The Chester Center Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

encompassing the historic center of

Chester, Massachusetts Chester is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, situated in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Springfield metropolitan statistical area. The town includes the Chester Factory Village Historic District. The total popu ...

. The area was first laid out by Chester's first settlers in 1763. It remained the center of commerce and civic life in the rural agricultural community until railroads were built in other areas of the town in the 1840s. The village center declined in importance as economic activity moved to areas more readily accessible to the railroad, and the town hall was eventually moved to Chester Factories. The district includes properties on Skyline Trail near the intersection of Bromley and Lyman Roads, and features

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

, colonial, and

Federal architecture Federal-style architecture is the name for the classical architecture built in the United States following the American Revolution between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was influenced heavily by the works of And ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1988.

Description and history

Chester Center is located on an upland site on a ridge separating two branches of the

Westfield River The Westfield River is a major tributary of the Connecticut River located in the Berkshires and Pioneer Valley regions of western Massachusetts. With four major tributary branches that converge west of the city of Westfield, it flows (measure ...

, along Skyline Trail, a major north-south route through the rural community. The historic elements of the district are three houses, a district schoolhouse, the 1840 First Congregational Church, and the Chester Burying Ground, the latter having a first burial dating to 1769. The Rev. Aaron Bascomb House was also built in 1769, for the town's first settled minister; it is a typical Georgian five-bay house with a large central chimney. The Searles House is a modest 1-1/2 story Cape, built in 1787. The Dr. Anson Boies House was built in 1810 by Reverend Bascomb, whose daughter married the doctor. The district schoolhouse, built in 1798, is one of the oldest in Massachusetts. The First Congregational Church was designed and built by master builder Henry A. Sykes of

Suffield, Connecticut Suffield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol Planning Region, and located in the Connecticut River Valley. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...

, later an architect of Springfield. The town of Chester was settled in 1763 and was incorporated in 1765 as Murrayfield. The town's early proprietors set aside the site of the town center as part of its initial land division. Its first

meeting house A meeting house (also spelled meetinghouse or meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes private meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a: * chu ...

was built sometime thereafter, eventually to be replaced by the Greek Revival First Congregational Church now standing. The town's early economy was largely agricultural. Still, industry developed in the area now known as Chester Factories, which had more ready access to water power, and was nearer an early (1800) turnpike. When the railroad bypassed the center in preference to Chester Factory in 1842, the village center declined in importance, and was not developed further.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Hampden County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Hampden County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Chester, Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References