{"nrhp_refnum":"71000903","name":"Parsonage, The","other_names":["Horatio Alger House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"16 Pleasant St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Natick","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.27092260000006,"lon":-71.31431280252269,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-11-11","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1971-11-11","areas_of_significance":["Literature"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story white clapboard house at 16 Pleasant Street, Natick, Massachusetts, used as the parsonage of Eliot Church (Federated) of South Natick and known as the Horatio Alger House. It is said to have been built around 1820.","why_significant":"The nomination ties the house to author Horatio Alger, who summered there from 1866 to 1877 and again after about two years in the West, then retired nearby in 1898. His boys' stories, such as Ragged Dick (1867), dramatized the belief that virtue is rewarded with wealth and honor. The nomination argues he left a profound though intangible mark on American history.","narrative":"This two-story white clapboard house at 16 Pleasant Street in Natick, Massachusetts, has served as the parsonage of Eliot Church for generations. Said to date from about 1820, it has a gable roof, a five-bay front, a porch with square columns, a bay window added in the mid-nineteenth century, and a rear ell with a later garage. It is recognized for its link to Horatio Alger, the author of boys' stories such as Ragged Dick (1867). Alger spent his summers here from 1866 to 1877, resumed the practice after nearly two years in the West, and retired to Natick in 1898, dying there in 1899. His tales presented virtue rewarded by wealth and honor, and one writer called him the most successful writer of boys' stories in American literature. The house is described as relatively unchanged since his time, with a scenic setting near the Charles River, and it still functions as a parsonage.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Still used as the church parsonage; the church was without a pastor and a temporary resident used some rooms. Condition is marked good, and the house is described as relatively unchanged since Alger's time.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.409592-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/61/7937/63793761/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/71000903_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000903/aa07cc706f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000903/aa07cc706f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"National Park Service photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Parsonage,_Natick_(Middlesex_County,_Massachusetts).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">National Park Service photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Parsonage,_Natick_(Middlesex_County,_Massachusetts).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"83000812","name":"John Eliot Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/john-eliot-historic-district-83000812/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793761","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parsonage_(Natick,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7756184"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/parsonage-the-71000903/"}