In 1911, J.J. Newberry founded J.J. Newberry Department stores in Pennsylvania, and 15 years later a store would open on Main St in North Adams. At the peak of the retail chain there were 475 stores

"A parent's worst fear is losing a child, and should you lose a child, the biggest fear becomes that the child will be forgotten." Donna Morgan, 2007.

From its founding as the North Adams Normal School, a college for educators to be trained and taught to educate children, incoming students were greeted by iron gates at what is now known as Murdock…