{"nrhp_refnum":"00000955","name":"Wilson, Henry, Shoe Shop","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"181 W. Central St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Natick","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.28290135700007,"lon":-71.38142428699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-08-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Conservation","Industry"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small single-story, wood-frame \"ten-footer\" shoe shop at 181 West Central Street in West Natick, Massachusetts, built in the early 19th century (before 1833) and moved back from the road in 1931. It is now a museum on town-owned land.","why_significant":"It is a well-preserved example of the ten-footer shoe shops that reflect Natick's early cottage shoemaking industry, and the only known surviving example in Natick. It is also significant as a memorial shrine to Henry Wilson, the town's best-known citizen and later U.S. Vice President, kept up by local residents since the late 19th century.","narrative":"This small clapboard building at 181 West Central Street in West Natick, Massachusetts, is a \"ten-footer,\" the kind of cottage workshop where shoemakers sewed and lasted shoes before factories took over. Measuring about 15 by 10 feet, it was standing by 1833 and was moved back from the road in 1931 onto a cobblestone foundation. Inside is a single room holding lasts, cobbler benches, hammers, awls and early machines donated by townspeople. It is the best surviving example in Natick of a building type once found in nearly every yard. The shop is also remembered as a shrine to Henry Wilson, who became Vice President of the United States. Although his link to this building was brief or perhaps nonexistent, residents repaired and preserved it from the late 1800s onward, and the town received the site as a memorial park in 1927. It now serves as a museum.","period_of_significance":"c. 1820-1950","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"No style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Currently used as a museum, with period shoemaking tools and machinery inside; rehabilitated in the 1930s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.95904-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/38/7961/63796138/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/00000955.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000955/8da44b0371-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000955/8da44b0371-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Totrcs","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Wilson_Shoe_Shop_in_Winter.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Totrcs</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:Henry_Wilson_Shoe_Shop_in_Winter.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796138","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wilson_Shoe_Shop","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5730367"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/wilson-henry-shoe-shop-00000955/"}