776 Longmeadow Street (#38 The Old Country Store -1805)

This store was built in 1805 by Calvin Burt and Stephen Cooley. Burt already owned a general store on the south end of the Green and wanted to expand his business. This has always been a commercial structure. From 1839 to 1848 it housed a post office and The Gold and Silver Thimble Shop. In 1848 Dimond Chandler established his first button factory here. By 1863 his business had grown so large that he manufactured 85% of the buttons sold nation-wide. This necessitated moving the operation to Springfield. The building then became a grocery store, later a women's specialty shop and currently is home to The Spa on the Green.

[Photo contributed by Rachel Port]
[Text reprinted with permission from The Historic Homes of Longmeadow
�1988 & 2012 Hall/Hayes - All Rights Reserved]


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