Pleasant Street Historic District

Pleasant Street Historic District is a short stretch of large houses on a hill crest in Marlborough, Massachusetts, running about 800 feet between Pearl and Spring Streets. The houses sit well back from a wide, tree-lined street on lots much larger than the city's usual 4,000 to 5,000 square feet. Eleven buildings contribute to the district and one, a 1961 school, does not. Most were built between the 1860s and the 1920s for shoe manufacturers and their relatives. Styles include Second Empire, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Mediterranean Revival, and two early Second Empire houses were later remodeled in Colonial Revival form. The district is notable for its architecture and for its social history. John A. Frye, founder of the J.A. Frye Shoe Company, acquired a Howe family house in the 1870s, and his children and grandchildren built or remodeled neighboring houses. The resulting family enclave lasted into the 1950s and shows how a business family settled together.