The Manchaug 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 ...

encompassing the 19th century industrial village center of Manchaug in Sutton, Massachusetts. Developed in the 1820s around

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

s on the

Mumford River The Mumford River is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 river in south-central Massachusetts. It is a tributary of the Blackstone River. The river rises f ...

, it was the largest industrial area in Sutton, with at least three mill complexes in operation. The district is centered on the junction of Main Street with Manchaug, Putnam Hill, and Whitins Roads.

Description and history

Manchaug was a

praying town Praying towns were a settlements established by British colonization of the Americas, English colonial governments in New England from 1646 to 1675 in an effort to convert local Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans to Christiani ...

for converted Native Americans established by the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

in the 1650s. The area that became Manchaug Village was a rural agricultural area until the early 19th century. The only industry of note on the Mumford River was a trip hammer known to be in operation in 1795. In 1826, investors from

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

began purchasing water privileges and land along the river for the development of

s. The stone mill standing at 9 Main Street was built in that, and was soon followed by housing for mill workers. The mills where significantly expanded in the 1850s and 1860s, when the dam impounding Stevens Pond was built, followed by new mills and a major tract of mill housing. The mills flourished until after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and closed in 1921; the company-owned housing was sold off after bankruptcy in 1927. The historic district is centered on the junction of Main Street with Manchaug, Putnam Hill, and Whitins Roads. To the north, west, and south of this junction stand collections of mills, mill sites, and worker housing. The surviving mill buildings are typically large stone structures, while the housing units a multifamily wood-frame dwellings with gabled roofs. The mill operators also built some single-family housing, for supervisory and specialized technical personnel. The Greek Revival Manchaug Baptist Church is one of the buildings not related directly to the mills; it was built in 1842 to serve the workers.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Worcester County, Massachusetts Sutton, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References