{"nrhp_refnum":"76000301","name":"Lancaster Industrial School for Girls","other_names":["Bridecake Plain"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"SE of Lancaster on Old Common Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lancaster","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.44321400000004,"lon":-71.65832303824587,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-10-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A district of about 70 acres in Lancaster, Massachusetts, on Old Common Road, containing the former Lancaster Industrial School for Girls. It has brick cottages and institutional buildings from the 1850s onward, plus three late eighteenth-century farmhouses, and is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that it is the oldest girls' training school in America and one of the most progressive correctional institutions of its day. It was the first such school in the world with individual girls' rooms rather than dormitories. The district also preserves a varied group of eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings, from farmhouses to purpose-built cottages.","narrative":"Lancaster Industrial School for Girls occupies a landscaped campus southeast of Lancaster center, between Old Common Road and Still River Road. Established in April 1854 with a $20,000 legislative appropriation, it is described as the first girls' training school in the United States and the first in the world to give girls individual rooms instead of dormitory beds. The aim was less vocational than the healing of emotional troubles among girls the courts classed as delinquent, and life ran on honor principles. The district includes eight brick cottages, the first being Fay Cottage of 1855, along with a chapel, barn, shops and an infirmary. Three clapboard farmhouses from the late eighteenth century, such as the Thomas Safford House and the Abner Pollard House, were acquired for residences and offices. The land was once the town common, site of a 1705 meeting house, and was called Bridecake Plain. The grounds still serve penal and community programs.","period_of_significance":"1900- (the box checked on the form; the text describes events from 1854 onward)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal farmhouses and Italianate brick cottages","criteria":[],"status_note":"Activity at the school has been phased down, but the facility continues to be used for various penal and community programs. The form marks the property as both occupied and unoccupied, in good condition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.804958-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/88/7974/63797488/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76000301.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000301/c89911b5cc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76000301/c89911b5cc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LancasterMA_GirlsSchool_1.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:LancasterMA_GirlsSchool_1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797488","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster_Industrial_School_for_Girls","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6483207"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/lancaster-industrial-school-for-girls-76000301/"}