The fifteen houses on South Mills Avenue which comprise the Russian Village District are a collection of homes constructed and designed by untrained laborers and poor immigrant workers who built the houses with whatever materials they had available during the Great Depression; this includes telephone poles, chunks of pavement, and other odds and ends they had scavenged. Though they were looked down on at that time, they are now a source of pride to Claremont and the district was enlisted in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The houses are now occupied but visitors are still urged to come visit, explore, and appreciate the dedication and hard work that went into constructing these homes.

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