{"nrhp_refnum":"78000455","name":"Cottage Farm Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Amory, Dummer, Lenox, Brookline and Beacon Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.34728050000004,"lon":-71.11107496442,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-03-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 67-acre suburban residential historic district in the northeast corner of Brookline, Massachusetts, close to downtown Boston. It was developed mainly from 1850 by Amos A. Lawrence and contains houses built from before 1844 through 1940.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is significant for its architectural character, taking its name from the many Gothic Revival \"cottages\" built there. It is also significant for its association with Amos A. Lawrence and others prominent in the growth of Brookline and Massachusetts in the mid-19th century. Despite a variety of styles, shared scale, materials and landscaping give it a unified appearance.","narrative":"Cottage Farm is a 67-acre neighborhood in the northeast corner of Brookline, Massachusetts, near downtown Boston and with access to the Charles River. It consists mainly of single-family houses, with a few educational and religious institutions, built of brick, stone, shingles and stucco. The oldest building is the stone Sears-Talbot House, built before 1844 in an early Gothic Revival style. Development began in 1850, when Amos A. Lawrence bought 200 acres and, with his brother William, began subdividing the land. The first houses, designed in the Gothic \"cottage\" manner popularized by Andrew Jackson Downing, gave the area its name. Later buildings include Queen Anne houses by builder John Wales, Mansard houses of the 1880s, Georgian Revival residences of the early 1900s, and the 1936 Gibbs-Katz House, described as the first International Style building in the Boston/Cambridge area. The district was listed for its architecture and its link to Lawrence, whose family financed many early structures and helped give the area a consistent scale.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"George Minot Dexter (architect); John Wales (builder); Samuel Glaser (architect of the Gibbs-Katz House)","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival, Mansard, Queen Anne and Georgian Revival, with some Shingle Style, Italianate, Spanish Mission and International Style examples","criteria":[],"status_note":"Largely a neighborhood of single-family homes, with some educational and religious institutions; Boston University owns several houses, and the district is described as occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.437137-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/10/7963/63796310/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/78000455.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000455/70d5f91f37-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000455/70d5f91f37-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"User:Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_CottageFarmHD.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796310","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottage_Farm_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5175507"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/cottage-farm-historic-district-78000455/"}