{"nrhp_refnum":"76001970","name":"Little, Arthur D., Inc., Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Memorial Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.36115519400005,"lon":-71.08216521916223,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-12-08","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1976-12-08","areas_of_significance":["Science"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story masonry laboratory and office building at 30 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, begun in 1917 (cornerstone laid May 8, 1917) as the home of Arthur D. Little, Inc. The architect and builder are unknown.","why_significant":"The building is tied to Arthur D. Little, Inc., one of the first and most influential commercial research laboratories in the United States. The firm pioneered contract scientific and engineering research for industry and anticipated later consulting firms and think tanks. The building itself is not considered architecturally significant.","narrative":"Three stories of masonry, roughly 100 by 40 feet, make up the building at 30 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, near the MIT campus on the Charles River. Its cornerstone was laid on May 8, 1917, after Arthur D. Little, Inc. outgrew its Boston quarters and planned a structure for laboratories and administrative offices. The architect and builder are unknown, and the design is described as typical commercial architecture of its time. Its importance lies in the company it housed. Arthur Dehon Little began consulting work in 1886, first for the paper industry and its sulfite process, and built the firm into the country's largest commercial laboratory by 1909. Such laboratories did contract research for industry and government without being tied to a corporation, university or agency. The company later moved into systems analysis and broad consulting work. After it moved its main operations to Acorn Park in the 1950s, the Memorial Drive building was retained and still serves as a laboratory.","period_of_significance":"1917-","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Typical commercial architecture of the period","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; still functions as a laboratory, as it did when built in 1917. The company moved its main facilities to Acorn Park in the 1950s but kept the building.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.210779-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/87/7937/63793787/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76001970_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001970/103a15ffe6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001970/103a15ffe6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_D_Little_Building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_D_Little_Building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793787","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_D._Little_Inc.,_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4798398"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/little-arthur-d-inc-building-76001970/"}