{"nrhp_refnum":"10000196","name":"Woolen Mills Village Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Parts of Chesapeake, Market, and other sts., in Charlottesville; parts of Pireus Row and Marchant...","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charlottesville","county":"Charlottesville","state":"VA","lat":38.021630162000065,"lon":-78.45641300699998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-04-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Industry","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic mill village district of about 80 acres at the eastern end of East Market Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a small part in Albemarle County. It grew around the Charlottesville Woolen Mills, and its dwellings, mill buildings, dam remains and Riverview Cemetery date from the 1840s to the 1960s.","why_significant":"The nomination argues local significance under Criterion A in industry and social history, and under Criterion C for architecture. The village was a mill company town with company housing, a store and a chapel. Unusually, workers also bought lots in the 1880s and built their own homes near their jobs. The dwellings span Gothic Revival, Late Victorian vernacular and Colonial Revival forms.","narrative":"Woolen Mills Village is a former company town at the eastern end of East Market Street in Charlottesville, where Moore's Creek meets the Rivanna River. Milling began on the site in 1829, and the Charlottesville Woolen Mills was incorporated in 1868, later becoming a major producer of cloth for uniforms. The company built housing for its workers, including three brick Gothic Revival duplexes from the 1840s and the Pireus Row houses of the 1870s. A large frame house on the hill served the mill superintendent and later president, Henry Clay Marchant. In the 1880s nearby farmland was subdivided, and mill employees bought lots and built their own houses, mostly vernacular designs with Victorian or Colonial Revival porch details. Riverview Cemetery was founded in the 1890s. The mills closed in 1962, and the village was annexed by the city in 1968. Today it is mainly residential, and the surviving brick mill buildings recall its industrial past.","period_of_significance":"1847-1962","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century: Gothic Revival; Late Victorian; Colonial Revival; Bungalow/Craftsman; No Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The district is now almost exclusively residential. The mill complex is used by a moving company for storage and loading, the smaller mill buildings are largely vacant, the power plant is ruined, and the 1870 dam was removed in 2007.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.35624-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/21/6801/41680121/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/10000196.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000196/71112bf1e1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/10000196/71112bf1e1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Nickmorgan2","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woolen_Mills.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Nickmorgan2</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:Woolen_Mills.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680121","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolen_Mills_Village_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8033795"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/charlottesville/woolen-mills-village-historic-district-10000196/"}