{"nrhp_refnum":"80000506","name":"Williamsburg Center Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"MA 9","address_restricted":false,"city":"Williamsburg","county":"Hampshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.39299450000004,"lon":-72.73063545288142,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-06-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of about 37 acres at the center of Williamsburg, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, where the town's main roads meet and the Mill River joins its western branch. It holds 73 mostly wood-frame residential, religious, civic, commercial and industrial buildings, most from the mid-nineteenth century.","why_significant":"The district was the center of town activity from Williamsburg's late eighteenth-century settlement, and its range of nineteenth-century styles, especially Greek Revival, reflects the town's pattern of growth and decline. It was a milling and transportation center, and the first wooden buttonmolds in the United States were made there in 1826. A few buildings are architect-designed, including the First Congregational Church and the Meekins Library.","narrative":"Williamsburg Center is a compact village district of about 37 acres where the town's main roads meet beside the Mill River. Most of its 73 buildings are two-story wood-frame structures from the mid-nineteenth century, many in the Greek Revival style, alongside Federal houses and later Italianate, Second Empire and Queen Anne or Shingle Style examples. The district was the center of town life after settlement in the late eighteenth century and grew as a milling and transportation hub. Mills produced buttonmolds, furniture, clocks and hardware, and the first wooden buttonmolds in the United States were made here in 1826. Stagecoach, rail and streetcar links connected it to Northampton. Most buildings are simple vernacular designs, but a few were designed by architects. The First Congregational Church was remodeled in Georgian Revival style in 1895 by the Gardner firm of Springfield, and the Meekins Library, a granite Classical Revival building, was designed in 1895-97 by Putnam and Bayley of Northampton.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"E.C. and G.C. Gardner (Springfield); Putnam and Bayley (Northampton); Nehemiah Morton (builder of several houses, 1846-1850)","architectural_style":"Predominantly Greek Revival, with Federal, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne/Shingle, Georgian Revival and Classical Revival examples","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is rated excellent to good to fair, with some altered buildings. Uses include residential, commercial, educational, government, religious and museum.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.371975-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/51/7954/63795451/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000506.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000506/e5951050da-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000506/e5951050da-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Town_Hall,_Williamsburg_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795451","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg_Center_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8021159"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampshire-county/williamsburg-center-historic-district-80000506/"}