{"nrhp_refnum":"00000871","name":"Dearborn School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"25 Ambrose St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.32960570100005,"lon":-71.07782772599995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-08-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story red brick Beaux Arts school building at 25 Ambrose Street in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, designed in 1904 and completed in 1905 by architect Edwin J. Lewis, Jr.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the school is an intact early 20th century Boston grammar school built to new Schoolhouse Department standards, and is tied to the educational and social development of Lower Roxbury. It is also an accomplished Beaux Arts design by Lewis, with an unusual V-shaped plan fitted to its corner site. It is the sole surviving building in an area cleared around 1950 for urban renewal.","narrative":"Dearborn School is a three-story red brick schoolhouse at the curved corner of Orchard Park and Ambrose Streets in Roxbury, Boston. Designed in 1904 by Edwin J. Lewis, Jr., and completed in 1905 by W.N. Pike & Sons, it follows a broad V-shaped plan that fits its Y-shaped intersection site. The Beaux Arts exterior features limestone trim, rusticated lower stories, colossal Corinthian columns above the entrance and oriel windows lighting the stairwells. It was built under Boston's Schoolhouse Department, whose standards governed classroom size, lighting and fireproofing, and it opened to about 1,050 pupils, mostly of Irish descent. The building is valued as an intact example of an early 20th century Boston grammar school and as the only survivor of a neighborhood cleared for urban renewal around 1950. Declared surplus by the city by 1984, it stood vacant at the time of listing and was being converted to low-income housing.","period_of_significance":"1905-1950","architect_builder":"Edwin James Lewis, Jr. (architect); W.N. Pike & Sons (builder)","architectural_style":"Beaux Arts","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The form states the school stands vacant and was being converted to low-income housing; about forty percent of the window sash are missing or covered.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.542519-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/7968/63796889/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/00000871.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000871/95897d15e6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000871/95897d15e6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dearborn_School.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dearborn_School.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796889","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dearborn_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5246971"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/dearborn-school-00000871/"}