The Taunton Green Historic District encompasses the core area of the historic 19th-century commercial downtown business district of Taunton, Massachusetts. It is centered on the town green, laid out in the 1740s, and now stands at the intersection of U.S. Route 44 and State routes 140 and 138. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.HistoryThe early commercial center of the city of Taunton was southeast of the present center, at the confluence of the Taunton and Mill Rivers. In the 18th century early industry in the form of sawmills and gristmills developed on the Mill River. The Taunton Green was given to the town in 1743 as a militia training ground, and it is also where an early meetinghouse was built. Originally 88acre in size, it is now much reduced by the surrounding development. Early commercial buildings were mostly of wood-frame construction, of which a few survive.Taunton Green has historically the gathering place for troops headed to war. Monuments stand on the Green to honor soldiers of all the wars in which local citizens have participated."Tauntonians" gathered on the Green on October 21, 1774, to raise the Taunton Flag with its distinctive "Liberty and Union" motto. The flag was hoisted on a 112-foot liberty pole in defiance of King George III. The flag flies on the Green to the present day.A fire in 1859 destroyed many buildings east of the green, and inaugurated more significant growth of brick buildings in the following decades.
