{"nrhp_refnum":"66000127","name":"Arnold Arboretum","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"22 Divinity Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.29929385250006,"lon":-71.12331931586131,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1965-01-12","areas_of_significance":["Science"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 265-acre arboretum of rolling land in the Jamaica Plain district of Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, established in 1872 and laid out with landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. It is owned by the City of Boston and administered by Harvard University.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the pre-eminent U.S. institution for the study of woody plants, with over 6,000 varieties of trees and shrubs from the North Temperate Zone. It reflects the work of first director Charles Sprague Sargent and the Olmsted-designed landscape. The 1882 city-university agreement made it part of Boston's park system.","narrative":"Arnold Arboretum occupies about 265 acres of hilly ground in Boston's Jamaica Plain district. It began in 1872, when Harvard received a bequest from New Bedford merchant James Arnold to create a tree farm for scientific study. Charles Sprague Sargent, appointed director in 1873, led its growth over some fifty years and brought in Frederick Law Olmsted, whose ground plan survives in the ponds, winding roads and paths, and the placement of some plantings. An 1882 agreement gave the land to Boston, which leased it to Harvard for a thousand years at a dollar a year, with the grounds to be open to the public as part of the city park system. Plants are grouped by species and family, labeled, and recorded. Bussey Hill and Peters' Hill carry scenic overlooks. An 1890 brick administration building, a herbarium, greenhouses and a bonsai house stand within the grounds. Sargent also built the library and herbarium and wrote the fourteen-volume Silva of North America.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as an arboretum and museum; grounds open to the public from sunrise to sunset, except the two Harvard-owned tracts.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 01:58:20.902975-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/7938/63793897/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/66000127_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000127/117bdf1198-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000127/117bdf1198-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"MarkinBoston at English Wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arboretum_Headquarters.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">MarkinBoston at English Wikipedia</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arboretum_Headquarters.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793897","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Arboretum","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q568666"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/arnold-arboretum-66000127/"}