{"nrhp_refnum":"75001626","name":"Hillside","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"230 Summer St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Plymouth","county":"Plymouth County","state":"MA","lat":41.948514585000055,"lon":-70.67957768099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-09-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Literature","Architecture","Philosophy","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Hillside is a Gothic Cottage-style house at 230 Summer Street, Plymouth, Massachusetts, designed in 1845 by Rev. Samuel Longfellow and built the same year by Benjamin Marston Watson, with about ten acres of surviving nursery grounds.","why_significant":"The nomination argues Hillside is significant for its link to the Old Colony Nurseries, a nationally and internationally known horticultural enterprise founded by Watson. It also matters for the close friendship between the Watsons and Concord Transcendentalists, including Thoreau, Emerson and the Alcotts, who stayed there and wrote and presented work in its gardens and parlor.","narrative":"Hillside is a Gothic Cottage on Summer Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts, set at the base of a natural bowl and surrounded by a large lawn. Reverend Samuel Longfellow, an amateur architect and brother of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, designed it in 1845, and Benjamin Marston Watson built it the same year. Its steep cross gable, Tudor-arched pavilion openings and label moldings recall the country-house designs of Andrew Jackson Downing. The grounds are the remnant of the Old Colony Nurseries, which once covered about eighty acres, as shown in a map surveyed by Henry David Thoreau in 1854. Watson grew many native and foreign plants, introduced Japanese honeysuckle to the United States and supplied vegetables and fruit to Boston. He and his wife, Mary Russell Watson, also hosted Concord thinkers such as Thoreau, Emerson, Bronson Alcott and Louisa May Alcott. Papers were written here and first heard in the garden or parlor.","period_of_significance":"1845","architect_builder":"Rev. Samuel Longfellow (architect); Benjamin Marston Watson (builder)","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival (Gothic Cottage)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied private residence, in altered condition; a hip-roof addition was built in the 1890s and shutters were added recently. About ten acres remain of the original eighty.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.722-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/69/7964/63796469/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75001626.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001626/e01385114e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75001626/e01385114e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlymouthMA_Hillside.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:PlymouthMA_Hillside.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796469","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillside_(Plymouth,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5763882"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/plymouth-county/hillside-75001626/"}