The Old Town 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 ...

North Attleborough, Massachusetts North Attleborough, alternatively spelled North Attleboro, is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 30,834 at the 2020 United States Census. The villages of Attleboro Falls and North Attleborough Center are ...

, which encompasses the historic early town center of Attleboro, which it was originally a part of. It was here that Attleboro's first church was built, and its militia training ground was laid out. The district retains 18th-century vestiges of this early history, and was largely bypassed by 19th-century industrialization. The district was added to 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 ...

in 1991.

Description and history

In 1661 representatives of the

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the British America, first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the pa ...

purchased a large tract of land from the

Wampanoags The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. ...

that includes present-day Attleboro and North Attleborough. By the 1690s the area had enough settlers to warrant incorporation, and Attleboro was incorporated in 1694. Land in the Old Town area was allocated for a church and minister, and the first church was built adjacent to the Bay Path (now Old Post Road) in 1711. A militia training ground and

animal pound An animal pound is a place where stray livestock were impounded. Animals were kept in a dedicated enclosure, until claimed by their owners, or sold to cover the costs of impounding. Etymology The terms "pinfold" and "pound" are Saxon in origi ...

were also established nearby. A path, now Mt. Hope Street, eventually developed leading eastward toward what is now Attleboro center, another nexus of settlement. The Newell family became significant landowners in Old Town, and it through their efforts that the surviving powder magazine, a small circular brick building, was built in 1768. (The training ground, of which only archaeological remnants remain, lay between it and the Bay Path.) The historic district encompasses the core of this early settlement area. It extends along Old Post Road, southeast of the junction of

I-295 Interstate 295 is the designation for several Interstate Highways in the United States: *Interstate 295 (Delaware–Pennsylvania), a bypass of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania *Interstate 295 (Florida), a beltway around central Jacksonville *Interstate 29 ...

to Allen Street, as well as a short stretch of Mt. Hope Street east of Old Post Road. Its buildings include a variety of structures, most residential, that were built between the 18th and early 20th centuries. The area was largely bypassed by the industrialization that spurred the growth in importance of the centers of Attleboro and North Attleborough. Three houses within the district were built before 1800, one of them (the Stearns House at 692 Old Post Road) with a late 17th-century ell. The present church is a Greek Revival structure built in 1828, with a district school nearby that dates to 1840. A significant number of houses were built in the late 19th and early 20th century, when a streetcar line spurred suburban development in the area.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Bristol County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts North Attleborough, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References