Lakeville Historic District

View of Farnam Tavern at 7 Millerton Road; Source NRIS- 96000845.
Town:
Salisbury »
Year of Establishment:
1969
Overlapping Historic Designation(s):
LHD, NRHD, SR
District Authority:
Salisbury Historic District Commission
Link to Commission or Municipal Website:
Map:

Map of the historic district retrieved from the study report, 1974, SHPO Library, Hartford.

View photo
District Character:
Village Center
Features:

Buildings, Open Space

Architectural Style:

The architecture of the Lakeville Historic District is greatly varied. The Farnham Tavern evolved into a traditional five-bay, center-entry New England Farmhouse with 12-over-12 sash. The Holley-Williams House is an outstanding example of early nineteenth-century Federal architecture which retains several period outbuildings, while the John Hubbard House typifies the late Federal style in northwestern Connecticut. The Holley Manufacturing Company (and subsidiary buildings) is representative of the mills with a limited degree of Italianate detailing which appeared around mid-century, while the Lakeville railroad station employs an eclectic Victorian idiom. Both the remodeled Salisbury Savings Bank and the Lakeville Hose Company Fire Station utilize the Colonial Revival style popular in the early decades of the twentieth century, as does the modest E. E. Raynsford Carpentry Shop. [NR]

Era:
18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century
General description:

The Lakeville Historic District is located in the center of the village of Lakeville (Town of Salisbury), Connecticut, approximately 50 miles northwest of Hartford. Formerly known as Salisbury Furnace and Furnace Village, Lakeville developed adjacent to an important waterpower site at the eastern outlet of Lake Wononscopomuc near the intersection of present-day U.S. Route 44/Millerton Road and State Route 4l/Sharon Road. The Lakeville Historic District contains a varied mixture of industrial, commercial, and residential architecture dating from the 1750s through the 1930s. It is surrounded by a much larger area containing many additional historic industrial, commercial, residential, religious, and recreational sites and structures. The Lakeville Historic District is less densely built-up than it was in the late nineteenth century. Several small stores and tenant houses, as well as the Holley Block, have been either moved or razed in the intervening decades. Most of the structures in the Lakeville Historic District retain their original form, materials, and detailing. This is especially true in the case of the Holley Manufacturing Company buildings, the Holley-Williams House, the Lakeville railroad station, the John Hubbard House (main block), the Raynsford Carpentry Shop, and the Lakeville Hose Company building. Elsewhere, alterations have included either sympathetic additions, such as the two-story wing appended to the John Hubbard House in 1945, or changes made in the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries, such as the 1920s remodeling of the Salisbury Bank building in the Colonial Revival style. [NR]

Significance of the district:

Architecture, Industry, Transportation, Commerce:The Lakeville Historic District illustrates the development and evolution of Connecticut's rural industrial communities from the mid-eighteenth to late nineteenth centuries. Community leaders were all intimately associated with the site and its industrial, financial, transportation, and commercial institutions, including Cornelius Knickerbaker, Colonel Joshua Porter, tavern keeper/postmaster Peter Farnham, the Holley family, lawyer John Hubbard, and industrialist Samuel Robbins. The Lakeville Historic District possesses industrial significance due to the fine surviving assemblage of mill buildings associated with the Holley Manufacturing Company, the involvement of several significant figures in local, state, and national history with industrial activities at this site, including Ethan Allen, Colonel Joshua Porter, Luther Holley, John Holley, and Alexander Holley, and the pivotal association of both the site and such individuals with important eras of American history, including development of the rural colonial iron industry before 1775, production of armaments during the American Revolution, and the water-powered factory-based Industrial Revolution of the early and mid-nineteenth century. The Lakeville Historic District has transportation significance as the center of a regional transportation network which included early roads, turnpikes, and railroads. The district has commercial significance as the local business center within the larger community through concentration of economic institutions and activity there. The forge and furnace operations not only employed scores of workers, but also provided livelihoods for area miners, teamsters, and charcoal burners, while the Holley Manufacturing Company was the largest employer in mid-nineteenth-century Lakeville. The area's principal stores, recreational venues, financial institutions, and newspaper clustered there. Virtually all area businesses depended on services provided by the Lakeville passenger and freight stations. Finally, the Lakeville Historic District has architectural significance because most of its buildings are well-preserved examples that embody distinctive characteristics of particular architectural periods and styles. These include the Federal era Holley-Williams and Hubbard Houses, the Victorian Lakeville railroad station, the Italianate Holley Manufacturing Company mill and subsidiary buildings, and the Colonial Revival style Salisbury Bank, E.E. Raynsford Carpentry Shop, and Lakeville Hose Company Fire Station. [NR]

District Boundary (according to the LHD Study Report, copied in 2010):

The district is located at the center of the village of Lakeville and includes properties along the following major streets: Millerton Road, Sharon Road, Holley Street; as described in the district ordinance.

Sources:

[1] District information retrieved from the town website http://salisburyct.us/.
[2] Lime Rock Historic District, Study Report, 1974, SHPO Library, Hartford.
[3] Assessors information and Parcel IDs retrieved from the Report of the Historic District Commission, SHPO Library, Hartford.
[NR] Rossano Geoffrey, Reviewed by John Herzan; Lakeville Historic District, National Register Nomination Number- 96000845 NRIS, National Park Service, 1996 - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/96000845.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/96000845.pdf

Notes:

The National Register historic district incorporates the structures included within the local historic district originally created in 1970, as well as certain additional contiguous sites.

Disclaimer:

Content for this website and district boundaries were compiled from several sources and are subject to change. Boundaries for LHDs may be different from those of State or National Register Districts. To verify the boundaries and particulars of a specific district, consult the LHD study report on file with the respective municipal authority or the State Historic Preservation Office.

Date of Compilation:
12/31/11
Compiler:
Manjusha Patnaik, CT Trust for Historic Preservation