{"nrhp_refnum":"10000005","name":"Lancaster Mills","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"1-55, 75, 99, 1-R Green St., 20 Cameron St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Clinton","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.411894500000045,"lon":-71.67937341216212,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-01-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History","Engineering","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic textile mill complex (district) on Green Street in Clinton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, at the head of the Wachusett Reservoir beside the Nashua River. Its buildings date from 1844 through the early 1920s, and it includes mills, shops, an office, a warehouse and former worker housing.","why_significant":"The nomination presents Lancaster Mills as one of the oldest industrial sites in Clinton, developed by the Bigelow brothers from 1844 and expanded over several decades. It retains a large, unusual weaving mill, later concrete mills and a cotton store house designed by the engineering firm Lockwood, Greene & Co., and engineer John Chipman Hoadley was involved in building many early structures. The site also has high potential for historic archaeological resources.","narrative":"Lancaster Mills is a large textile mill complex in Clinton, Massachusetts, set along the Nashua River at the head of the Wachusett Reservoir. Begun in 1844 by the Bigelow brothers, it grew through several building campaigns into a group of brick mills, shops, a storehouse and an octagonal office, ranging from one to seven stories. Mill No. 1, the weaving mill, dominates the site; it is a vast one-story building whose roof and floor are carried by separate structural systems. Later additions include the 1910 reinforced-concrete Amory Mill and a seven-story concrete and brick cotton store house of about 1920 to 1922, both associated with the engineering firm Lockwood, Greene & Co. Engineer John Chipman Hoadley helped build many early structures. The mills employed many women and immigrant workers before closing around 1931. Colonial Press later used the complex until 1977, and it then stood vacant until 1981. The site is also considered likely to hold historic archaeological remains from earlier mills and water-power works.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Lockwood, Greene & Co. (Mill No. 3 era additions, Office Building addition 1918, Cotton Store House); John Chipman Hoadley, civil engineer for many early buildings","architectural_style":"19th and 20th Century Industrial; Late Victorian/Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Current function listed as vacant/not in use in the form; some buildings are used by a cereal manufacturer for warehousing and production, and Mill No. 1 was acquired for rehabilitation into residential and commercial space.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.305945-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/7974/63797404/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/10000005.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000005/a960bd4c41-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000005/a960bd4c41-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lancaster_Mills_Clinton_Mass.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797404","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_Mills","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16931939"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/lancaster-mills-10000005/"}