{"nrhp_refnum":"76000229","name":"County Street Historic District","other_names":["See Also: Willia J. Rotch Gothic Cottage NHL"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Acushnet, Page, Middle, and Bedford Sts. (both sides)","address_restricted":false,"city":"New Bedford","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.63228250000003,"lon":-70.93000820092749,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-08-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce","Community Planning and Development","Maritime History","Conservation"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large residential historic district of roughly 1,000 properties (about 100 acres) in New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts, covering housing built from about 1780 to 1890 around County Street, bounded roughly by Acushnet, Page, Middle and Bedford Streets.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district shows the logical development of New England architecture from 1780 to 1890. It is also significant for its ties to the prosperous merchants and whalers who shaped Massachusetts in the first half of the nineteenth century. Its three growth phases, east of, along and west of County Street, reflect whaling wealth and later textile prosperity.","narrative":"This New Bedford district of about 1,000 properties traces the city's residential growth from roughly 1780 to 1890. The oldest homes, dating from 1780 to 1820, lie in the southeast near Pleasant, Purchase and Acushnet Streets, while Federal brick houses stand along Sixth and Seventh Streets. County Street, developed between 1825 and 1850, holds Greek Revival mansions built for whaling merchants, including the William Rotch Rodman House of 1833, designed by Russell Warren. Land to the west filled with Gothic Revival, Italianate, Mansard and Queen Anne houses as whaling gave way to textile manufacturing. Smaller gable-end houses sheltered mill workers and white-collar staff. Many early merchants were Quakers, and their plain five-bay houses reflect a wish to avoid ostentation. The district was recognized as an area where architectural development can be followed in a logical sequence and where the wealth of the whaling era remains visible. Urban renewal removed nearby blocks in the 1960s, but the district itself stayed largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1780-1890","architect_builder":"Russell Warren (William Rotch Rodman House); A.J. Davis and William R. Emerson (William J. Rotch House); Levi Standish (Standish House)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival, Federal, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Mansard, Queen Anne and other nineteenth-century styles","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as still distinctly residential and largely intact, though some sections have deteriorated and modern commercial and apartment intrusions exist along County Street.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.4303-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/28/7944/63794428/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76000229.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000229/9aca56b9d1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000229/9aca56b9d1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Unitarian_Church,_New_Bedford_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794428","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_Street_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5177765"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/county-street-historic-district-76000229/"}