East Princeton Village Historic District

East Princeton Village is a compact district of about 200 acres in eastern Princeton, Massachusetts, laid out along Main Street (Route 140) and the waterpower of Keyes Brook. Chairmaking took hold here in 1841, when Joseph M. Stuart began production, and by 1857 as many as four chair shops and a sawmill were operating. The last mill closed in 1910. Surviving buildings show a village that functioned largely on its own: large Greek Revival houses built for chair manufacturers, modest cottages for factory workers, a temple-front schoolhouse and meeting hall, a Stick Style chapel, two stores and a former tavern. A few Federal-period houses predate the industrial boom. The former mill area along the brook has returned to woods, though dams, stone waterways, a stone bridge and foundations remain. Little demolition or modern construction has occurred, so the nineteenth-century character of the village is still well preserved, including many barns and outbuildings.