2007 Millbury Reconnaissance Report

MILLBURY RECONNAISSANCE REPORT BLACKSTONE VALLEY / QUINEBAUG-SHETUCKET LANDSCAPE INVENTORY MASSACHUSETTS HERITAGE LANDSCAPE INVENTORY PROGRAM Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor PROJECT TEAM Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Jessica Rowcroft, Preservation Planner Division of Planning and Engineering John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Joanna Doherty, Community Planner Project Consultants Elizabeth Vizza, Elizabeth Vizza Consulting Electa Kane Tritsch, Oakfield Research Daniel Wells, Hyla Ecological Services Inc. Local Project Coordinator Laurie Connors, Town Planner Local Heritage Landscape Participants Carol Burke Cynthia Burr Carol Chirus Laurie Connors Phil Day Kristine Jackson Mike Kennedy Heather Keddy Pat Kupcinskus Thomas Lee Anna Lewandowski Judy Nichols Philip Nyberg Bob Paulson Marge Paulson Sarabeth Persiani Harold Proodian Donald Rajotte Ken Schold Jerilyn Stead Ron Stead Richard Valentino July 2007 Cover Photographs: Cordis Mills First Congregational Church of Millbury Stowe Farm CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 Part I: Millbury’s Heritage Landscapes Millbury’s Landscape Through Time.........................................................................2 Community-Wide Heritage Landscape Issues ...........................................................4 Millbury Priority Landscapes......................................................................................5 Old Common (including Old Common Rd.) Bramanville Armory Village and Blackstone River rapids Grass Hill Farms Pearson’s Dairy Farm Stowe Farm and Hawk Hill Orchards Butler Farm Dorothy (Dority) Pond (Big and Little) Part II: Building a Heritage Landscape Toolkit Eight Toolkit Basics ..................................................................................................23 Millbury’s Toolkit: Current Status and Future Additions........................................24 Conclusion and Implementation .........................................................................................32 Appendix A: Millbury Heritage Landscapes ........................................................................... i Appendix B: Guide to Preservation and Planning Tools for Heritage.................................. vi Landscapes INTRODUCTION The 22 Massachusetts communities within the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor (BRV) and the Quinebaug-Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor (Q-S) are linked by a common heritage of agriculture and industry powered by the rivers and streams that dominate the landscape of south central Massachusetts. River Corridor towns extend from Mendon on the east to Brimfield on the west. While they range in size from the city of Worcester to the compact town of Hopedale, each is equally shaped by the interaction of nature and culture over time. Heritage landscapes are special places created by human interaction with the natural environment that help define the character of a community and reflect its past. They are dynamic and evolving; they reflect the history of a community and provide a sense of place; they show the natural ecology that influenced land use patterns; and they often have scenic qualities. This wealth of landscapes is central to each community’s character, yet heritage landscapes are vulnerable and ever changing. For this reason it is important to take the first step toward their preservation by identifying those landscapes that are particularly valued by the community – a favorite local farm, a distinctive neighborhood or mill village, a unique natural feature or an important river corridor. To this end, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and the two National Heritage Corridors (BRV and Q-S) have collaborated to bring the Heritage Landscape Inventory program to communities in south central Massachusetts. The goals of the program are to help communities identify a wide range of landscape resources, particularly those that are significant and unprotected, and to provide communities with strategies for preserving heritage landscapes. The methodology for the Heritage Landscape Inventory program was developed in a pilot project conducted in southeast Massachusetts and refined in Essex County. It is outlined in the DCR publication Reading the Land, which has provided guidance for the program since its inception. In summary, each participating community appoints a Local Project Coordinator (LPC) to assist the DCR-BRV/Q-S consulting team. The LPC organizes a heritage landscape identification meeting during which residents and town officials identify and prioritize the landscapes that embody the community’s character and its history. This meeting is followed by a fieldwork session including the consulting team and the LPC, accompanied by interested community members. This group visits the priority landscapes identified in the meeting and gathers information about the community. The final product for each community is this Reconnaissance Report. It outlines the community’s landscape history; describes the priority heritage landscapes and issues associated with them; discusses broader land planning issues identified by the community and concludes with preservation recommendations. Two appendices include a list of all of the heritage landscapes identified at the community meeting and a reference listing of land protection tools and procedures. PART I MILLBURY’S HERITAGE LANDSCAPES MILLBURY’S LANDSCAPE THROUGH TIME Millbury lies in the middle of the Worcester Plateau on the Blackstone River. The town is bounded by Worcester, Grafton, Sutton, Oxford, and Auburn. Its elevation decreases significantly from west to east, dropping 300’ into the lower Blackstone valley. Singletary Brook and Dorothy Brook are the two main tributaries in Millbury. The town is further divided by its underlying soil types: a good quality loam toward the west provides good agricultural land, while the eastern section is underlain by stony, sandy soil. The Nipmuc, a subgroup of the Southern Algonquians, inhabited this area before Anglo- American settlement. Their trail system likely included the river corridor as a major north-south route, with a cross trail that may have followed West Main Street. Millbury was part of the area known as Quinsigamond (including parts of Paxton, Holden, Worcester and Auburn), and is archeologically notable for its quarry sites and rock shelters, as well as small campsites along the river, that would have been used for seasonal hunting and fishing activities. In the second half of the 17th century, a number of Christian Indian towns were established in the area by colonial missionaries, including one in present-day Grafton, and another to the south in Webster, but the significant disruption of Native American lifeways came with the Nipmucs’ loss of lands and independence in the aftermath of King Philip’s War (1675-76). Millbury was part of a colonial land purchase from Nipmuc sachem Wampus (John White) in 1704 which was centered in Sutton and included part of Auburn. In 1742, Millbury was established as Sutton’s North Parish. The North Parish grew as colonists were attracted to its waterways and agricultural land, settling on dispersed farmsteads. As more land was cleared for cultivation and pasture, farming areas became concentrated into small villages at Old Common, Grass Hill and West Millbury. The farms specialized in grains and potatoes and, before dairying became popular during the mid-19th century, sheep. Saw, grist, triphammer, paper and fulling mills spread along the river and more easily dammed brooks. An iron foundry was established on the Blackstone in the mid- 18th century, which evolved into an armory during the Revolution, when Asa and Elijah Waters won a government contract for the manufacture of guns. In 1813 the town separated completely from Sutton. What its residents lost in land was more than compensated for by Millbury’s water power resources and its proximity to Worcester. Although Millbury was bypassed by the turnpike construction boom that took place during the Federal Period (1775-1830), in 1828 the Blackstone Canal opened. Nine locks were required in Millbury to cope with the town’s steep change in elevation, of which four were concentrated where the Blackstone falls down Millbury Hill (now Canal Street). Construction of the canal brought skilled Irish immigrant laborers to the area, and early 19th century industry quadrupled the town’s population. At the same time, Goodell Manufacturing (1822) Millbury’s first textile factory, was built on the Blackstone and other factories were being built along Singletary Brook beginning with the Braman Cotton Company in 1825. Settlements grew up around factory sites in Bramanville, West Millbury and on the Blackstone near the armory (an area now known as Armory Village), which remained in business until 1845. By 1840, at what was the peak of agricultural production elsewhere in Massachusetts, Millbury tallied 495 factory workers, compared to only 296 farmers among its population. Heritage Landscape Inventory 2 Millbury Reconnaissance Report An indicator of Millbury’s industrial importance was the routing of two separate rail lines through town: a spur of the Boston

Load more