{"nrhp_refnum":"77000195","name":"Northside Village Historic District","other_names":["See Also:Rider Tavern"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Stafford St., Northside and Cemetery Rds.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charlton","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.16487320850007,"lon":-71.95618195916411,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-10-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Health/Medicine","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural historic district of about 70 acres in northern Charlton, Massachusetts, along Stafford Street, Northside Road and Cemetery Road. It has 13 buildings and 4 sites, mostly 18th- and early 19th-century houses, plus a tavern and a schoolhouse.","why_significant":"The district is argued to be significant as an example of village development from agricultural beginnings to mercantile prosperity. It is also important for its associations with well-known local citizens, including tavern keepers, a builder, and Dr. William T. G. Morton, who introduced ether as a surgical anesthetic.","narrative":"Northside Village is a 70-acre rural district in northern Charlton, strung along the old Stafford and Worcester Turnpike and two side roads. It holds 13 buildings and four archaeological or former building sites. Most buildings are houses from the 18th and early 19th centuries, with two 20th-century exceptions. The oldest is the 1735 Jonothan Wheelock House; Wheelock began the village tanning industry and kept a distillery and tavern. The three-story Rider Tavern, begun in 1797, dominated village life with its ballroom and rooftop garden, and hosted the Marquis de Lafayette. The Waters-Morton House was the boyhood home of Dr. William T. G. Morton, who demonstrated ether anesthesia in 1846. Other sites mark a distillery, a tannery, a one-room school and a store and post office. The 1848 Greek Revival Northside School stands where a Baptist meetinghouse once stood, and its belfry holds a bell cast in 1719 for a Boston church. The district shows how a farming settlement grew into a trading village.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"John A. Haven, housewright or builder, to whom several village buildings after 1796 are attributed; Asa Bacon (Hayward-Bacon House); Israel Waters (Mary Waters House)","architectural_style":"Predominantly Federal-era vernacular frame houses; Northside School is the only Greek Revival structure","criteria":[],"status_note":"Northside Schoolhouse was used for school from 1848 to 1950, later served as an American Legion post, and is now vacant; the distillery, tannery, Red Schoolhouse and Rider Store sites survive only as sites.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.556726-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/66/7972/63797266/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/77000195.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000195/e4bb0d1b6c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000195/e4bb0d1b6c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waters-Morton_House,_September_2016,_Charlton_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:Waters-Morton_House,_September_2016,_Charlton_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797266","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northside_Village_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7059761"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/northside-village-historic-district-77000195/"}