Montague Center Historic District

Montague Center is a Connecticut River valley village in Franklin County, Massachusetts, laid out around a triangular green and a quarter-mile Main Street. It grew up around a waterfall on the Sawmill River, where mills operated from the early 1700s and where the Alvah Stone Mill still stands. The village prospered most between 1830 and 1850, and Greek Revival architecture defines its character. The 1834 brick First Congregational Church, the Unitarian Church of the same year, the 1858 Town Hall and houses such as the Delano and Ward houses show the style, often shaped by Asher Benjamin's pattern books. Earlier buildings include the ca. 1735 Root Tavern and the Federal-style brick Aaron Gate House of about 1805. An 1889 fire destroyed many factories and homes near South Street. The district is recognized as a well-preserved small New England village, and it may also hold archaeological evidence of Native American settlement and early mill sites.