{"nrhp_refnum":"80000556","name":"Ruggles, Draper, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"21 Catherine St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.27577954600008,"lon":-71.79247041399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Greek Revival house at 21 Catherine Street in Worcester, Massachusetts, built around 1848 as a residence for Draper Ruggles and later used as a nursing home.","why_significant":"The house is described as an extremely important local example of Greek Revival architecture and a rare survivor of a hip-roofed, square-plan type with a two-storey portico popularized by local architect Elias Carter. It is also tied to Draper Ruggles, a partner in Ruggles, Nourse & Mason, one of Worcester's largest makers of agricultural implements.","narrative":"Built around 1848 at 21 Catherine Street in Worcester, this Greek Revival house was the home of Draper Ruggles, a partner in the manufacturing firm Ruggles, Nourse & Mason. The firm made cast-iron plows and other farm implements in the Court Mills, and by 1851 it employed more than two hundred people. The house is square in plan, rises two stories from a rock-faced granite foundation to a low hip roof, and has a symmetrical facade with a two-storey portico of reeded columns and a projecting entry pavilion with a balcony. It is considered a rare survivor of a house type popularized by architect Elias Carter, who may have influenced the design, though no architect is known. Few comparable houses remain substantially intact. Around 1889-1890 the building was moved westward on its lot to its present position, and it later served as a nursing home.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Present use is a nursing home; the form says no alterations were made to the original fabric apart from the Victorian entry, and the house was moved westward on its lot around 1889-1890.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.504363-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/1/7929/63792901/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000556.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000556/f92b9e6762-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000556/f92b9e6762-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Draper_Ruggles_House,_Worcester_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:Draper_Ruggles_House,_Worcester_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792901","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draper_Ruggles_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5305859"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/ruggles-draper-house-80000556/"}