Pine Meadow Historic District

View of Chapin Park with St. John's Church and Philip Chapin House; Source- NRIS 96001463.
Town:
New Hartford »
Year of Establishment:
1987
Overlapping Historic Designation(s):
LHD, NRHD, SR
District Authority:
Historic District Commission
Link to Commission or Municipal Website:
Map:

Map of the local historic district contained within the National Register historic district; Source- NRIS 96001463.

View photo
District Character:
Village Center
Features:

Buildings, Park, Cemetery

Architectural Style:

Early Republic/ Federal; Mid-19th Century/ Greek Revival/ Gothic Revival; Late Victorian/ Italianate/ Queen Anne

Era:
19th Century, 20th Century; (Period of significance: c. 1820 - c. 1940)
General description:

The Pine Meadow Historic District , situated in the Farmington Valley in the northeast corner of the Town of New Hartford, encompasses the historic nineteenth century village of Pine Meadow. Since natural barriers left little room for expansion or modern development, Pine Meadow appears much as it did in the late nineteenth century. From the historic maps of 1874 and 1878 it is apparent that less than a dozen historic houses have been lost, with a number on the east side of the district due to periodic flooding of the river. Except for a group of modern houses and the 1951 Pine Meadow School built on Wicket Street (outside the district), most of the remaining open land was in a floodplain and never developed. Some changes are related to the industrial development and decline of the village. For example, all that is left of the railroad that once ran along the base of the hills on the west is the abandoned track bed that terminates in a brownstone abutment for a bridge that once crossed Main Street on the north, before continuing across the river to New Hartford Center. The railroad depots at either end of the district also are gone. Of the two other historic bridges that once spanned the Farmington River, one was a covered wooden bridge at the east end of Black Bridge Road; its replacement is now closed. The other, which once provided direct access to the factory complex at the southeast corner of the village, is no longer extant. Chapin Park, which is slightly more than an acre in size, occupies an elongated triangle near the center of the Pine Meadow Historic District between Main Street on the east and Church Street on the west. Although today its mature trees, a few possibly survivors of the original plantings, are randomly distributed, the park was originally landscaped more formally with regular rows of trees, especially along its bordering streets. There is a flagpole and a World War II memorial at its north corner. [NR]

Significance of the district:

Architecture, Social History:The Pine Meadow Historic District is a fine representative of the growth and decline of a rural industrial village in nineteenth-century Connecticut. Its exceptional historic integrity and cohesiveness are demonstrated by a remarkable number of generally well-preserved surviving resources, which, through their historic association, location, and level of style, collectively embody the distinctive hierarchal society associated with rural industry. The Pine Meadow Historic District's architectural significance is derived from outstanding examples of High Victorian Italianate, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival that provide an architectural focus for a larger body of nineteenth-century domestic architecture, which includes representative vernacular workers' housing influenced by the Greek Revival and Queen Anne styles. [NR]

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

Pine Meadow Historic District is centered around Chapin Park at the intersection of Main and Church streets, as described in the district ordinance.

Sources:

[1] District information retrieved from the town website http://www.town.new-hartford.ct.us/.
[2] GIS information and parcel IDs retrieved from the website http://www.newhartfordgis.com/ags_map/.
[NR] Cunningham Jan, Watertown Center Historic District, National Register Nomination Number- 96001463 NRIS, National Park Service, 1996 - http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/96001463.pdf; http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Photos/96001463.pdf.

Notes:

The local historic district is contained within the much larger National Register Historic District.

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
Other links: