{"nrhp_refnum":"06000860","name":"Watertown High School, Old","other_names":["East Junior High School","Middle School East","Brigham House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"341 Mount Auburn St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Watertown","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.36896711500003,"lon":-71.16972235899993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-09-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Education","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Former high school at 341 Mount Auburn Street in Watertown, Massachusetts, built in 1913 in the Elizabethan Revival style and now an assisted living facility called Brigham House.","why_significant":"The building is a well-preserved school by Boston architect and Watertown native Charles Brigham, and one of his last works. It reflects early 20th-century changes in public education, including a college preparatory curriculum, physical education, home economics for girls, and evening classes for immigrants. It is also a rare local example of Elizabethan Revival architecture.","narrative":"Old Watertown High School, at 341 Mount Auburn Street, is a castle-like red brick building completed in 1913 and trimmed with carved limestone. Charles Brigham, a Boston architect born in Watertown, designed it for his hometown at no cost, and John W. Duff built it. Its Elizabethan Revival style echoed college buildings of the period, fitting a college preparatory curriculum. The school expanded course offerings to twenty-three classes, devoted the attic floor to home economics for girls, added physical education for all students, and hosted evening classes for Armenian and Italian residents. In 1925 it became a junior high school and stayed in school use until the late 1980s. The building has since been converted into an assisted living facility with 60 apartments, while its original corridors, stairways, windows and the proscenium arch of the former auditorium survive. It was listed for its educational history and its architecture, and remains a commanding presence on Mount Auburn Street.","period_of_significance":"1913 to 1956","architect_builder":"Charles Brigham, architect: John W. Duff, builder","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Tudor Revival: Elizabethan Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Converted to an assisted living facility (Brigham House) with 60 apartments; original corridors, stairways and exterior features retained, and a 1954 connector to the Hosmer School was demolished during rehabilitation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.509169-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/7958/63795889/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/06000860.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000860/04fed8f404-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/06000860/04fed8f404-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Watertown_High_School,_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:Old_Watertown_High_School,_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795889","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Watertown_High_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7085392"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/watertown-high-school-old-06000860/"}