{"nrhp_refnum":"01001186","name":"Old Douglas Center Historic District","other_names":["Douglas Center Historic District"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Church, Common, Main, NW Main, SW Main and Webster Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Douglas","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.05747900000006,"lon":-71.73960858259863,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-10-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 192-acre historic district at the original town center of Douglas, Worcester County, Massachusetts, radiating from the Town Common along five roads. It has 50 contributing resources, mostly houses dating from the late 18th century to the 1940s, plus a church, school, tavern, cemetery and farmland.","why_significant":"The district preserves the original residential and institutional crossroads of Douglas, which lost its industrial development to East Douglas in the mid-1800s. It contains a notable group of Federal and Greek Revival houses, many attributed to local architect and builder Paul Dudley. Its farmland, barns and outbuildings also reflect the town's agricultural heritage.","narrative":"Douglas Center is the original village core of Douglas, Massachusetts, a 192-acre district spreading from the Town Common along Main, NW Main, SW Main, Webster and Church Streets. It holds 50 contributing resources: houses, a church, a school, a tavern, a cemetery, a monument and surrounding farmland. Development shifted to East Douglas in the mid-1800s with the railroad and mills, so the center kept its small-scale, rural character. Most buildings range from the late Federal period through the Greek Revival, with a few Craftsman and Colonial Revival examples from the early 20th century. Several finely detailed Federal houses are attributed to Paul Dudley, a local architect and builder who also owned the tavern on the stagecoach route. The Dudley-Amidon House of 1813 has an elaborate entrance and stenciled interior walls. Barns, sheds and a privy at several properties show the area's farming past, and the Dudley-Robbins-Parker farmland adds to that picture.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Paul Dudley (1758-1857), local architect and builder, to whom many Federal dwellings are attributed","architectural_style":"Federal, Greek Revival, Colonial Revival, Craftsman/Bungalow","criteria":[],"status_note":"Most buildings are described as well preserved, though several have synthetic siding; the former tavern is now a single-family dwelling and the Chandler-Balcome barn has been converted to a store.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:05.030868-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/8/7973/63797308/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/01001186.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001186/c2982da70e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001186/c2982da70e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Congregational_Church_of_Douglas_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:First_Congregational_Church_of_Douglas_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797308","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Douglas_Center_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7083870"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/old-douglas-center-historic-district-01001186/"}