{"nrhp_refnum":"80000646","name":"Chelmsford Center Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"MA 4, MA 110 and MA 27","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chelmsford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.59820700000006,"lon":-71.35328010995667,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-02-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 35-acre historic district in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, centered on the Center Common where six main streets converge. It holds 42 structures, mostly wood-frame buildings from the mid to late nineteenth century.","why_significant":"The district has been the functional center of Chelmsford since the town's settlement in the seventeenth century. Its range of architectural styles documents the town's economic and social growth in the eighteenth and especially nineteenth centuries. It also keeps the character of a New England village, with few intrusions, and has several buildings with notable local associations.","narrative":"Chelmsford Center is a village core of about 35 acres arranged around a triangular common where six roads meet. It was the site of the town's original settlement and has remained its civic and commercial hub. Of 42 structures, most are wood-frame buildings from the mid to late nineteenth century, and only five buildings and three additions are considered intrusions. Public buildings around the common include the Town Hall, a fire station, the 1802 schoolhouse and the 1842 Greek Revival First Parish Unitarian Church, which grew from the town's first meetinghouse of 1659-60. The district also contains a Revolutionary War memorial, a large burying ground with graves dating from 1690, and houses in Georgian, Federal, Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles. Local associations include the 1794 Hezekiah Packard House, where the town's first social library was founded and where a town history was written in 1820. The area has stayed largely unchanged despite rapid population growth.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799, 1800-1899, 1900-","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mixed: Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is marked excellent. Only five buildings and three additions are considered intrusions. The district is also protected as a local historic district.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:55.02975-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/16/7957/63795716/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000646.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000646/d9e29c977e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000646/d9e29c977e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Town_Hall,_Chelmsford_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Town_Hall,_Chelmsford_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795716","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelmsford_Center_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5089953"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/chelmsford-center-historic-district-80000646/"}