west of Market street was sold to the owners of the adjacent stores. There is
no building now standing on the east side of Main street, between the Dwight
corner and Ferr}' street, which was standing in 1799, when the Dwight corner
store was built. The building now on the north corner of Ferry street was
then occupied by Zebina and Thomas Stebbins, who did a small business. In 1800
there Avere but few stores in town besides the Dwights'. James Byers may have