{"nrhp_refnum":"74001763","name":"Gough, John B., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"221 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boylston","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.328945934000046,"lon":-71.75563152082026,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-03-19","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1974-05-30","areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story white frame house at Boylston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, built in 1848 for temperance lecturer John B. Gough and his second wife, Mary Whitcomb. The nominated property also includes a horse barn and a cart house/workshop.","why_significant":"Gough lived here from 1848 until his death in 1886, the major part of his career as a temperance orator. He lectured across the United States and in England, and the nomination argues that he was one of the movement's most spectacular reformers. The house is described as well preserved and largely unchanged from its appearance in Gough's time.","narrative":"Hillside, the John B. Gough House in Boylston, Massachusetts, is a spacious white New England frame house of two stories with a hipped roof, a cupola, restrained Italianate bracketing and a front porch with octagonal columns. Gough had it built in 1848 for himself and his second wife, Mary Whitcomb, on twenty-six acres five miles from Worcester. He lived here until his death in 1886. Gough was a reformed drunkard who signed a temperance pledge in Worcester in 1842 and became one of the country's best-known temperance lecturers. He gave thousands of lectures in the United States and toured England several times. The house remains close to its appearance in an 1869 engraving, with the loss of its shutters the only noted alteration. A horse barn and a cart house/workshop also stand on the property. The estate was a working farm that employed twelve laborers by 1868. The house later held apartments, a school faculty residence, and a corporate training center before the town acquired it.","period_of_significance":"1848-1886","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century: Italian Villa (restrained Italianate details)","criteria":[],"status_note":"The 1973 form lists the house as occupied, in excellent condition and unaltered, serving as a residence for teachers. The later documentation says the estate is owned by the Town of Boylston and is the subject of a restoration project begun in 1998.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.924543-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/17/7939/63793917/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/74001763_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001763/0896f6f2e0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001763/0896f6f2e0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_B._Gough_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</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:John_B._Gough_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793917","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Gough_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715634"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/gough-john-b-house-74001763/"}