{"nrhp_refnum":"00000899","name":"North Bedford Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Summer, Park, Pleasant and Kempton Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New Bedford","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.64082000000005,"lon":-70.92974555712107,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-09-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Exploration/Settlement","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district of roughly 400 buildings, about 54-60 acres, in the north part of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It lies north of the Central New Bedford Historic District and runs along a hillside above the Acushnet River.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is the major unaltered example of a middle-class nineteenth-century residential neighborhood in New Bedford. It is unusual for modest workers' housing interspersed with more elaborate homes, a pattern produced by infill as the city grew from whaling and later textile wealth. It was home to caulkers, blacksmiths, housewrights and other tradespeople serving the whaling and textile industries.","narrative":"North Bedford is a dense residential neighborhood of about 400 buildings in New Bedford, Massachusetts, set on a hillside above the Acushnet River. Most houses are two to two and a half stories, wood-framed and clapboarded or shingled, set on small lots close to the sidewalk. Federal, Greek Revival and Italianate houses dominate the southern part, while Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival examples appear toward the north. The district was listed because it preserves the look of a nineteenth-century middle-class community shaped by the city's whaling and later textile economies. Caulkers, blacksmiths, housewrights, grocers and other tradespeople built modest homes here, and more elaborate manufacturers' houses were mixed in among them. Twentieth-century economic decline and the small number of modern intrusions helped keep the area intact, even as urban renewal cleared much of the surrounding land. Some buildings now hold two or more households, but the exteriors have changed little.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition described as good to excellent; buildings are sound and retain original architectural features, though many need paint and minor maintenance. Almost entirely residential, with a few religious and governmental uses.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.238395-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/18/7945/63794518/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/00000899.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000899/e049f3f5bc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000899/e049f3f5bc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewBedfordMA_NorthBedfordHD_3.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewBedfordMA_NorthBedfordHD_3.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794518","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Bedford_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7054122"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/north-bedford-historic-district-00000899/"}