French Portage Road Historic District

Westfield's historic core in Chautauqua County, New York, is a district of 104 buildings gathered around the village common and along South Portage and East Main Streets. Portage Road follows much the same course as the old Portage Trail, which seventeenth-century French explorers used to travel from the Great Lakes toward the Ohio River. Settlement began early in the nineteenth century, and the brick McClurg Mansion, built in the first quarter of that century, still stands at the center of the common as the village museum. East Main Street holds a continuous row of 1860s and 1870s brick commercial buildings with cast-iron detailing, while nearby streets display Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Octagon, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival houses. A commercial block rose after a 1909 fire, and the Welch Grape Juice Company added office buildings. The district is significant for its intact streetscapes, architectural variety and links to early French exploration and village growth.