{"nrhp_refnum":"66000765","name":"Headquarters House","other_names":["William Hickling Prescott House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"55 Beacon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.356675209500054,"lon":-71.06821780508878,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1999-01-01","areas_of_significance":["Literature"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A four-story, bow-fronted Federal style brick row house at 55 Beacon Street, Boston, built c. 1806 as the western unit of a mirror-image pair facing Boston Common, from designs attributed to Asher Benjamin.","why_significant":"From 1844 until 1859 it was the principal home of historian William H. Prescott, who was nearly blind and wrote major histories using a noctograph. His Conquest of Mexico and Conquest of Peru rank him among America's leading historians. The house later became headquarters of the Colonial Dames in Massachusetts, and its exterior is essentially unaltered with Prescott's study restored.","narrative":"Number 55 Beacon Street in Boston is a four-story, bow-fronted brick row house built around 1806 in the Federal style. It forms the western half of a mirror-image pair facing Boston Common, and the design is credited to Asher Benjamin. A one-story porch with slender Doric columns follows the curve of the bow, and the exterior remains essentially unaltered. The house is best known as the home of William H. Prescott from 1844 until his death in 1859. Blinded in nearly both eyes by a college accident, Prescott wrote with a noctograph, a guided writing tablet, and produced histories of the conquests of Mexico and Peru that placed him among the country's leading historians. His restored third-floor study, with its shuttered bay window for controlling light, is a notable feature. In the twentieth century the house became headquarters of the Colonial Dames in Massachusetts, which keeps it in excellent condition and open to visitors.","period_of_significance":"c. 1806; 1844-59","architect_builder":"Asher Benjamin","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in excellent condition, occupied and used as a museum and society headquarters, open to the public on Wednesdays afternoons and by appointment.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 01:59:01.643991-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/83/7938/63793883/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/66000765_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000765/97e829b3bc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000765/97e829b3bc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Swampyank at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Headquarters_House_55_Beacon_Street_Boston.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Swampyank at en.wikipedia</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:Headquarters_House_55_Beacon_Street_Boston.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"66000130","name":"Beacon Hill Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/beacon-hill-historic-district-66000130/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793883","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headquarters_House_(Boston)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5689900"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/headquarters-house-66000765/"}