Indian Hill-North Village is a residential

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 ...

encompassing the largest planned worker housing community in Worcester, Massachusetts. Located in the suburban northern part of the city, it was developed in the 1910s by the Norton Company, then the city's largest employer. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Description and history

The North Village of Indian Hill is located in northern Worcester, just west of Interstate 190 and south of Ararat Street. It includes houses located on a roughly rectangular grid of streets bounded by Ararat Street, Delaval Road, Heroult Street, and Marconi Road. Roughly bisecting the area are Watt Road and Westinghouse Parkway; the latter is a divided road with a tree-lined median. The company-designed houses in this area fall into two broad categories. The first type, which are the most common, are 1-1/2 story wood frame structures, with steeply pitched slate-covered gable roofs, a three-bay facade with center entrance, and a porch sheltering the entrance. The second type, of which only two examples exist on Watt Road at Westinghouse Parkway, are type 1 cottages with a single-story ell projecting from the rear. The district also includes four ahistorical ranch houses on Heroult Road dating to the 1960s. There are two originally non-residential buildings in the district: the former community hall at 24-26 Watt Road, and the community store at 8-10 Watt Road. The village was created as a model planned

company town A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and re ...

for its workers by the

Norton Grinding Company Norton Abrasives of Worcester, Massachusetts, USA is the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of abrasives for commercial applications, household, and automotive refinishing usage. Norton Company was founded in 1885 by a group of ceramist ...

in 1915. Its design is attributed to Grosvenor Atterbury, who designed the South Village (since compromised by the construction of I-190), and the home of Aldus Higgins, then president of the Norton Company. The company established the Indian Hill Company as a worker real estate subsidiary in 1914, when the South Village was developed. The exact construction dates of the North Village complex is not known, but it probably took place with great rapidity during World War I, when there was an acute housing shortage. Unlike the South Village, whose properties were immediately sold (at cost) to company employees, the company retained ownership of most of the North Village until the 1920s. The complex is unique in Worcester, whose other major employers have no history of similar developments.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Worcester, Massachusetts 1915 establishments in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester, Massachusetts Neighborhoods in Worcester, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Company housing

Description and history

See also

References