Uxbridge Common District

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Uxbridge Common District
Uxbridge Academy Building, Uxbridge, MA.png
LocationNorth Main St., Court St., Uxbridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°04′38″N71°37′53″W / 42.077222°N 71.631389°W / 42.077222; -71.631389
Area8 acres (3.2 ha)
Built1818-1880s
NRHP reference No. 84002920 [1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 20, 1984

The Uxbridge Common District is located in downtown Uxbridge, Massachusetts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Historic buildings in this district include the Uxbridge Academy, Uxbridge Free Public Library, the Deborah A. Wheelock House, a blacksmith shop, the First Congregational Church, and the Unitarian Church.

Contents

Uxbridge Academy

The Uxbridge Academy was a prestigious New England preparatory institution in the early 19th century which graduated a number of prominent citizens, including Marcus Spring, Colonel John Capron, Moses Taft, George B. Boomer, and Richard Sayles. Famous Historian and writer William Augustus Mowry wrote a historical sketch about Uxbridge Academy. Joshua Mason Macomber, A.M., M.D., was the principal of Uxbridge Academy from 1840-1850. [2] This was said to be the "Palmy" period of the academy under the direction of this successful educator. The Uxbridge Academy developed a widespread reputation during his tenure and attracted hundreds of students from communities in at least six states. [3] The building that housed Uxbridge Academy still stands on the Town Common in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and currently houses the Masonic Lodge. The Uxbridge academy began in 1818 as a secondary school in an upstairs location. [4]

The Uxbridge Common Historic District

The historic town of Uxbridge, first settled in 1662, has more than 60 houses of the Federalist period and is a repository of unique early American history. The Uxbridge Common District includes a number of buildings from different periods and architectural designs. These include the Uxbridge Academy, 1818, which is a Federalist style building and now houses the Masonic Lodge, The Congregational Church, rebuilt here in the 1830s from its original site across the street, the Public Library 1870s, the blacksmith shop, 1780s, The Unitarian Church, The Uxbridge Inn, 1882, some older homes including "The Daughters of the American Revolution House", circa 1769, which is known as the "Deborah A. Wheelock House". Many older buildings in the town are of the Federalist architecture style, but there is also Georgian architecture, Italianate architecture, Greek Revival architecture, Gothic architecture, Queen Anne style architecture in the United States, Late Victorian architecture, and more.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uxbridge, Massachusetts</span> Town in Massachusetts, United States

Uxbridge is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States, first colonized in 1662 and incorporated in 1727. It was originally part of the town of Mendon, and named for the Earl of Uxbridge. The town is located 36 mi (58 km) southwest of Boston and 15 mi (24 km) south-southeast of Worcester, at the midpoint of the Blackstone Valley National Historic Park. The historical society notes that Uxbridge is the "Heart of The Blackstone Valley" and is also known as "the Cradle of the Industrial Revolution". Uxbridge was a prominent Textile center in the American Industrial Revolution. Two Quakers served as national leaders in the American anti-slavery movement. Uxbridge "weaves a tapestry of early America".

Nathan Webb, an early-American Congregational Church minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moses Taft</span> American politician

Moses Taft II was born at Uxbridge, Massachusetts. He was significant as an early American Industrialist and financier in the historic Blackstone Valley, and a member of the Taft family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosemark, Tennessee</span> Unincorporated community in Tennessee, United States

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Joshua Mason Macomber was an educator and a physician from New Salem, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simeon Wheelock</span>

Simeon Wheelock was a blacksmith from Uxbridge, Massachusetts, who served as a minuteman in the Massachusetts militia during the battles of Lexington and Concord in the American Revolutionary War. After the war he was killed while on militia duty protecting the Springfield Armory during Shays' Rebellion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheelockville, Massachusetts</span> Village in Massachusetts, United States

Wheelockville is a village in the town (township) of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the village centering on Mendon and Henry streets is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Wheelockville Historic District. Wheelockville appears on the Blackstone U.S. Geological Survey Map. The Village receives municipal services from Uxbridge, for fire, police, EMS, School district, public works, and other services. Worcester's Judicial District includes Uxbridge District Court. The geography of Wheelockville includes several other distinct mill villages, including: Hecla and Elmdale.

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The First Church of Christ, Unitarian, also known as First Church of Lancaster and colloquially as "the Bulfinch Church", is a historic congregation with its meeting house located at 725 Main Street facing the Common in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The church's fifth meeting house, built in 1816, was designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, recognizing it as one of Bulfinch's finest works.

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The Sutton Center Historic District is a historic district encompassing the center of the village of Sutton, Massachusetts. The district, which covers 435 acres (176 ha), is centered on the junction of Boston Road, Singletary Avenue, and Uxbridge Road. Boston Road is a major east–west route through the town, and the other two roads run north–south through the village center. The Colombian building was built in 1957. A typically rural village center, its civic and institutional buildings are clustered near the intersection on its south side, in the general area of the town common. The town common and cemetery were laid out in 1719, after settlement of the township began in 1716. There are a few surviving houses that date to the middle of the 18th century or earlier; exact dates for most are uncertain. There are only a few institutional buildings: the 1829 Congregational Church, the 1983 Town Hall, built on the site of the town's first purpose-built town hall (1885), and Rufus Putnam Hall, an 1824 school building and Masonic lodge that now houses the local history museum. Only one commercial structure the 1839 Brick Block, stands in the village. There is also a historic animal pound, a rectangular stone structure used to pen stray livestock, which dates to the early days of the town.

The history of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1727, may be divided into its prehistory, its colonial history and its modern industrial history. Uxbridge is located on the Massachusetts-Rhode Island state line, and became a center of the earliest industrialized region in the United States.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen C. Earle</span> American architect

Stephen Carpenter Earle was an architect who designed a number of buildings in Massachusetts and Connecticut that were built in the late 19th century, with many in Worcester, Massachusetts. He trained in the office of Calvert Vaux in New York City. He worked for a time in partnership with James E. Fuller, under the firm "Earle & Fuller". In 1891, he formed a partnership with Vermont architect Clellan W. Fisher under the name "Earle & Fisher".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Williams Beal</span> American architect (1855–1919)

John Williams Beal was an architect in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jeremiah Wheelock was an American early industrial pioneer in the Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts, a region that incubated the early American industrial revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metamora Crossroads Historic District</span> Historic district in Michigan, United States

The Metamora Crossroads Historic District is a historic district centered at the intersection of Oak and High Street in the small village of Metamora in Metamora Township in Lapeer County, Michigan. It was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site and also added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 19, 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masonic Temple (Burlington, Vermont)</span> United States historic place

The former Masonic Temple at 1-5 Church Street at Pearl Street in Burlington, Vermont was built in 1897-98 to be the state headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Vermont, Free and Accepted Masons. It was designed by John McArthur Harris of the noted Philadelphia firm of Wilson Bros. & Company in the Richardson Romanesque style.

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References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. Mowry, William Augustus (1897). The Uxbridge Academy, a Brief History with a Biographical Sketch of J. Mason MacComber, MA, MD, Principal. Boston: Everett Press.
  3. Chapin, Judge Henry (1881). Address Delivered at the Unitarian Church in Uxbridge; 1864. Worcester, Mass.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. "Uxbridge/Walking Tour". Blackstone Daily.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2006. Retrieved November 21, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)