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 the Storrs section of Mansfield. The road is the main thoroughfare to access the main campus of the ...

) in

Mansfield, Connecticut Mansfield is a town in Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 25,892 at the 2020 census. Pequot and Mohegan people lived in this region for centuries before the arrival of English settler-immigrants in the late 17th c ...

. 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 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 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 ( ) (also called "The Rose of New England") is a city in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Yantic, Shetucket, and Quinebaug Rivers flow into the city and form its harbor, from which the Thames River flows south to ...

and

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

(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 diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 ident ...

trees in pursuit of

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...

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 in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

. 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 The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

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 drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

, 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 archit ...

, 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 Edwin Fitch was an architect and builder in Connecticut. He designed and/or built: *one or more buildings or structures in Gurleyville Historic District, N of Mansfield Center off CT 195 at jct. of Gurleyville and Chaffeeville Rds., Mansfield Cent ...

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