{"nrhp_refnum":"80000542","name":"Ash Street School","other_names":["Ash Street Schoolhouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Ash St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.25988476400005,"lon":-71.67745036299993,"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 three-storey brick Italianate former schoolhouse on Ash Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, built in 1860 to designs by Elbridge Boyden for the City of Worcester. It is now used as a warehouse.","why_significant":"It is the second oldest surviving school building in Worcester and one of nine schoolhouses built during the city's expansion after its 1848 incorporation. Only it and the Oxford Street Schoolhouse remain from that group. It was a source of local pride, was illustrated in 1850s city directories and a pattern book, and survives as a rare reminder of a largely demolished residential quarter.","narrative":"Ash Street School is a three-storey brick schoolhouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, designed by Elbridge Boyden and dated 1860 in city documents. Built for the City of Worcester, it has a square plan, a low hip roof, recessed wall panels with corbelling, and a deep bracketed cornice. Separate entries for boys and girls occupy the centre bays of the north and south elevations, and an original fire escape rises above the south entry. Only the octagonal cupola has been removed. The building was one of nine schoolhouses erected during the civic expansion that followed the creation of city government in 1848, and it is now one of only two survivors, alongside the Oxford Street Schoolhouse. It was widely illustrated in 1850s city directories and appeared in Zepheniah Baker's Cottage Builder's Manual as a model double house. Standing on a hilltop near Green Street and used today as a warehouse, it is a rare remnant of the neighbourhood it once served.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Elbridge Boyden","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Present use is a warehouse; the only noted alteration is removal of the octagonal cupola in the 20th century.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.392489-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/7929/63792979/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000542.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000542/1aa9df8985-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000542/1aa9df8985-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Pvmoutside","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ash_Street_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:Ash_Street_School.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792979","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Street_School_(Worcester,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4804472"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/ash-street-school-80000542/"}