The Greenfield Money Tree
On Route 2 in Greenfield, Massachusetts there’s a fairly normal shopping plaza just to the west of the city’s center. It has what you would expect in a shopping plaza– a supermarket, a dollar store, a Chinese take out joint, a standalone ATM, and a few other businesses, all surrounded by ample parking. However, there’s a little something special in this plaza if you know where to look.
While I’m sure most of us have heard the phrase “money doesn’t grow on trees”, in this Greenfield shopping plaza, a whimsical tree has the ability to dispense cash. The Greenfield Money Tree is a whimsical sculpted tree trunk encasing a drive-up ATM. Its design features a menagerie of carved animals peeking out from its branches and crevices. It looks like something you’d see in a theme park rather than a shopping plaza.
Greenfield Money Tree, Greenfield, Massachusetts. April 2022. Photograph by Ophelia W. Ravenia.
Greenfield Savings Bank had planned to put a bank branch in the plaza, but realized that it wasn’t financially viable. Plans were scaled back, and the bank opted to put an ATM in the plaza instead. At this time, the bank’s president, Becky Caplice, pitched an idea that had been brewing in her head– the idea of a money tree. She contacted a local design firm, the Holbeck Group, and thus began the process of making this dream into a reality.
After two years of work, the Greenfield Money Tree opened to much fanfare in June of 2008. The Money Tree continues to operate in the Greenfield Big Y Shopping Plaza, and is a fun little stop if you’re driving the Mohawk Trail.
Greenfield Money Tree, Greenfield, Massachusetts. April 2022. Photograph by Ophelia W. Ravenia.
Greenfield Money Tree, Greenfield, Massachusetts. April 2022. Photograph by Ophelia W. Ravenia.
Greenfield Money Tree, Greenfield, Massachusetts. April 2022. Photograph by Ophelia W. Ravenia.
An interesting note that I wanted to add– the design firm that made the Greenfield Money Tree is the same group that designed the Yankee Candle Village in Deerfield. The Yankee Candle Village is another kitschy roadside attraction in Western Massachusetts.
Greenfield Money Tree, Greenfield, Massachusetts. April 2022. Photograph by Ophelia W. Ravenia.
The ATM is located next to 237 Mohawk Trail, Greenfield, MA 01301. It’s in the southeastern section of the plaza, near Dollar General. This site is fully accessible for folks with mobility challenges.
Further information is available here:
