The Georgetown 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 ...

which covers the central portion the village of

Georgetown, Connecticut Georgetown is a census-designated place in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is located in the area where the towns of Wilton, Redding, and Weston meet. Georgetown and its surrounding area are also defined as the Georgetown census ...

. The district includes parts of Georgetown in the towns of Redding,

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...

, Wilton, and Ridgefield and consists of the former Gilbert & Bennett manufacturing plant, institutional housing built for the plant workers, other private homes, and the Georgetown business district. and In its 1986 National Register nomination, the district is described as " rare survival of rural industrial history". The company began as a cottage industry weaving animal hair from cows and horses, started by Benjamin Gilbert. Water power was needed, and the enterprise used a former sawmill facility downriver from the later factory site. The company found success making

sieve A sieve, fine mesh strainer, or sift, is a device for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the particle size distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a woven mesh or net or perforated sheet material. T ...

s from animal hair. After much development and a fire, the company focused on wire products including woven wire cloth for meat safes, the first insect wire screening, and poultry netting. The company is described as having been " ided by nineteenth-century paternalism and

enlightened self-interest Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest. It has often been ...

which carried over well into the twentieth century" for it having "shaped a community which today resembles the rural industrial village of nineteenth-century

Utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

ideology." The district consists of properties that are roughly bounded by Route 7, Portland Avenue, Route 107, and the

Norwalk River The Norwalk River is a river in southwestern Connecticut, United States, approximately long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 The word "Norwalk" comes from t ...

. It includes 120 contributing buildings and one other contributing site over a area. Architectural styles in the historic district include Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, and Italianate. The district was listed on the U.S.

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 ...

on January 21, 1987. Fourteen properties in the Town of Wilton, on Church Street, West Church Street, and Redding Road, are also included in the town's Historic District #6, designated in 2007. Exterior alterations to these properties require approval by the Wilton Historic District and Historic Property Commission. Several of the 123

contributing resources In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

originally included in the National Register historic district have been demolished as part of a Georgetown Redevelopment Project. Since the Gilbert & Bennett property has gone idle, multiple developers have attempted to recreate the site as a mixed-use village combining residential and commercial buildings. In 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded one proposal its National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. In 2007, the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

sought Congressional approval for the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

to acquire space on the Gilbert & Bennett property for administration and operational support to the

Weir Farm National Historic Site Weir Farm National Historical Park is located in Ridgefield and Wilton, Connecticut. It commemorates the life and work of American impressionist painter J. Alden Weir and other artists who stayed at the site or lived there, to include Childe Ha ...

in Ridgefield. Under existing federal law at the time, the National Park Service was authorized to secure expansion space in Ridgefield and Wilton only.http://www.doi.gov/ocl/hearings/110/HR1836_103007.cfm "Statement of Karen Taylor-Goodrich," U.S. Department of Interior Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs Hearings and Testimony 110th Congress, 2007-10-30. Retrieved 2014-04-30.

References

External links

Google-based map showing approximate boundaries of Georgetown CDP and of Georgetown Historic District within it

(historyofredding.com)

{{authority control Italianate architecture in Connecticut Colonial Revival architecture in Connecticut Redding, Connecticut Wilton, Connecticut Historic districts in Fairfield County, Connecticut Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Company towns in Connecticut Animal hair products Wire and cable manufacturers National Register of Historic Places in Fairfield County, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Georgetown, Connecticut

See also

References

External links