Hortonville is a village in the town of

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the C ...

, Bristol County,

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United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The part of the village on Locust Street from Oak Street to Hortonville Rd. makes up the Hortonville Historic District, which was listed on 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 ...

in 1990.

History and description

Hortonville is located in northern Swansea, near its border with Rehoboth. Locust Street is the principal roadway through the area, running roughly east–west. The area was first settled in the 18th century by the Hale, Martin, and Eddy families. These families built homes on farmland they owned in the western end of the village. The eastern end of the village, along the

Cole River The Cole River is located in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 from its headwaters in Dighton, Massachusetts through t ...

, became the site of several

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

s, lending the village the name "Swansea Factory." In the 1830s, a school, church, and Universalist hall were built in the village. Nathaniel Horton settled in the area in 1856 and helped the village gain its own post office, which was named Hortonville in his honor. After 1900, industrial development in the area stalled, and the village became a residential and agricultural area. As a result of this development pattern, the area has a well-preserved concentration of late 18th to late 19th-century housing. Its oldest house, 397 Locust Street, was built in 1736, and is a typical Georgian house. Other examples of mid-18th century housing exist, but most have been updated, typically in the 19th century with Greek Revival styling. A small cluster of Federal period houses stand at the eastern end of Locust Street and on Maiden Lane. The only major non-residential building is the former Hortonville School (Greek Revival, c. 1838).

References

{{authority control Historic districts in Bristol County, Massachusetts Swansea, Massachusetts Villages in Bristol County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts Villages in Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

History and description

See also

References