{"nrhp_refnum":"77000653","name":"Whitcomb House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"51 Harvard St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.27113512200003,"lon":-71.80196503999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-11-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story granite Victorian mansion at 51 Harvard Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, built in 1879-80 for businessman George H. Whitcomb, with a stone stable and carriage house behind it.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a fine example of a high Victorian mansion and the home of George H. Whitcomb, one of Worcester's most successful businessmen and generous philanthropists of the nineteenth century. It is also one of the few remaining houses designed by local architect Stephen C. Earle, who mostly designed churches and public buildings.","narrative":"Built in 1879-80 at the corner of Harvard and Highland Streets in Worcester, this three-story granite mansion was designed by local architect Stephen C. Earle for George H. Whitcomb. Its asymmetrical, polychromatic design features a central gabled wing, a round-arched entrance with carved granite columns, a cast iron balcony, a turret with a conical slate roof, and a roofline broken by many shingled dormers. Lighter stone around the windows contrasts with the granite walls. Inside, formal rooms are finished in cherry, oak, butternut and mahogany, with decorative painting on walls and ceilings. Whitcomb founded Bay State Envelope Company, which helped make Worcester a major envelope producer, and he supported colleges as a trustee and donor. His family lived in the house until 1918, when it passed to the Memorial Home for the Blind, which still uses it. A stone stable and carriage house stands behind. The house is valued as a fine Victorian mansion and as one of Earle's few surviving residential designs.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Stephen C. Earle","architectural_style":"High Victorian (Queen Anne noted on the data sheet)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in good condition; used as a Home for the Blind, with the carriage house renovated as a workshop for the blind.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.575137-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/28/7974/63797428/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/77000653.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000653/afc259b489-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000653/afc259b489-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitcomb_Mansion,_Worcester_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitcomb_Mansion,_Worcester_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797428","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitcomb_Mansion","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7994231"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/whitcomb-house-77000653/"}