Main Street Historic District
The pin is a point inside the NPS boundary polygon, not a surveyed location.
Why it's listed
Main Street Historic District occupies the north bank of the Blackstone River in Millville, Massachusetts, near the Rhode Island border. It takes in Main, Lincoln, Preston and Walnut Streets, Chestnut Hill Road and Burns Avenue, and contains 148 contributing resources. Most are houses, along with a few commercial buildings, a church, landscape features and the site of the U.S. Rubber Company factory. The district grew in stages. Early Federal and Greek Revival homes of mill owners faced the county road completed in 1831. After 1854, as growth shifted to the south side of the river, the hillside streets filled with worker housing: low one-story duplexes, larger two-story double houses and multi-unit tenements, many built by local property speculators. Later Queen Anne and Gothic Revival double houses appeared around 1890. A Greek Revival store at 5 Lincoln Street is a rare regional survivor. The district shows how housing, religion and commerce reflected a mill village's class structure.
Significance in brief: The district holds a concentration of industrial worker housing from the period when Millville's economy and community boomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It preserves a range of house types, from one-story duplexes to two-story tenements, along with early industrialists' houses, a rare Greek Revival commercial building, a church and industrial archeological sites. Together these show the social hierarchy of a mill village.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 06000360, listed May 10, 2006. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Main, Lincoln, Preston, Walnut Sts., Chestnut Hill Rd., Burns Ave., Millville |
|---|---|
| County | Worcester County |
| Listed | May 10, 2006 |
| Reference number | 06000360 |
| Resource type | District |
| Architectural style | Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman |
| Areas of significance | Architecture, Community Planning and Development, Industry |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Mostly residential; surviving duplexes remain in housing use, though many have been enlarged and altered. The U.S. Rubber Company factory site is included as an archeological resource. |
| Acreage | 85 |
| Coordinates | 42.02888, -71.58086 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 06000360.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q6736144
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.