{"nrhp_refnum":"96000056","name":"Fisherville Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Main, Elmwood, Ferry and Sampson Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Grafton","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.17734800000005,"lon":-71.69405715421217,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-02-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 120-acre district in Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, covering the core of the Fisherville textile mill village, with its brick mill complex, workers' housing, mill owner and supervisor houses, churches, a library, a club and small commercial buildings.","why_significant":"The district is significant for community planning and development, architecture and industry. It preserves a company-built mill village that grew around the Fisherville Mill, powered by Fisherville Pond and the Blackstone Canal. Its housing, in distinct tiers for workers, supervisors and the owner, reflects the mill company's hierarchy and the Rhode Island system of family employment.","narrative":"Fisherville is a textile mill village in Grafton, Massachusetts, and its historic district takes in the mill, the streets of company housing and the public buildings that served the community. The village grew around a mill first built in 1830, using water power from Fisherville Pond and the Blackstone Canal of 1828. The brick Fisher Manufacturing Company mill dates mainly from 1888 and 1891, and survives with its office, stock house, electric building, dam and canal remnants. Most housing is vernacular wood-frame construction, much of it two-family houses built by the company between about 1890 and 1915 in identical rows. This reflects the Rhode Island system, which employed whole families. Single-family houses for supervisors and a high-style house for mill owner Erastus Fisher show the social order of the village. Two churches, a library, a club and small shops complete a street pattern that has changed little since about 1910, and the area remains largely residential.","period_of_significance":"1810-1935","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century/Other: Vernacular; Late 19th & 20th Century Revivals/Other: Vernacular","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Most buildings remain well preserved and in residential use, with some synthetic siding. Public and institutional buildings are still used for their original purposes.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.579568-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/24/7975/63797524/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/96000056.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000056/b52a36c6f4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96000056/b52a36c6f4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"C.S. Imming","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ferry_Street_home_in_Fisherville.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">C.S. Imming</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:Ferry_Street_home_in_Fisherville.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797524","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisherville_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5454957"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/fisherville-historic-district-96000056/"}