{"nrhp_refnum":"72000142","name":"Peabody City Hall","other_names":["Peabody Town Hall"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"24 Lowell St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Peabody","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.526476331000026,"lon":-70.92838608199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-07-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History","Performing Arts"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Peabody City Hall, originally Peabody Town Hall, is a three-story brick civic building with a mansard roof at 24 Lowell Street in Peabody, Essex County, Massachusetts, built in 1883 to designs by architect Rufus Sargent.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it was the center of Peabody's government, cultural and social life, with a 1,500-seat Great Hall that hosted town meetings, graduations, plays and celebrations from 1883 to 1946. It is also presented as a fine, unusually well preserved example of late 19th-century civic architecture in the French mansard (Second Empire) style. It also records the work of Rufus Sargent, a Newburyport builder-architect.","narrative":"Peabody City Hall at 24 Lowell Street was built in 1883 as the town hall and designed by Rufus Sargent of Newburyport. It is a three-story brick building on a rusticated foundation, with granite trim from Hallowell, Maine, a mansard roof, corner and central pavilions, and a small copper-clad cupola. The central entrance has a granite-columned portico and a pediment. Inside, the 1,500-seat Great Hall filled the second and third floors and served as the setting for town meetings, high school commencements from 1884 to 1946, operas, plays, banquets, balls, rallies and a centennial celebration of George Peabody's birth in 1895. The basement held the police court and jail cells. The building is described as a well preserved example of late 19th-century civic architecture in the French mansard style, which was somewhat old-fashioned by 1883. Recent work included repointing, reglazing and new roofing, and the city has continued to use the building for government.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (specific date 1883)","architect_builder":"Rufus Sargent (architect)","architectural_style":"French mansard / Second Empire","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in government use as city hall; exterior in excellent condition after recent renovations, while the Great Hall has deteriorated but is restorable.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.76951-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/28/7946/63794628/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/72000142.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000142/4fdbb65a38-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72000142/4fdbb65a38-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peabody_City_Hall,_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peabody_City_Hall,_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794628","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peabody_City_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7157225"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/peabody-city-hall-72000142/"}