Machine Shop Village District

Machine Shop Village is a nineteenth-century factory neighborhood in North Andover, Massachusetts, spread over about 90 acres beside Cochichewick Brook. Its core is the brick Davis & Furber Machine Company, founded in 1832 and for many years the largest maker of woolen machinery in the United States, and the North Andover Mills, whose first stone building dates to about 1825. Around the mills the owners built rows of simple double cottages, duplexes and boarding houses, such as the eight-unit Yellow Row of about 1839. Machinists and supervisors lived in more stylish Greek Revival and Italianate homes, while mill owners built mansions such as the Second Empire Wiley Mansion of 1864-65. Three mid-century churches, a school and a few stores also remain. The district is notable for its integrity, with very little modern intrusion, and for showing the social and economic layers of a New England mill village. Growth peaked from the 1860s through the 1880s, followed by decline in the twentieth century.