A Family Archive
The Gass Family
The Gass Family
Photographs
Six decades of Ed & Lauretta Gass — Memere and Pepere — their children and grandchildren, the shop, and the lake. Gathered, sorted, and kept.
11Collections
0Albums
1999–24Years covered
The Collection
Eleven parts of a life together
Tap a collection to see the albums inside it. Every link opens the photographs in Google Drive.
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Quick ways in
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These are the names, places and occasions that come up most often across the archive.
People
Places
Occasions & things
The Family Legacy
A family of builders
Before the photographs, there were the houses. For nearly a century the Gass name meant fine building in Deerfield — and the family helped save the colonial landmarks that visitors admire today.
It began with Irish immigrant Samuel Gass, carried on through his son William E. Gass, Sr. (1878–1952) and grandson “Bill” Gass — the restoration contractor Historic Deerfield itself credits with working on many of the historic buildings in Deerfield. The names repeated down the generations, Edward and William alike: the Ed Gass this family knew was the son of an Edward before him, both carrying the family trade.
The famous plaques along Old Deerfield's street name each house's original 1700s owner — not its rescuers. The Gass connection to those landmarks is something rarer: they are the hands that saved, moved, and rebuilt them into the museum village people travel to see.
The Ashley House
Moved back to its original Old Deerfield site by Bill Gass — now one of Historic Deerfield's museum houses.
The Frary Tavern
Moved from South Deerfield to Old Deerfield — today the Bloody Brook Tavern Museum.
The Hall Tavern
Helped move it all the way from East Charlemont — now Historic Deerfield's welcome to visitors.
Quabbin Salvage, 1938
Rescued condemned houses from the flooded Swift River Valley towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich & Prescott.
The Redmen's Block, 1909
Built by William E. Gass, Sr. at South Main & Elm — a downtown South Deerfield landmark for nearly seventy years.
Stucco & Cobblestone
The two Gass signatures still spotted around town — from the Dana Jewett place on North Main to a Gass-built garage on the old Olszewski property.
The full list is still out there. The definitive record lives in the Historic Deerfield Library — including a 1982 recording of Bill Gass naming the buildings himself, and a written biography of William E. Gass. A museum exhibit at Deerfield Academy once honored the Gass builders too.
Help us name them
Who is this?
Some faces and places haven't been named yet. If you recognise anyone — or know where or when a picture was taken — that knowledge is every bit as precious as the photograph.
Recognise someone? Tell whoever is keeping the archive and the name gets written down — so it is never lost again. Swipe or use the arrows to see more.
The photographs will outlast all of us. The names will not, unless somebody writes them down.
The Gass Family Archive · gathered and kept for the generations after us