Ballardvale District

Ballardvale is a planned mill village in Andover, Massachusetts, founded in 1836 when John and William S. Marland and other investors established the Ballardvale Manufacturing Company. The village took its name from Timothy Ballard, who had run a grist and saw mill there. Its mills produced worsted goods, flannels and delaines, and later industries included locomotive building, machine-cut files, hats, art metalwork and stoneware. In 1848 Marland laid out fifty acres into house lots, and skilled Scottish, English and Irish craftsmen settled there. Many company-owned homes were later bought by their tenants. The roughly 95 properties are mostly small, simple houses in Greek Revival, Gothic and early Italianate styles, many built by Jacob Chickering. Notable survivors include the brick and wooden mill buildings, the Italianate railroad depot, the Marland-Bradlee mansion, a wrought-iron truss bridge and a Gothic chapel. The district was listed for its intact planned mill-village character, its link to local manufacturers and a leading builder, and its range of mid-Victorian architecture.