{"nrhp_refnum":"80000442","name":"Wirth, Jacob, Buildings","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"31-39 Stuart St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.35110938100007,"lon":-71.06396742399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-12-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture","Performing Arts"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A pair of attached brick Greek Revival rowhouses at 31-39 Stuart Street in Boston's Theatre District, built 1844-45 by housewrights and united by a late 19th century one-story storefront.","why_significant":"The buildings are scarce survivors of the bow-fronted Greek Revival row house in an area where such houses were once common. They link the early Beacon Hill Federal bowfronts with the Italianate South End bowfronts of the 1850s and '60s. They also hold a long-running German restaurant whose facade and interior have changed little since the late 19th century.","narrative":"Two attached brick rowhouses at 31-39 Stuart Street in Boston date to 1844-45 and were built in the Greek Revival style by developer housewrights active in the South Cove area. Each is three stories with an attic, bow-fronted window bays, slate roofs with two dormers per building, and one-story brick rear ells. A late 19th century storefront joins the pair. Jacob Wirth, originally a baker, bought numbers 37-39 in 1878 as his home above and restaurant below, then leased 31-33 in 1889 and built the unifying storefront. His heirs ran the restaurant until 1965, and it still serves German food, with exterior and interior little altered since the late 19th century. The houses are valued as rare survivors of the bow-fronted Greek Revival row house in the central city, a type that connects the earliest Beacon Hill bowfronts with the Italianate bowfronts of the South End. The buildings are also a designated Boston Landmark.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Housewrights Greenleaf C. Sanborn, Thatcher Ross, and Thomas C. Wait","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Designated exterior and interior as a Boston Landmark; in continuing restaurant use. Condition marked fair.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.956004-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/55/7927/63792755/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000442.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000442/0c8766a64c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000442/0c8766a64c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Biruitorul","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WirthsBosstore.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Biruitorul</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WirthsBosstore.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792755","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Wirth_Restaurant","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715624"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/wirth-jacob-buildings-80000442/"}