{"nrhp_refnum":"73000856","name":"Roxbury High Fort","other_names":["Highland Park"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Beech Glen St. at Fort Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.32128715400006,"lon":-71.08956756499998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-04-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Highland Park (Roxbury High Fort) is a 3.66-acre public park on a rocky hill in the Roxbury district of Boston, Massachusetts. It contains the site of a 1775 Revolutionary War fort and an 1869-70 Victorian water standpipe.","why_significant":"The hilltop overlooked the only land route into Boston and was fortified in 1775 during the siege of Boston, from designs by Henry Knox and Josiah Waters. The 1869-70 brick standpipe, designed by Standish and Woodbury, is cited as a notable example of Victorian Gothic architecture. The park was later restored under Frederick Law Olmsted and his firm between 1895 and 1916, adding landscape significance.","narrative":"Highland Park is a 3.66-acre open space on the crest of a rocky hill in Roxbury, Boston, with outcrops of puddingstone and a wide view of the city. In the summer of 1775 the hill was fortified as part of the siege of Boston, with a quadrangular earthwork designed by Henry Knox and Josiah Waters. It overlooked the only land route into the city. The fort was demolished in 1869-70 to make way for a circular brick and granite standpipe, designed by Standish and Woodbury, for Boston's Cochituate Water System. Its Gothic details include lancet windows and a pointed steeple. After the system was abandoned, the site declined until 1895, when Frederick Law Olmsted and his firm were engaged to renovate it. Their work, continuing to 1916, partly reconstructed the fort, laid out walkways, added a retaining wall and placed four cannons. The standpipe is now closed and deteriorating, but the park remains a neighborhood open space.","period_of_significance":"18th and 19th centuries; specific dates 1775, 1869-70","architect_builder":"Henry Knox and Josiah Waters (fort design); Standish and Woodbury (standpipe); Frederick Law Olmsted and firm (park renovation)","architectural_style":"Victorian Gothic (standpipe)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the City of Boston Parks and Recreation Department and used as a park. The standpipe is no longer used, is locked and boarded, and its brick, paint and roofs have deteriorated. The form notes neglect since the 1930s and preservation work in progress.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.706144-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/47/7969/63796947/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/73000856.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796947","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxbury_High_Fort","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7372416"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/roxbury-high-fort-73000856/"}