Warren Village Historic District facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Warren Village Historic District
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Warren Church
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 Location in Vermont
Location in the United States
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| Location | Along Town Hwys. 1, 4, 16 and 17, Warren, Vermont |
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| Area | 51 acres (21 ha) |
| Built by | Bagley, Walter; Ralph, Daniel |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival, Second Empire, Italianate |
| MPS | Mad River Valley MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 92001532 |
| Added to NRHP | November 20, 1992 |
The Warren Village Historic District is a special area in Warren, Vermont. It's like a time capsule showing what a small American village was like in the 1800s. Most of this historic area is along Main Street, near the Mad River. Even though many old factories are gone, you can still see buildings with cool styles like Greek Revival and Italianate. This district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 because it's so well-preserved.
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Discovering Warren Village
This historic district is a great example of an old mill village. A "mill village" is a town that grew up around factories (mills) that used water power. The buildings here tell the story of how people lived and worked a long time ago.
A Look Back in Time
The town of Warren was officially started in 1789. Early settlers built homes in the eastern parts of the town. A road was built along the Mad River, which became part of Main Street. This road connected Warren to other towns like Granville and Waitsfield.
How the Village Grew
By the 1820s, the village really started to grow. This was because there was plenty of water power from the Mad River and its smaller streams. Water power was used to run machines in factories. The village got a cemetery and a common area (a shared open space) in 1826. Its first school opened in 1835, and the first church was built in 1838. By the 1870s, there were as many as nine mills in the area. These mills made all sorts of products, helping the village economy.
Tough Times and New Beginnings
Life in Warren Village wasn't always easy. In the early 1900s, a series of fires and floods caused a lot of damage. These disasters destroyed all the local mills. The flood in 1927 was especially bad, washing away almost all the dams on the local rivers.
However, Warren Village found new ways to thrive. In the 1950s, Vermont Route 100 was built on the west side of the Mad River. This made it easier for people to visit. The area then became popular for ski tourism, especially with the Sugarbush Resort opening nearby.
What You'll See Today
The Warren Village Historic District starts on the west side of the Mad River, where Main Street meets Vermont Route 100. It crosses the river on a modern bridge and goes past the Warren Covered Bridge. The district also includes Flat Iron Road, Brook Road, and the village cemetery on Cemetery Road.
Most of the buildings are made of wood. They are usually 1.5 to 2.5 stories tall. This means they have one or two main floors, plus sometimes an attic or a half-story.
Cool Building Styles
You'll see many buildings in the Greek Revival and Italianate styles.
- Greek Revival buildings often look like ancient Greek temples, with columns and grand entrances.
- Italianate buildings usually have low-pitched roofs, wide overhanging eaves, and tall, narrow windows.
These styles were very popular in the 1800s. There are also two smaller, well-designed Second Empire houses.
- Second Empire buildings often have a special type of roof called a mansard roof, which has slopes on all four sides.
Hidden Clues to the Past
The historic district also includes clues to its industrial past. You can find the remains of old factories and the one dam that survived the 1927 floods. For a long time, people thought this dam was rebuilt in 1978. But later research showed that it actually survived the big 1927 flood and was just repaired then and again in 1978. These old structures help us understand how the village used to work.
