Hardwick Village Historic District

Hardwick Village Historic District covers the civic and residential core of Hardwick, Massachusetts, organized around a triangular Common where the town's meetinghouse was placed in 1741. Roads to Petersham, Barre, Greenwich, Gilbertville and Ruggles Hill meet here, and buildings sit close to the street. The district includes two churches, the town hall, schools, the Paige Memorial Library, former taverns and stores, some twenty-seven historic houses, a farm complex, the Fairground and the Old Burying Ground. Most buildings date from the 1780s to the 1850s and illustrate Federal, Post-Colonial and Greek Revival design, including a Greek Revival town hall and church, an Italianate church of 1860, and a brick school. Because little construction or demolition followed, the village preserves its early form. Lucius Paige's 1883 history of the town supplies dates and occupants for many houses, making the district unusually well documented. Open farmland surrounds the village.