{"nrhp_refnum":"80000427","name":"Allen, William Russell, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"359 East St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsfield","county":"Berkshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.44796285900003,"lon":-73.24658388299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-05-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-one-half-story Queen Anne style house at 359 East Street in downtown Pittsfield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, built in 1886 and designed by architect H. Neil Wilson.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the finest example of Queen Anne design in Pittsfield and one of the finest in Berkshire County. It was built for William Russell Allen, a member of a prominent local family who bred notable horses. It was also the first local work of H. Neill Wilson, who became a leading Berkshire County architect.","narrative":"Built in 1886 at 359 East Street in Pittsfield, this Queen Anne house was designed by architect H. Neill Wilson for William Russell Allen. It rises two and one-half stories under a complex pitched roof, with an asymmetrical plan and a mix of materials: granite at the basement, Great Barrington bluestone on the first floor, and wooden shingles and terra cotta tiles above. The porch includes East Longmeadow sandstone and marble, and the west side has a leaded-glass oriel. Allen was a grandson of Thomas Allen III, donor of the Berkshire Athenaeum, and he ran a 1,250-acre farm where he raised more than 1,000 blooded horses, including the stallion Kremlin. The house was Wilson's first local commission; he later designed Shadowbrook, the Wendell Hotel and the Dalton town hall and library complex. Once set on an acre in the city's finest residential neighborhood, it is now flanked by former hospital buildings and is one of few remaining reminders of that setting.","period_of_significance":"1886","architect_builder":"H. Neil Wilson","architectural_style":"Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as unoccupied and vacant, owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; condition marked good and unaltered, on its original site.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.854661-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/7941/63794162/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000427.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000427/a5daf44a80-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000427/a5daf44a80-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Russell_Allen_House,_Pittsfield_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:William_Russell_Allen_House,_Pittsfield_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794162","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Russell_Allen_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8017858"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/berkshire-county/allen-william-russell-house-80000427/"}