North Becket Village Historic District

North Becket Village Historic District is a historic district encompassing the historic village of North Becket in the Berkshire hill town of Becket, Massachusetts. The village developed rapidly as the main economic and civic center of the town in a 20-year period beginning in 1841 with the arrival of the Western Railroad, and retains many fine examples of Greek Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.Description and historyThe town of Becket was laid out by colonists in the 1730s, but was not settled until the 1750s. It was incorporated as a town in 1765, with its town center located at what is now known as Becket Center, at Massachusetts Route 8 and YMCA Road. North Becket Village did not begin growth until the 1820s, when a sawmill was established. Then in 1841 the Western Railroad was completed along the West Branch Westfield River, and North Becket developed rapidly as an economic center. The brooks feeding the Westfield River became a source of water power for a variety of industries, which distributed their goods to market via the railroad. Over a twenty-year period, many of the towns public institutions moved to the village, and a cluster of Greek Revival residences were built on the west side of Main and High Streets. Most of the village's industries and commercial buildings were wiped out by a flood caused by the breach of a dam on Yokum Brook in 1927, in many cases leaving only foundational remnants.