Russell Corner Historic District

Russell Corner is a 124-acre district in Princeton, Massachusetts, centered on the crossing of Gregory Hill and Merriam Roads. It includes 13 houses, one of them a former schoolhouse, along with outbuildings, dry-laid stone walls and three large open fields now held as conservation land. Between 1748 and 1883 the crossroads worked as a small village center, with two stores, two taverns, a post office, a meeting hall and a school. Charles Russell built a brick store, post office and meeting hall here in 1822-1823, and his family later turned the area into a neighborhood of summer and year-round homes. Nine of the houses date from about 1748 to 1830 and show Georgian and Federal styles, while three dwellings were added between 1933 and 1942, including two mail-order catalog houses. The narrow roads, stone walls and generous lots preserve the look of an agricultural New England community.