{"nrhp_refnum":"84002905","name":"Central Woolen Mills District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Mendon and Cross Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Uxbridge","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.080609500000065,"lon":-71.62029426347095,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-01-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Engineering","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-acre former woolen mill complex at Mendon and Cross Streets in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, begun in 1852 by Moses Taft and expanded through about 1925, with fifteen numbered buildings and additions.","why_significant":"The mill preserves buildings from every period of its development and is an excellent example of the moderate-size mills that dominated Uxbridge's nineteenth-century industry. It is associated with Moses Taft, a prominent local manufacturer, and with the conversion of the former Blackstone Canal into a water-power source. It retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship and feeling.","narrative":"Central Woolen Mills is a four-acre industrial complex on Mendon and Cross Streets in Uxbridge, built over nearly seventy-five years. Moses Taft built the first mill in 1852 after fire destroyed his Rhode Island mill. Its power came from the abandoned Blackstone Canal, whose bed Taft bought and diverted beneath the main building. The tail race then fed Hecla Pond for reuse downstream. The site holds a four-storey wood-frame main building, brick storehouses, a picker and boiler house, an assorting building, a dye house, a machine shop and an Italianate office, with additions through the 1920s and later. During the Civil War the mill's cloth went to the U.S. government. Later operators included the Calumet Woolen Company and, from 1905, the Stanley Woolen Company, which made khakis and overcoatings in World War I. The complex was listed for its architecture, its link to Taft and its canal-powered mill history.","period_of_significance":"1852-1925","architect_builder":"Moses Taft (builder, 1852)","architectural_style":"Mill complex; the office building is Italianate in design","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"The mill has remained in continuous ownership by the same company since 1905, and a 1913 plan shows a 212 h.p. water wheel still in use.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.103469-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/1/7936/63793601/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002905.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002905/f602abb893-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002905/f602abb893-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Ksherin (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StanleyWoolenMillUxbridgeMA_079.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ksherin (talk)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StanleyWoolenMillUxbridgeMA_079.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793601","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Woolen_Mills_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5062040"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/central-woolen-mills-district-84002905/"}