{"nrhp_refnum":"02001729","name":"Brookside Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"1-44 Brookside, 5 Moore Rd., 1-7 Coolidge Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Westford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.60996300000005,"lon":-71.41152863323413,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-01-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former woolen mill village in Westford, Massachusetts, made up of 29 resources including the Brookside Woolen Mill, a granite dam, a bridge, worker housing and single-family houses, dating from about 1725 to the 1930s.","why_significant":"The district shows the development of a small industrial village around a water-powered woolen mill on Stony Brook. It is tied to industrialist George C. Moore and later the Abbot Worsted Company, and the mill, water-power structures and company housing together illustrate 19th and early 20th century village life and the town's industrial history.","narrative":"Brookside is a small mill village in Westford, Massachusetts, centered on a woolen mill beside Stony Brook. The district contains 29 historic resources: the mill with its brick tower, a ten-foot granite dam, a three-arch granite bridge, a penstock, a social club building and a range of houses. The oldest house dates to about 1725 and was likely the home of a miller. The oldest part of the mill was built of granite around 1862, and a major brick reconstruction followed in 1894 under industrialist George C. Moore, who also built six identical workers' cottages by 1895. The mill was sold to the Bigelow Carpet Company in 1911 and to the Abbot Worsted Company in 1919, which added employee housing on Coolidge Avenue. Although smaller and less intact than the mills in Forge Village and Graniteville, the complex and its surrounding company housing give the village a clear sense of place and record Westford's industrial past.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"William C. Edwards (built the 1894 mill building, according to previous research)","architectural_style":"Colonial, Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Victorian Eclectic, Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Buildings range from poor to good condition; the 1862 granite mill section is in poor condition, and the 11 Brookside Road clubhouse is in fair condition. Several large brick industrial buildings and the railroad depot have been demolished.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.553393-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/8/7958/63795808/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/02001729.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001729/830de6e6fa-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001729/830de6e6fa-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brookside_Mill.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brookside_Mill.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795808","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookside_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4975109"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/brookside-historic-district-02001729/"}