Winchendon Village Historic District

Winchendon Village Historic District occupies the lower ends of Front and Central Streets in Winchendon, Massachusetts, on a level plain in the Miller's River valley. It includes 42 contributing resources, mostly two-and-a-half-story frame buildings. Front Street's eastern end holds early nineteenth-century Federal and Greek Revival houses, set apart from the commercial blocks by American Legion Park. Italianate brick and frame business buildings line Front and Central Streets, alongside the Town Hall, the former Fire Station, the North Congregational Church of 1843 and the Gothic Revival Church of the Unity of 1866. The village grew as the commercial and civic focus of the town as institutions moved from the old center, helped by the Cheshire Railroad station opened in 1848 and by woodenware manufacturing. Local figures such as Ephraim Murdock built many houses and the Winchendon Academy. Most buildings remain in very good condition, with a consistent streetscape, though some storefronts and facades have been altered.