Andover Village Industrial District

Along the Shawsheen River in the center of Andover, Massachusetts, a cluster of mills and workers' housing forms the area long called "The Village." The district covers about 85 acres and 92 properties built between 1814 and 1925. It has three groups: the Marland Mills, Abbot Village and the Tyer Rubber Company. The Marland complex includes a Greek Revival woolen mill from about 1820-30, an 1883 spinning and carding mill with a bell tower, and a saw-toothed-roof weaving mill of 1925. Abbot Village holds the 1814 Abbot Mill, the earliest surviving industrial building, and the Smith & Dove linen mills. The rubber company's four-story brick factory dates from 1912. Nearby are brick duplexes, wooden tenement rows, boarding houses and a stone arch bridge from about 1820. The district reflects how population gathered around water power sites and how textile and rubber manufacturing drove Andover's growth. Few intrusions disturb its historic character.