Pepperell Center Historic District

Pepperell Center is the historic heart of the town of Pepperell, in north-central Massachusetts near the New Hampshire border. The 154-acre district spreads from the Town Common along five converging streets and includes 118 contributing buildings, sites, structures and objects. Most are modest, one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half-story houses, many with attached barns, in Federal and Greek Revival styles, alongside Italianate, Queen Anne, Stick and Colonial Revival examples. The oldest part is the ca. 1749 ell of the Nathan Shipley House. Institutional buildings include the 1860 Evangelical Congregational Church, the 1874 Town Hall, Pepperell Academy of 1834, and the Lawrence Library designed by Ernest Flagg. Walton Cemetery, established in 1746, and Corporation Cemetery give the hilltop a parklike setting. The center sits above the mill village of East Pepperell and developed as the civic, cultural and social hub while industry stayed along the Nashua River. Its period of significance runs from 1746 to 1910.