Eagleville Historic District

Eagleville is a former mill village in the northwest part of Holden, Massachusetts, arranged around the small triangular Morse Square where Main, High and Princeton Streets meet. Its growth began with a saw and gristmill dammed on the Asnebumskit River in 1806, and later a brick textile mill complex was built below the dam. Around the mill grew a collection of worker housing, including three brick Federal-style buildings unusual for rural central Massachusetts, wood-frame Federal houses, and Greek Revival duplexes. Later additions include Italianate, Gothic Revival and Queen Anne houses, among them a mill agent's Gothic Revival home from about 1882. The mill passed from the Morse family to the Jefferson Manufacturing Company in 1893, and the surviving brick buildings date mostly from the early twentieth century. The district has 45 contributing resources, including 39 buildings and 6 structures. Its historic character comes from the close relationship between industrial buildings, the dam and the modest houses built for workers.