{"nrhp_refnum":"02001733","name":"McLean Hospital National Register District","other_names":["McLean Asylum"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"115 Mill St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Belmont","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.397406000000046,"lon":-71.19067170986742,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-01-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Education","Health/Medicine","Landscape Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 308-acre psychiatric hospital campus district at 115 Mill Street in Belmont, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It was designed in 1872-1892 and built mainly in the 1890s, and includes the hilltop building group, designed landscapes, woodlands and the former McLean Farm (Rock Meadow).","why_significant":"The nomination presents McLean as the first full-fledged cottage-plan psychiatric hospital in America. Small free-standing buildings set in designed landscapes replaced a single monolithic building, to create a homelike, therapeutic environment. The buildings and landscapes are both well designed and well preserved, and the landscape retains features proposed by Frederick Law Olmsted and designed by Joseph Curtis.","narrative":"McLean Hospital occupies about 308 acres on the southeastern slope of Belmont Hill, eight miles west of Boston. Planned between 1872 and 1892 and built mostly in the 1890s, it was the first full-fledged cottage-plan psychiatric hospital in America. Rather than one large institution, it uses smaller free-standing buildings arranged on a hilltop, with the main front row of Administration, South Belknap, Appleton, North Belknap and Proctor overlooking a broad lawn called the Bowl. Service buildings and patient wings extend behind, joined by underground tunnels. The setting was meant to be therapeutic, with enclosed patient yards, curving drives, specimen trees and wooded buffers. The landscape retains features proposed by Frederick Law Olmsted and designed by Joseph Curtis. Buildings include eight Colonial Revival structures by Fehmer & Page. The district also takes in the former McLean Farm, now town conservation land called Rock Meadow. It was listed for its design quality, its integrity and its role in psychiatric hospital planning, and the hospital still operates today.","period_of_significance":"1850s-1952","architect_builder":"Fehmer & Page (architects of several early buildings, including South Belknap and Appleton); Connery & Wentworth (builders); William Y. Peters (Upham Memorial Building); landscape by Frederick Law Olmsted (proposed) and Joseph Curtis (designed)","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Jacobethan Revival, Gothic Revival, International Style, Mixed Style, Utilitarian, Contemporary","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still operating as a psychiatric hospital and medical research facility, with conservation land, trails and a high school on the grounds. New development zones for townhouses, continuing care and research were planned, along with 119.64 acres of preserved open space.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.682475-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/2/7958/63795802/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/02001733.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795802","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLean_Hospital_National_Register_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6802148"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/mclean-hospital-national-register-district-02001733/"}