{"nrhp_refnum":"80000528","name":"Soho Cottage","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"21 Windsor St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.27788542300004,"lon":-71.79104772199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Soho Cottage is a one-and-a-half-story Carpenter Gothic residence at 21 Windsor Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, built in 1860 for William Allen on a partly wooded hillside lot.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it Worcester's best example of Carpenter Gothic architecture. It was built as a mirror image of its neighbor, Forest Hill Cottage, and survives largely in original condition with excellent details. It is also tied to William Allen, who became a leading boiler manufacturer.","narrative":"Soho Cottage, at 21 Windsor Street in Worcester, is a Carpenter Gothic house dating to 1860. It rises one and one half stories from a brick foundation beneath steeply pitched roofs, and its plan and massing are asymmetrical. Distinctive features include deep eaves, bargeboards with pendants, an entry porch with open supports, brackets and pendants, board and batten siding, a facade gable with an ogee-arched window, and a rectangular bay window on the east side. It was built as a mirror image of its neighbor, Forest Hill Cottage, and is described as Worcester's best example of its style. Apart from modern front doors and some replacement sash from about 1900, it remains in original condition. Its hillside, partly wooded setting preserves the Romantic character of the area. William Allen bought the property from developer Samuel Davis in 1860. An English-born machinist, he went on to own the Worcester Boiler Works, which grew into one of New England's largest boiler makers, and he lived in the house until his death in 1906.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect unknown; purchased by William Allen in 1860 from developer Samuel Davis","architectural_style":"Carpenter Gothic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Present use is residence; the form says the building is unaltered except for modern front doors and some replaced sash (ca. 1900).","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.499633-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/99/7928/63792899/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000528.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000528/5521927668-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000528/5521927668-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Pvmoutside","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soho_Cottage_Worcester_MA.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:Soho_Cottage_Worcester_MA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792899","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soho_Cottage","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7554753"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/soho-cottage-80000528/"}