The Westfield Center 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 of the civic, commercial, and industrial heart of

Westfield, Massachusetts Westfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. Westfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield metrop ...

. It represents a major expansion of the Westfield Center Commercial Historic District, which included only two blocks of buildings along Elm Street in downtown Westfield. The district includes buildings representing the city's growth in the 19th century as a center of the

whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

-making industry, and its early years as a center for statewide educational institutions, as well as its growth as a regional center of western Hampden County. The commercial 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 2008; the expansion and renaming of the district took place in 2013. Westfield was settled in the 17th century by English colonists, with its town center forming just west of the confluence of the Westfield and

Little Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

Rivers. It was mainly agricultural until the early 19th century, when

making began as a cottage industry, and the

Hampshire and Hampden Canal The Hampshire and Hampden Canal was the Massachusetts segment of an canal that once connected New Haven, Connecticut, to the Connecticut River north of Northampton, Massachusetts. Its Connecticut segment was called the Farmington Canal. The ...

provided reliable means for moving goods. The town center shifted westward around this time, becoming centered between Park Square and the Westfield River on what is now called Elm Street. The town developed a diverse industrial whose largest component was the whip industry, prompting it to be called "Whip City". That industry would predominate until the advent of the

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

in the 20th century greatly reduced demand. In the late 19th century the city also became home to the state's second

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

, now

Westfield State University Westfield State University (Westfield State) is a public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 by Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender, or economic class. Ran ...

. The city center is architecturally reflective of much of this history, although buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries predominate. Important industrial elements survive, in particular whip factories that include the Sanford Whip Factory, the Westfield Whip Manufacturing Company, the United States Whip Company Complex. The early functions of the normal school are recalled in part by the Westfield Municipal Building (formerly housing that school, and now city hall), and the State Normal Training School, an elementary school built as a training vehicle for teachers in training. Residential neighborhoods developed on either side of the commercial area, portions of which are included in the historic district.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Hampden County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Hampden County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Westfield, Massachusetts

See also

References