{"nrhp_refnum":"72000139","name":"Grace Episcopal Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"160 High St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Medford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.420129125000074,"lon":-71.11618553399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-11-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A church building at 160 High Street in Medford, Massachusetts, designed in 1867 by Henry Hobson Richardson and built between 1868 and 1872 with walls of glacial boulders and cut granite trim.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is significant as the work of H.H. Richardson, won through a competition, and as the oldest surviving church by him in the United States. It is also the first place Richardson used glacial boulders as a walling material, a theme he later revisited. Much of the original interior survives.","narrative":"Grace Episcopal Church, at 160 High Street in Medford, Massachusetts, was designed in 1867 by Henry Hobson Richardson after he won a design competition, and it was built between 1868 and 1872. It has the simplest plan of any Richardson church: a nave, a low polygonal chancel and a tall bell tower. Its walls are glacial boulders trimmed with quarry-surfaced granite, and the steep slate roof carries three bands of red slate. This was the first time Richardson used boulder walling, a material he returned to in later works. The tower and entrance porch resemble those of Richard Upjohn's St. Paul's Church in Brookline. It is the second church Richardson designed and, after the demolition of his Springfield church, the oldest of his surviving churches in the country. The original wooden roof framing, pews, pulpit, chancel interior and rose window remain. Additions followed in 1882, early in the twentieth century and in 1957, the last two finished in cream stucco.","period_of_significance":"1868-72","architect_builder":"Henry Hobson Richardson","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied and in religious use, in good condition and altered by additions in 1882, the early twentieth century and 1957; the original interior is largely preserved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.624531-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/43/7960/63796043/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/72000139.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000139/eb4ccae1ca-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000139/eb4ccae1ca-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grace_Episcopal_Church_(Medford,_MA)_-_north_facade.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:Grace_Episcopal_Church_(Medford,_MA)_-_north_facade.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796043","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Episcopal_Church_(Medford,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5591129"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/grace-episcopal-church-72000139/"}