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Early Modern Period (1915 - 1960)

Town History and Development

Brimfield's population increased during this period to 1,414 people by 1960. This is the time when the majority of residents shifted from farming to working outside the town, making it a commuter's community. The division of farmland into residential lots gained favor. Development took place in most sections of town along existing roads rather than on planned subdivisions. The exception to this rule, development around the ponds, made the biggest changes in the appearance of the town as summer cottages sprang up around Little Alum Pond and Sherman Pond in the 1920s through the 1950s in tight clusters of cottages around the shorelines of these two inland lakes, (MHC Area C). The town's long-generating identity as a summer destination took more concrete and dense form.

There were some new public and commercial buildings, too. a new elementary school on Wales road across from the cemetary was built in 1941, in part on land which had been used to grow potatoes in the 1920s. Fire took a toll on the town's building stock, and led to new replacement buildings. The building at 17 Main Street, for instance, was burned and replaced by the woodbine restaurant in the 1920s; the house at 44 Brookfield Road (MHC #28) replaced an earlier burned house. Finally the Massachusetts Turnpike cut through the north west part of town in 1957 and although there was no direct access in either direction from Brimfield, its presence looming over Powers Corner has had the effect of cutting that portion of town off slightly from the rest.

Natural disasters and fires caused quite a few changes in the town, some temporary, others permanent. The hurricane of 1938 had a serious consequence in Brimfield when it took off the steeple of the Congregational Church, destroyed the roof, damaged the columns on the south facade and caused extensive damage to the interior of the sanctuary. It was fully restored the following year, 1939. With worse consequences, the Brimfield Hotel burned for a final time in 1943. Finally the 1955 hurricane destroyed the bridge and dam at Eaton Pond, but they were rebuilt in 1957. several other bridges were damaged and required repairs too.

This is a period when the town's civic consciousness was sustained by two town-wide building efforts. The first was in 1928 when a group of women formed the Women's Business Association to raise money for cemetary beautification. The result of their efforts was the fieldstone wall and gates which follow the Wales Road border of the Brimfield Cemetary (MHC #800), and provide several formal entrances to it. Next, the town erected a World War I monument (MHC #903), in front of Town Hall in 1930 to commemorate the veterans of the war. The town's keen awareness of its own history is demonstrated by the ongoing work of the Brimfield Historical Society, which collected clippings, notes, memoirs, graphics, maps and oral accounts of the town and its buildings.