Whitinsville Historic District

Whitinsville is a mill village in the southern part of Northbridge, Massachusetts, set in a valley along the Mumford River between two large mill ponds. The district holds about 350 structures on some 250 acres, with six main roads converging on the valley. Its industrial core includes the 1826 Brick Mill, the 1845 Whitinsville Cotton Mills and the vast Whitin Machine Works, which at its peak had nearly 1.75 million square feet of floor space. Around Memorial Square stand a town hall, savings bank, library, gymnasium, schools and three churches, mostly gifts from the Whitin and Lasell families and designed by prominent Boston and Worcester architects. Surrounding streets hold housing for every level of the workforce, from owners' mansions to foremen's cottages and laborers' tenements, including 17 Greek Revival duplexes on Forest Street and a group of 1920s company-built houses. Together they illustrate how a single industrial community developed over about a century.