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The Taftsville Historic District encompasses a historic 19th-century industrial village that is mostly in
Woodstock, Vermont Woodstock is the shire town (county seat) of Windsor County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,005. It includes the villages of Woodstock, South Woodstock, Taftsville, and West Woodstock. History Cha ...
. Flanking the
Ottauquechee River The Ottauquechee River (pronounced ''AWT-ah-KWEE-chee'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 river in eastern Vermont in the United States. It is a tributa ...
and extending up Happy Valley Road, the area developed around a metal tool factory established by members of the
Taft family The Taft family is an American political family of English descent, with origins in Massachusetts. Its members have served in the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont, and the United States federal government, in variou ...
in 1793. Important elements from its early history include the Taftsville Store, built by the Taft family in 1840, and the Taftsville Covered Bridge, built in 1836. 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 2001.


Description and history

The village of Taftsville is centered around the junction of
United States Route 4 U.S. Route 4 (US 4) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs from East Greenbush, New York, in the west to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the east, traversing Vermont. In New York, US 4 is signed north–south to reflect it ...
and Happy Valley Road in far eastern Woodstock. It extends along secondary roads (mainly Happy Valley Road and Sugar Hill Road), and includes properties neighboring Hartland and
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
, both just east of Woodstock. The majority of its buildings are residential in character, and were built in the 19th century. They are typically wood frame structures either 1-1/2 or 2-1/2 stories in height, although there are a few brick houses. The village's industrial past is primarily recalled by the dam across the Ottauquechee River, which now powers a hydroelectric plant on the river's southern bank, adjacent to the covered bridge. The Taftsville Store, built in 1840, is a prominent landmark on US 4, a major transport artery in the area. A former school building, now serving as a Mennonite chapel, stands on Happy Valley Road; it was built in 1911, and has Colonial Revival features. with Settlement of the village began in 1793, when Stephen Taft, a native of
Uxbridge, Massachusetts Uxbridge is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States, first colonized in 1662 and incorporated in 1727. It was originally part of the town of Mendon, and named for the Earl of Uxbridge. The town is located southwest of Boston an ...
arrived. He and two of his brothers dammed the river, established a sawmill on the north bank, and a metalworking shop in the south bank, producing scythes, axes, and other tools in the latter. The business was a success, and flourished into the late 19th century despite its original main building's destruction by fire in 1811. The surviving covered bridge was built in 1836 to handle increasing traffic (across an earlier footbridge), and the store was built in 1840. It is unclear if the Tafts built the store as a place to sell their wares, or as a service to their growing number of employees. The village was originally more roughly divided between Woodstock and Hartland, but a town boundary adjustment in 1851 placed most of the village into Woodstock.


See also

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National Register of Historic Places listings in Windsor County, Vermont __NOTOC__ The National Register of Historic Places is a United States federal official list of places and sites considered worthy of preservation. In Windsor County, Vermont, there are 134 properties and districts listed on the National Registe ...


References

{{NRHP in Windsor County, Vermont Federal architecture in Vermont Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont National Register of Historic Places in Windsor County, Vermont Woodstock, Vermont Hartford, Vermont Hartland, Vermont Historic districts in Windsor County, Vermont