{"nrhp_refnum":"00000415","name":"Harvard Avenue Historic District","other_names":["Allston Village Historic District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Linden St., Commonwealth AVe., Harvard Ave., and Park Vale Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.35351600000007,"lon":-71.13187696153842,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-04-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce","Community Planning and Development","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 23-acre mixed-use historic district along the Harvard Avenue corridor in the Allston section of Boston, Massachusetts, made up of commercial blocks, apartment buildings and row houses, mostly built between 1905 and 1916.","why_significant":"The district records Allston's change from a Victorian suburban neighborhood near the railroad depot into a dense commercial and apartment area during the early twentieth century. It keeps a largely intact group of one-story commercial blocks and small brick apartment buildings, along with earlier landmarks such as Allston Station, the fire station and the Allston Square multi-story blocks. Several buildings are by known architects and builders, including Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, Frank Shepherd, Franz Joseph Untersee and John Spofford.","narrative":"Harvard Avenue Historic District covers about 23 acres in Boston's Allston neighborhood, running south from the former Boston & Albany railroad tracks toward Commonwealth Avenue. Most of its buildings went up between 1905 and 1916 as one-story brick store blocks, small apartment buildings and row houses. A few older structures survive, including the c. 1870 John English House, the 1887 Richardsonian Romanesque Allston Station by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, and the 1891 Harvard Avenue Fire Station. Near the depot, multi-story brick blocks such as the Chester Block, Allston Hall Block and the 1895 Allen Building combined stores, apartments and meeting halls. Architects represented include Frank Shepherd, Franz Joseph Untersee, Henry Kendall and John Spofford. Many storefronts and windows have been altered, but the district keeps its overall character, with only 15 noncontributing resources. It documents how a Victorian railroad suburb was rebuilt as a masonry commercial and apartment district in the early twentieth century.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge (Allston Station); Frank H. Shepherd; Franz Joseph Untersee; Henry M. Kendall; H.H. Atwood; A.J. Carpenter; John Spofford","architectural_style":"Late Victorian (Mansard, Second Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, Renaissance Revival); Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals (Colonial Revival, Classical Revival, Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Largely in use; the district has 64 contributing and 15 noncontributing resources. Many storefronts and residential details have been altered, and the Shepard/Longfellow Block has boarded-up openings.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.985791-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/7967/63796779/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/00000415.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000415/81c0152185-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000415/81c0152185-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jameslwoodward","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvard_Avenue_Historic_District_Boston_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jameslwoodward</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvard_Avenue_Historic_District_Boston_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796779","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Avenue_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5676277"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/harvard-avenue-historic-district-00000415/"}