North Attleborough Town Center Historic District

Downtown North Attleborough, Massachusetts, is a twenty-six-acre district strung along North and South Washington Streets. It holds fifty-two properties, mainly commercial, along with several residences, one church and a number of municipal buildings. The area grew as the business center of a town whose economy rested on jewelry manufacturing. Many of the large brick blocks replaced earlier frame buildings lost in a series of early 20th-century fires. The district's chief architectural strength is its group of red brick Georgian Revival and Classical Revival business and institutional buildings, some designed by Boston firms such as Hutchins and French. Notable examples include the 1894 Richards Memorial Library, the 1916 post office, the 1928 Hotel Hixon and the Bristol Lodge Masonic building. Local builder James A. Munroe built most of the stores on one side of North Washington Street. Six buildings of late 20th-century date are considered intrusions, and the Guild Block site is now a gap in the streetscape. Most buildings remain in good to excellent condition and in continuous use.