{"nrhp_refnum":"71000911","name":"Red Top","other_names":["William Dean Howells House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"90 Somerset St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Belmont","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.40016820750003,"lon":-71.17875694500657,"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":"Red Top is a two-and-a-half-story brick and stucco house at 90 Somerset Street, Belmont, Massachusetts, built for writer William Dean Howells and occupied in 1878. It was designed by the firm McKim, Mead, and White.","why_significant":"The house is tied to William Dean Howells, America's foremost literary critic around the turn of the century and a leading advocate of literary realism. He lived here from 1878 to 1882 while editing the Atlantic Monthly and wrote several novels, including A Modern Instance. He entertained Mark Twain, James Russell Lowell and other literary figures here.","narrative":"Red Top is a two-and-a-half-story house of brick and stucco at 90 Somerset Street in Belmont, Massachusetts. William Dean Howells and his wife began building it in 1877, and the family occupied it in 1878. The architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White designed it; Mrs. Howells' brother was a partner in the firm. Howells lived here until 1882, during the last years of his editorship of the Atlantic Monthly. He entertained Mark Twain, James Russell Lowell and other writers, and he completed works including The Lady of Aroostook and A Modern Instance while in residence. At the turn of the century he was America's leading literary critic and a champion of realism in fiction. Inside, the study keeps an inglenook used by Twain and the painted motto \"From Venice as far as Belmont.\" Later changes include stucco replacing shingle siding, a garage, and a rebuilt chimney, but the house retains substantial integrity.","period_of_significance":"1878-1882","architect_builder":"McKim, Mead, and White","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Private residence, occupied; condition fair, with alterations made before 1938 but substantial integrity retained.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.138038-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/87/7938/63793887/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/71000911_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000911/0a62cdafc2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000911/0a62cdafc2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Redtop_(Belmont,_Massachusetts).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot</a>, <a href=\"http://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:Redtop_(Belmont,_Massachusetts).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793887","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redtop_(Belmont,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7306310"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/red-top-71000911/"}