Ashburnham Center Historic District

Ashburnham Center is a village historic district in Worcester County, Massachusetts, laid out along Main Street at the crossing of Routes 12 and 101. It contains roughly 250 resources dating from about 1776 to c. 1948, including houses of mill owners, merchants and workers, plus stores, churches, a town hall, schools and a library. Residential growth gathered here in the early 19th century, and the village became the civic center after the old hilltop meetinghouse was abandoned in 1832. The Congregational Church followed in 1834 and the Town House in 1838. Industry along Phillips Brook, including tanneries, cotton and woodenware mills and the Winchester Chair Factory, which employed 300 workers by 1860, fueled the expansion. Greek Revival dominates, with Federal, Italianate, Second Empire and later Victorian examples. Many buildings have been altered, but the district as a whole retains its character as a compact New England village.