{"nrhp_refnum":"02000430","name":"Forge Village Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Forge Pond, W. Prescott St., Story St., Orchard St., Abbott St., and Pleasant St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Westford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.58130900000006,"lon":-71.48612419285712,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-05-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Education","Industry","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Forge Village Historic District is an industrial and residential mill village in Westford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, along Stony Brook. It centers on the former Abbot Worsted Mill and contains 280 contributing resources, mostly company-built worker housing.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the village as a company-built textile community that grew from an 18th-century grist mill and forge into a worsted yarn manufacturing center. Abbot Worsted supplied low-cost housing, night schools, libraries, playing fields and steady wages, and the village never saw the labor strikes that hit other mills. The district retains integrity of design, feeling, association, materials and workmanship.","narrative":"Forge Village is a mill village on Stony Brook in Westford, Massachusetts, built around the Abbot Worsted Mill. The district holds 274 historic buildings, one site and five structures, mostly single and multiple-unit houses built for factory workers. The Prescott family used the site for a grist mill and iron-making in the Colonial period. The Stony Brook Railroad arrived in 1848, and the Westford Forge Company began making axles and machined iron in 1853. Abbot Worsted took over the forge in 1879 and replaced it with the current brick mill in 1910. From about 1885 the company built worker housing, starting on Bradford Street, and recruited workers from Ireland, Scotland, Russia and other countries. It offered inexpensive homes, night classes, libraries, athletic fields and steady wages, and the mills had no strikes. Styles range from Colonial and Federal houses to Victorian Eclectic duplexes. The dense streets of company housing and the industrial streetscape on Pleasant Street give the village its character.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, Victorian Eclectic, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Bungalow, Cape Cod","criteria":[],"status_note":"The former Abbot Worsted mill complex is now used by Courier Corporation, a textbook printing company. Most surveyed houses are described as in good or well-maintained condition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.525863-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/7958/63795804/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/02000430.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000430/8d669152a4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000430/8d669152a4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abbott_Worsted_Company_1910,_Forge_Village,_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abbott_Worsted_Company_1910,_Forge_Village,_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795804","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_Village_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5469601"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/forge-village-historic-district-02000430/"}