{"nrhp_refnum":"75000270","name":"Brooks, Jonathan, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2 Woburn St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Medford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.421886434000044,"lon":-71.12341585499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-06-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Exploration/Settlement","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2½-story gambrel-roofed frame house at 2 Woburn Street, Medford, Massachusetts, facing Judkins Square, built between about 1781 and 1791 and apparently added onto an earlier cottage.","why_significant":"It is one of the few surviving eighteenth-century houses in Medford and has a long association with the locally dominant Brooks family. It keeps most of its original fabric, inside and under later siding. Charles Brooks, a local historian and educational reformer, is tied to the house, which is a well-known local landmark.","narrative":"Jonathan Brooks House is a 2½-story gambrel-roofed frame house at the junction of High and Woburn Streets in Medford, facing Judkins Square. Built between about 1781 and 1791, it appears to have been added onto an earlier cottage whose framing and an oversized chimney base survive on the south side. The facade is five bays wide with a small enclosed entrance porch, and wood shingles added in the mid-nineteenth century cover much of the exterior. Inside, raised panel walls, six-panel doors, window seats and two Federal mantels remain. Two ells extend from the main block. The house matters as one of the few eighteenth-century dwellings left in Medford and for its link to the Brooks family, who owned much of West Medford. Jonathan Brooks, a tanner, bought it in 1791, and his son Charles, a local historian and educational reformer, later owned it. It has stayed in the family since 1781.","period_of_significance":"1781-1791","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial Georgian","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent and altered; still owned and occupied as a private residence by members of the Brooks family.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.387082-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/35/7959/63795935/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75000270.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000270/92eaef2417-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000270/92eaef2417-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MedfordMA_JonathanBrooksHouse.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_JonathanBrooksHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795935","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Brooks_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6272650"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/brooks-jonathan-house-75000270/"}