{"nrhp_refnum":"73000329","name":"Old Stone Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Off MA 140","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Boylston","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.374807127000054,"lon":-71.78257569699997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A granite ashlar Baptist church built in 1891 near the shore of the Wachusett Reservoir off Route 140 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. It is now a ruin owned by a state agency.","why_significant":"It is the only structure of the old center of West Boylston still on its original site. It symbolizes the community as it existed before the reservoir construction began in 1895, and the town placed it on its town seal. It also resembles an English country church in a picturesque 19th-century landscape.","narrative":"Old Stone Church is a granite ashlar building on a sloping meadow beside the Wachusett Reservoir in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Baptists built it in 1891 from hand-cut stone quarried at Malden Hill. It has a long, steeply pitched roof with small triangular dormers, a crenellated entrance tower at the north corner, and buttresses along the walls. Granite courses separate the basement from the main floor, and round or arched openings fill the gables. The church is the only structure of West Boylston's old center that remains on its original site. The Wachusett Reservoir, begun in 1895, flooded about sixty percent of the town's land, and the church now stands as a reminder of the community before that change. The town placed it on its seal. The building is a ruin: the roof is collapsing, the interior has decayed, and two walls are buckling. Restoration is not planned, but stabilization as a ruin has been considered.","period_of_significance":"19th Century; specific date 1891","architect_builder":"Baptists (church society) constructed it; no architect named","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Ruin: doors and windows destroyed or deteriorated, roof collapsing, interior decayed, and two walls buckling. Restoration is not contemplated, though stabilization as a ruin is being considered.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.904511-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/16/7975/63797516/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/73000329.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000329/521672c154-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73000329/521672c154-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"LymanSchool at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WachusettOldStoneChurch.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">LymanSchool at en.wikipedia</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:WachusettOldStoneChurch.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797516","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Stone_Church_(West_Boylston,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7085107"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/old-stone-church-73000329/"}