{"nrhp_refnum":"80000488","name":"Ward Street School-Millbury Street","other_names":["Millbury Street Schoolhouse no. 4"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"389 Millbury St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.24548910800007,"lon":-71.80119229099995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick grammar schoolhouse at the foot of South Ward Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, built in 1898-1899 for the City of Worcester and designed by J. W. Patston.","why_significant":"The form describes it as the best example of a group of similar schoolhouses built throughout the city. It is the last of four school buildings on its lot, built between the early 1880s and 1899, and the only one to survive. The themes checked are architecture and community development.","narrative":"Built in 1898-1899 at a cost of about $13,000, this two-and-one-half-storey schoolhouse stands at the foot of South Ward Street in Worcester. Designed by J. W. Patston, it is made of red brick and rises from a rock-faced granite base to a slate-covered hip roof. A gabled central pavilion with two arched entries dominates its symmetrical facade, and trim includes a rock-faced sandstone water table, sandstone sills and carved sandstone springer blocks. Elements of Romanesque Revival style appear in the design. It was built shortly after the Woodland Street School of 1897, to which it was identical, and is regarded as the best example of a group of similar schoolhouses built across the city. It was the last of four school buildings erected on the lot between the early 1880s and 1899, while surrounding neighborhoods filled with three-deckers. Highway construction and falling neighborhood population led to the demolition of the first three schoolhouses, leaving this one. It remains unaltered and is still used as a school, owned by the city.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"J. W. Patston","architectural_style":"Elements of Romanesque Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Present use is schoolhouse; the building is described as unaltered and not moved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.110009-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/53/7929/63792953/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000488.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000488/a15df3397c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000488/a15df3397c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Pvmoutside","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ward_St._School.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Pvmoutside</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:Ward_St._School.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792953","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millbury_Street_Head_Start","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7969073"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/ward-street-school-millbury-street-80000488/"}