The waterfall at Wyoming Pond dam is near many houses.

Wyoming village happens to be located near a part of rural Richmond that is one of the town’s hot spots for commercial development.

In recent years new fast-food outlets and chain stores have been sprouting up on the stretch of Main Street (Route 138) nearest Route 95.

Part of the historic district of Wyoming is also in Hopkinton, and includes a residential area near the Wyoming dam and fishing area on Main Street. A cluster of streets near the Wood River, Bridge Street, Aldrich Street and Prospect Square feature historic plaque houses built during the day when local mills and the Brand’s Iron Works were the area’s major employers.

This historic district includes Greek Revival and late Victorian and federal architecture, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The original name for the village was Brand’s Iron Works; and the village was later called Alton, and it was renamed again, on Dec. 11, 1855, to Wyoming. The reasons for the name changes are unknown, but Wyoming is an Indian name meaning “meeting of the plains.”

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Wyoming village also includes some older commercial construction, including the Stagecoach House Inn at 1136 Main St., which was built in 1796.

Bill Bokon said he and his wife, Deb Bokon, bought the inn in 2003, after a 2001 renovation of the 12-room bed-and-breakfast. The Bokons also rent out commercial space in the building; tenants include a lawyer, a realty office and a massage therapist.

Bokon said the inn was originally a stop on a stagecoach route from New London, Conn., to Providence, and it was originally a larger building, with a saloon and a dance hall. One part of the building was later torn down to widen nearby Route 3, he said.

Houses for sale in the greater Wyoming neighborhood last week ranged in price from $173,500 for a two-bedroom, one-bath raised ranch at 17 New London Turnpike, built in 1982, to $339,000 for a four-bedroom, two-bath Garrison Colonial at 2 Cedar Hills Drive.

In the historic district itself, there appeared to be only one house for sale, a house at 14 Aldrich St. that appeared to be in distressed condition, with a boarded-up front entrance.

POPULATION:

(Hopkinton, 2000) 7,836 (Richmond, 2000) 7,222

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

Hopkinton, 2007) $302,000 (Richmond, 2007) $276,625

INTERESTING FACT:

Choice corn that was used for jonnycake meal was grown for many years at the former Card farm just outside Wyoming village, near the intersection of Routes 95 and 138.

cdunn@projo.com