Assonet Historic District

Assonet Historic District is a compact village center in Freetown, Massachusetts, at the point where the Assonet River flows into Assonet Bay. The community grew from the late 1600s along crossroads formed by North and South Main Streets and Water and Elm Streets. Today it holds 196 contributing resources, mostly frame houses clad in clapboard or shingle, with granite walls, foundations and fence posts visible throughout. Houses range from a gambrel-roofed dwelling of about 1720 to mid-20th-century homes, with a noticeable concentration of Georgian and Federal buildings. Other features include a Federal-style Congregational Church of 1809, a Town Hall of 1888, a former village school, a cattle pound built into a bluff, mill and dam remains, and two fieldstone bridges. The village's history includes shipping, boat building, mills and a gun-making firm established in the 1850s. Although many commercial and industrial buildings are gone, the layout along historic routes and the river survives largely intact.