{"nrhp_refnum":"77000173","name":"Dwight Manufacturing Company Housing District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Front, Depot, Dwight, Exchange, Chestnut Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicopee","county":"Hampden County","state":"MA","lat":42.147031500000054,"lon":-72.61200628730222,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-06-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of about 26 structures on 7 acres in Chicopee Center, Chicopee, Massachusetts, made up mainly of brick workers' housing built in the 1830s and 1840s along Front, Dwight, Exchange, Depot and Chestnut Streets, with one later 1870s building. Most of the housing was built by builder Charles McClallan.","why_significant":"The district is significant as an example of a planned nineteenth-century industrial community and as an illustration of the paternalism of factory owners toward their employees. Although many workers' houses were lost to commercial development, the surviving group keeps the character and fine detail of the original houses.","narrative":"Brick boarding houses and family dwellings in Chicopee Center preserve part of a planned textile community built for workers of the Dwight Manufacturing Company. The houses along Front, Dwight, Exchange, Depot and Chestnut Streets date mostly from the 1830s and 1840s and were largely the work of builder Charles McClallan, whose Greek Revival designs feature handsome brickwork. Types include a three-and-a-half-story boarding house with a Doric portico, smaller two-story double houses with patterned gables, and single-family homes. A Stick Style boarding house was added in the 1870s. The company housed young female mill workers in supervised boarding houses until about 1845, then rented to immigrant families. The mills closed in 1927, and the tenements were sold to private owners. Many original houses were demolished for commercial development, but the surviving group is mostly in good condition and still used as homes. The district is considered notable as a rare early industrial housing group and as an example of factory-owner paternalism.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Charles McClallan (builder)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival, with a vernacular brick boarding house type and one Stick Style building from the 1870s","criteria":[],"status_note":"Houses are mostly in good condition, occupied as private residences, and described as carefully tended by a Portuguese neighborhood. A few have incompatible additions or inappropriate paint colors.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.560807-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/45/7953/63795345/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/77000173.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000173/213df057b9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000173/213df057b9-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ChicopeeMA_DwightCompanyHousing.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ChicopeeMA_DwightCompanyHousing.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795345","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Manufacturing_Company_Housing_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5318209"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampden-county/dwight-manufacturing-company-housing-district-77000173/"}