{"nrhp_refnum":"80000636","name":"Forbes, William Trowbridge, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"23 Trowbridge Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Worcester","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.27245663900004,"lon":-71.81051118399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-one-half-storey neo-Tudor residence at 23 Trowbridge Road, Worcester, Massachusetts, built in 1898 for William Trowbridge Forbes and designed by the local firm Barker & Nourse.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an exceptional local example of neo-Tudor architecture and one of the most elaborate designs by Barker & Nourse, still in nearly original condition. It is also tied to William Forbes, a Judge of Probate, his wife Harriette Forbes, and their daughter, the author Esther Forbes.","narrative":"Built in 1898 at 23 Trowbridge Road in Worcester, this two-and-one-half-storey house is a neo-Tudor residence with an asymmetrical plan. Its exterior combines stucco and wood, with decorative half-timbering, steeply pitched and paired gables, a gabled entry porch, bay windows, diamond-pane sashes on the third storey and a stone terrace on the south side. A garage stands on the grounds. The local firm Barker & Nourse designed it, and it ranks among that firm's most elaborate works. The house remains in nearly original condition. It was built for William Trowbridge Forbes, a Worcester lawyer who served as a district court justice, state representative, state senator and Judge of Probate. His wife, Harriette Forbes, wrote a history of Westborough and a short biography of the architect Elias Carter, and helped found the Worcester Equal Franchise Club in 1912 at the house. Their daughter Esther Forbes, author of Johnny Tremain, later lived there. Local tradition says it replaced an earlier concrete house.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Barker & Nourse","architectural_style":"neo-Tudor","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as a residence; the form gives present use as residence and states the house remains in nearly original condition.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.489091-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/47/7930/63793047/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000636.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000636/944e9e51f2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000636/944e9e51f2-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Unknown authorUnknown author","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WilliamTrowbridgeForbesHouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown authorUnknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WilliamTrowbridgeForbesHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793047","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Trowbridge_Forbes_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8019534"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/forbes-william-trowbridge-house-80000636/"}