Haydenville Historic District

Haydenville is an industrial village in the southeast part of Williamsburg, Massachusetts, centered on a brass works and the buildings its founding family left behind. The district covers about 35 acres and 55 buildings. The brick Brass Works of 1875 replaced the original 1851 factory, which a flood destroyed in 1874. Across the street stand two Greek Revival mansions built for brothers Joel and Josiah Hayden in 1828 and 1839. The Hayden family also built or financed the Congregational Church of 1852, the Center School of 1859, a cemetery begun in 1847, and a Classical Revival library of 1900. In 1867 the Hayden-Gere Brass Works built Gothic-style cottages on High Street for factory employees. The village took its name from the family, and Joel Hayden later served as Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts. Together the buildings show how one family's enterprise shaped a complete nineteenth-century mill community.