Ware Center Historic District
Description and history
Ware was settled in the 1717 and incorporated in 1775. Its town center was laid out in 1760, on land belonging to one of its early large landowners. The first colonial meeting house was built in that year, near the geographic center of the town, and the road network developed around access to this area from the corners of the town. It had services typical of a town center, including a tavern and blacksmithy, but other industrial activity was modest, and was eclipsed in the 19th century by the industrialization of Factory Village, where the modern town center is located. The village retained much of its early Georgian and Federal character in part because the economic focus in the town moved with the advent of industrialization elsewhere in the town during the 19th century.
The district is basically linear, with the First Congregational Church near its center. That church was built in 1799, near the site of the 1760 meeting house. The only other non-residential building in the district is a former district school built in 1872. The oldest building in the district is a farmhouse located at the corner of Walker and Doane RD, 42 Doane rd, this expansive single-family house was built in 1732. There is a building in the district, built in 1759 known as the Ezra Thayer House, a well-preserved Georgian house that was built for the town's first settled minister. It is one of four houses in the village built for ministers. There is one house, built about 1780 and subsequently enlarged, that served as a tavern for many years.
See also
- Church Street Historic District (Ware, Massachusetts)
- Ware Millyard Historic District
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Hampshire County, Massachusetts
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ "NRHP nomination and MACRIS inventory record for Ware Center Historic District". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved December 16, 2013.