The Spring Hill Historic District encompasses a rural 19th-century village stretching along Storrs Road (

Connecticut Route 195 Route 195 is a state highway in northeastern Connecticut, running from the Willimantic section of Windham to the town center of Tolland via Storrs and Mansfield Center. The road is the main thoroughfare to access the main campus of the Uni ...

) in

Mansfield, Connecticut Mansfield ( ) is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 25,892 at the 2020 census. Pequot and Mohegan people lived in this region for centuries before the arri ...

. Spring Hill developed as a rural waystation on an early 19th-century turnpike, and has seen only modest development since the late 19th century. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1979.

Description and history

The village of Spring Hill was little more than a cluster of agricultural farmsteads until the early 19th century, located atop a local hill near the geographic center of Mansfield. It grew as a stopping point on the turnpike running between

Norwich, Connecticut Norwich ( ) is a city in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Yantic River, Yantic, Shetucket River, Shetucket, and Quinebaug Rivers flow into the city and form its harbor, from which the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River f ...

and

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

(now Storrs Road, Connecticut Route 195), and as an early center for the growing of

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

trees in pursuit of

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

production. Later in the 19th century,

Charles and Augustus Storrs Charles Storrs (January 24, 1822 – September 1, 1884) and Augustus Storrs (June 4, 1817 – March 3, 1892) were American business partners and brothers who played a key role in establishing the Storrs Agricultural School (now the University of ...

, two of its leading residents, gave land to the state for the founding of the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

. The principal development since then has been the addition of residences in the 20th century, primarily for people affiliated with the university. The district extends along Storrs Road roughly between East Road and Spring Hill Road. It is about in size, and includes 13 historically significant buildings. Only two survive from the 18th century; most of the rest are 19th century construction, with the Greek Revival as the predominant architectural style. The district includes one church, the Gothic Baptist church built in 1877, as well as two civic buildings that have served as Mansfield's town hall. The Spring Hill area was defined as a Connecticut state historic district in 1972 and, with the same borders, was listed on the

in 1979. and

Contributing properties

The district includes two of the four houses that had made up Spring Hill as a distinct community around 1800: *957 Storrs Road, at listing known as the Altnaveigh Inn, c.1776 *974 Storrs Road, a cottage, c.1740 One other building was destroyed by fire and the other one was demolished. Its other contributing buildings are mostly with

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

architecture, from that style which rose in popularity in the 1830s. These include: *Crain House, 928 Storrs Road, from 1838 *Shumway House, 934 Storrs Road, from 1863 *Shubael Freeman Farm, 3 East Road, from 1835 *Bradley Sears Farm, 950 Storrs Road, c.1870, in

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

, owned by UConn, Storrs *Town Hall, 954 Storrs Road, from 1935

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

, and earlier Town Hall from 1842, Greek Revival (moved back) *Luther Kingsley House, 958 Storrs Road, from 1740 *Artemus Storrs House, 974 Storrs Road, from 1852, Greek Revival attributed to Edwin Fitch

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Mansfield, Connecticut Historic districts in Tolland County, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Tolland County, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

Contributing properties

See also

References