 Her brother William Austin Dickinson was also active in the political and economic life of Amherst, helping found its water and gas companies.Leonard Hills, who lived in two separate houses in the district, ran a distinctive business that manufactured hats out of palm leaves, and was a key figure in the founding of Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts at Amherst).The district also includes Amherst's Gothic First Congregational Church (1867), and the brick Italianate Central Vermont Railroad depot (1853), one of the oldest surviving railroad stations in the state.