Bacon-Morse Historic District

Clustered around the crossing of North Woodstock and Tipton Rock Roads in Southbridge, this rural neighborhood grew from farms settled in the mid-18th century by the Morse, Pratt and Bacon families. Its surviving buildings include the Freeman Pratt Farm, with a ca. 1750 section and a ca. 1845 Federal style addition, a late Greek Revival cottage built for Daniel Morse, the Hiram Morse farmhouse, and two small cottages added around 1900. Morse Cemetery, deeded in 1789, holds about 290 burials and is surrounded by a stone fence. Lumbering joined farming as a livelihood in the late 19th century, and the Morse Lumber Company still operates nearby. Although the tavern and schoolhouse are gone and a few modern houses have appeared, the area keeps a well-preserved core of buildings and a cemetery that represent its agricultural past. Other rural settlements in Southbridge have not survived intact, which adds to its local importance.