Indian Hill-North Village

Indian Hill-North Village is a planned neighborhood of workers' cottages on the north slope of Indian Hill in Worcester. Built around 1916-1918 for the Norton Company, the city's largest employer, it grew from the company's effort to create an industrial village where employees could own their homes. About ninety-four houses were built quickly, with cellar holes reportedly dynamited for speed. The layout is nearly symmetrical and trapezoidal, organized around a broad tree-lined parkway crossed by Watt and Heroult Roads. Most buildings are simple one-and-one-half-storey cottages with steeply pitched slate roofs, clapboard first floors and shingled upper floors. Two larger buildings on Watt Road once held a community store and a community hall. Four ranch houses built after 1960 do not contribute to the district's character. The village is significant because company-owned workers' housing was otherwise virtually absent in Worcester, and the project reflected an early local commitment to community planning and healthful living conditions.