The Central Village Historic District is a
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
in the Central Village area of
Plainfield, Connecticut
Plainfield is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 14,973 at the 2020 census. The town comprises four villages: Plainfield (south, ZIP code 06374), Moosup (northeast, 06354), Wauregan (northwest, 06387), an ...
that was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
(NRHP) in 1991.
[ It encompasses a late 19th-century historic mill village, including a small commercial center where Connecticut Route 12 and 14 meet, a cluster of architecturally distinguished buildings built by mill owners and managers, and a collection of mill worker housing units. It includes the Plainfield Woolen Company Mill, which is separately listed, as well as archaeological remnants of other mill infrastructure. It also includes Plainfield's old town hall (built 1872) and high school (built 1924). Other architecturally prominent buildings include the c. 1855 Italianate mansion of mill owner Arthur Fenner, and the 1845 Greek Revival Congregational Church.]
The area that is now Central Village was a typical agricultural area until 1814, when a consortium of locals built a small cotton mill on the banks of the Moosup River
The Moosup River is a river in the U.S. states of Rhode Island and Connecticut. It flows approximately .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 The river is named af ...
. This enterprise gradually expanded, with the owners building housing for the mill workers, creating a small village. In 1845 the Central Manufacturing Company, then the village's largest employer, built a brick mill. The village's growth was encouraged by the arrival of the railroad in 1839, which was run midway between two mill locations. The cotton mills declined in the late 19th century, but its economy was propped up by other industries until the early 20th century, when the Plainfield Woolen Company revived the textile industry, building the principal surviving mill building.[
]
See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Historic districts in Windham County, Connecticut
Italianate architecture in Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Windham County, Connecticut
Plainfield, Connecticut
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut