Main Street Historic District

Main Street in Easthampton, Massachusetts, forms a roughly 45-acre linear historic district that serves as the town's governmental center. Houses, churches, shops and public buildings line the street, with single-family homes predominating. Small parks at each end hold monuments and fountains. Most buildings went up in the middle of the 19th century, when Samuel Williston's seminary, button works and elastic-goods mills, followed by the railroad, turned a farming village into an industrial town. The architecture reflects that boom, with many Greek Revival and Italianate buildings. Highlights include Shop Row, a group of six three-story brick commercial blocks built between 1849 and 1871, and the Ruskinian Gothic Town Hall with its 133-foot tower, designed by Boston architect Charles E. Parker. The Queen Anne library, designed by Peabody and Stearns, and the Seth Janes House of about 1755, the earliest surviving house in town, add to the range. Most buildings remain in their original uses.