{"nrhp_refnum":"75000269","name":"Brooks, Charles, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"309 High St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Medford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.42187517100007,"lon":-71.12402320099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-06-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A late eighteenth-century brick-end house at 309 High Street in Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, built c. 1780-1790 on a small hill near Judkins Square.","why_significant":"It is one of the last two surviving brick-end houses in Medford, a style popular there in the eighteenth century and based on the Isaac Royal House prototype. It is also associated with Charles Brooks, a nineteenth-century educational reformer and author, and with the writer Sarah Warner Brooks.","narrative":"Perched on a small hill about eight feet above High Street in Medford, this 2½-story house was built around 1780-1790 and is a focal point for approaches to Judkins Square. It is a brick-end house: clapboard front and back, red painted brick ends, paired end chimneys, a five-bay facade, a dentiled cornice and wooden quoins. Much of the interior survives, including Federal and Greek Revival changes. It is one of only two such houses left in Medford, a type modeled on the Isaac Royal House of the 1730s. The house is also tied to Charles Brooks, who bought it in 1839 and lived there periodically until 1872. He promoted state boards of education and teachers' colleges in Massachusetts and wrote the History of Medford. Later, Sarah Warner Brooks lived here from 1892 to 1906 and wrote A Garden with House Attached about its gardens. Traces of those gardens and the famous lilacs remain.","period_of_significance":"C. 1780-1790","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Elements of Georgian and Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in good to excellent condition, altered, and occupied as a private residence with a dental office; the original site is retained.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.275921-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/99/7958/63795899/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75000269.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000269/dee28c57cd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000269/dee28c57cd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MedfordMA_CharlesBrooksHouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MedfordMA_CharlesBrooksHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795899","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brooks_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5075819"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/brooks-charles-house-75000269/"}