Mill-Prospect Street Historic District

This district in Hatfield, Massachusetts, sits on the western edge of the Connecticut River floodplain, where the Mill River drops 16 feet over a natural falls. Prospect Street runs north to south through it, crossed by School, Bridge and Chestnut Streets. The district includes 169 contributing resources: houses, farmsteads, barns, mill buildings, structures and an object. Architectural styles range from Greek Revival through Italianate and Queen Anne to Colonial Revival, though many buildings are modest and have been resided. Water power supported a gristmill, a sawmill, the Shattuck gun shop and the Porter-McLeod lathe works. These industries drew central and eastern European immigrants, who also worked on local farms growing tobacco, onions and dairy products. Tobacco barns and livestock barns remain beside many houses. The district also contains the Borden Baseline, a copper bolt set in a boulder in 1830 as a survey point used to map Massachusetts and beyond.