In southwest Cumberland, near the intersection of Mendon Road (Route 122) and Angell Road (Route 116), is the historic mill village of Ashton.

Even though they are at the base of a hill, the Ashton Mill buildings dominate the landscape. The mill itself has been converted to a luxury apartment complex, the River Lofts at Ashton Mill, and the surrounding red-brick duplex houses, originally built to house mill workers, are still standing.

But it’s easy to miss Store Hill Road, the small street off Mendon Road that winds down the hill and leads to Middle Street and Front Street, and the mill complex, because it’s near a curve and the traffic pace on Mendon Road is swift.

The mill complex is near the base of the viaduct that carries Route 116 over the Blackstone River and into Lincoln. The Lonsdale Company built the Ashton Mill in 1867 right next to the river. Providence and Worcester Railroad tracks separate the main mill building from one of the parking lots.

Gallery

See more of
Ashton

From the outside, the mill looks unchanged, but on the inside is a modern apartment complex that bills itself as having urban style in a suburban setting close to the Blackstone Bikeway. Rents at the River Lofts start at $980 for one-bedroom apartments and $1,695 for two-bedroom units.

Other sections of Ashton are also a mix of old and new elements. More duplex housing, also likely built for mill workers, lines part of Scott Road, but on Lenky Way, a small cul-de-sac off Scott Road, a new, $449,900 Colonial is for sale. It was the highest-price house on the market in Ashton last week, with 2,600 square feet of space, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, cathedral ceilings, and central air conditioning. The listing information says the house price has been reduced and is now a “sacrificed price.” There are several other empty house lots on the cul-de-sac.

Other single-family houses on the market in Ashton last week ranged in price from $229,000, for a 1960 ranch with 3 bedrooms, 1 full and 1 half bath, and 1,458 square feet of space, to $419,999, for a 1996 Colonial at 4 Brookwood Lane, with 3 bedrooms, 3 baths and 2,468 square feet of space.

There is also a new subdivision called Ashton Woods with home prices listed from $349,900 to $419,900.

POPULATION:

(Cumberland, 2000) 31,840

MEDIAN HOUSE PRICE:

(Cumberland, 2007) $296,000

PUBLIC SCHOOLS:

Ashton Elementary School

Cumberland High School

INTERESTING FACT: Cumberland’s public library building, known as the Monastery, was home to a community of Trappist monks in the first half of the last century. The monks, using granite quarried from the property, erected the first building on the site in 1902. In 1950, a fire destroyed one of the community’s only wooden buildings, the Guest House, and most of the church.

cdunn@projo.com