{"nrhp_refnum":"09001270","name":"Washington Square Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"E. 4th St., E. Oneida St., E. 3rd St.,","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oswego","county":"Oswego County","state":"NY","lat":43.45798197350004,"lon":-76.50406746489647,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2010-01-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of 46 properties around Washington Square, a public green laid out in 1797, on the east side of Oswego, New York. It includes residences, churches, a synagogue, the county courthouse and office building, and a former railroad tunnel.","why_significant":"The district was the civic and religious center of Oswego's east side, grouped around a village green laid out in 1797 by Benjamin Wright. It holds high-style architecture by prominent architects, including Horatio Nelson White and Zina D. Stevens, and houses from the early 1800s to the early 1900s. It is recognized for architecture and community planning and development.","narrative":"Washington Square Historic District occupies a hill on the east side of the Oswego River near Lake Ontario, centered on a four-acre public green laid out in 1797 by Benjamin Wright. The district has 46 properties, including 37 residences, four churches, a synagogue, the county courthouse and office building, and a former railroad tunnel beneath the park. The Oswego County Courthouse, designed by Horatio Nelson White and built in 1859, dominates the square. Churches by local architect Zina D. Stevens, including the Gothic Revival Church of the Evangelist of 1852 and the Romanesque Revival Congregational church of 1857, face the green. Surrounding streets hold houses from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth, in Italianate, Queen Anne, Greek Revival and other styles, among them the Italian Villa Richardson-Bates House. The district was listed for its architecture and its role in the planned development of the city's eastern civic and religious center between 1797 and 1959.","period_of_significance":"1797-1959","architect_builder":"Horatio N. White; Zina D. Steven; John H. Seeber","architectural_style":"Federal, Greek Revival, Italian Villa, Italianate, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, bungalow","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"St. Louis Catholic Church is vacant; the Church of the Evangelist was converted to a group home in the 1970s; most other buildings remain in residential, religious or government use.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:47.788108-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/09001270.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75314325","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Square_Historic_District_(Oswego,_New_York)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7972211"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/oswego-county/washington-square-historic-district-09001270/"}